U.S. President Joe Biden has touched down in Ottawa for his first official visit to Canada since winning the presidency more than two years ago — and the trip could be an opportunity for the two countries to cut some deals.
Biden’s two-day visit started with a meeting with the King’s representative in Canada, Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, who greeted the president as he stepped off his hulking Air Force One jet.
Biden, dressed in a navy blue overcoat amid inclement weather, cracked jokes as he spoke with Simon and her husband, author Whit Fraser, and the other dignitaries assembled on the tarmac for his arrival.
Later, Biden and Simon were heard talking about the devastation caused by recent forest fires in the American West.
U.S. President Joe Biden waves as he and First Lady Jill Biden exit Air Force One as they arrive at Ottawa International Airport, Thursday, March 23, 2023, in Ottawa, Canada. (Andrew Harnik/The Associated Press)
Simon told Biden how climate change has scarred her home region, the Arctic.
“That’s one of the things I want to talk to the prime minister about,” Biden said.
A statement from Simon’s office said the two also discussed reconciliation, the war in Ukraine and the ongoing crisis in Haiti.
“Canada’s true history is interwoven with that of our closest neighbour — as partners and allies in the face of a world filled with challenges, complexities and pressing global concerns,” Simon said in her statement. “What endures is a relationship of trust, support and resilience.”
Mounties dressed in the red serge and U.S. security officials tracked Biden’s every move.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks as he and First Lady Jill Biden, left, meet with Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, second from right, and her husband Whit Fraser, right, at Ottawa International Airport, Thursday, March 23, 2023, in Ottawa, Canada. (Andrew Harnik/The Associated Press)
After his time with Simon and Fraser, Biden and his wife, Jill, travelled to Rideau Cottage, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s residence, for what the White House is calling an “intimate gathering” away from cameras and officials.
Trudeau and Biden shook hands and briefly discussed the weather. They then posed for photos on the steps of Rideau Cottage before retreating inside.
Other events planned for the trip include Biden’s address to Parliament on Friday and a series of meetings with Trudeau and other high-level Canadian officials. There will also be a “pull aside” at some point with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
The first lady is also on hand for the visit. It’s a chance to “build on her friendship” with the prime minister’s wife Sophie, said White House spokesperson John Kirby. The two embraced when the Bidens arrived at Rideau Cottage.
There’s a “spousal program” planned for the two, including a stop at the National Art Gallery for an exhibit of Canadian female artists. Biden’s wife will also learn how to curl at the city’s Rideau Curling Club.
Canada will then host the Bidens for a dinner at the Aviation and Space Museum. Hundreds of dignitaries have been invited.
U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are greeted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau at Rideau Cottage, Thursday, March 23, 2023, in Ottawa, Canada. (Andrew Harnik/The Associated Press)
While Trudeau said ahead of the trip that he wanted to get Biden out of Ottawa (in January, he floated the idea of taking Biden to a factory to meet workers “building Canada, North America’s future”), the president and his wife aren’t expected to leave the nation’s capital.
The last U.S. president to spend the night in Canada on a non-summit visit was George W. Bush in 2004.
The plan for Biden’s visit is quite different from Bush’s trip, which happened just months after the U.S. invaded Iraq.
The two leaders are set to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine, the deteriorating situation in Haiti, the state of Canada’s military at a time of rising global threats, the Safe Third Country Agreement and the influx of refugees at Quebec’s Roxham Road crossing.
CBC/Radio-Canada and other media outlets reported Thursday that the Trudeau government has reached a long-discussed deal with the United States on irregular migration which will allow Ottawa to close the Roxham Road irregular crossing at the Canada-U.S. border.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden talk as they take part in a G7 family photo at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on Thursday, March 24, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
The two leaders are expected to engage in the usual talk about trade and economy — a high-profile issue as inflation continues to weigh on people on both sides of the border.
“This visit is about taking stock of where we are, what we’ve done and what we need to prioritize,” Kirby told a Wednesday briefing with reporters ahead of the trip.
“We’re going to talk about our two democracies stepping up to meet the challenges of our time. That includes taking concrete steps to increase defence spending, driving a global race to the top on clean energy and building prosperous and inclusive economies.”
A rocky start to the relationship
Unlike some previous presidents, Biden did not make Canada his first foreign stop after taking the top job. In fact, Biden’s early days were marked by some tensions with Canada.
One of his first official acts was to rescind a presidential permit to build the multi-billion-dollar Keystone XL pipeline — killing a major economic driver for Alberta’s oilpatch.
First Lady Jill Biden, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff arrive for an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, March 22, 2023. Jill Biden will be in Ottawa for the two-day working visit. (Susan Walsh/AP Photo)
Biden also campaigned on an infrastructure plan with strict Buy American protectionist provisions and vowed to earmark big government contracts for U.S. firms — a policy that threatened to ice out Canadian businesses.
That threat remains. Biden touted the policy during his February State of the Union address — but Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kristen Hillman, sounded a more positive note on the policy during a recent CBC interview.
At the height of the COVID vaccine supply crunch, the Biden White House ruled out sending some of its supply to partners like Canada. It later sent some AstraZeneca shots, which weren’t widely used south of the border.
Persistent U.S. challenges to Canada’s supply-managed dairy sector continue to upset the Canada-U.S. relationship, and the softwood lumber file remains an irritant.
EV tax credit, NEXUS deals reported in recent months
But there’s been some meaningful progress on issues of mutual interest in recent months.
The U.S. agreed to amend its lucrative electric vehicle tax credit to include vehicles assembled in Canada — a reversal that prompted considerable relief in Ottawa.
The U.S. wanted legal protections for its border officials that the Liberal government said threatened Canadian sovereignty. The workaround will make the application process a little more cumbersome, but at least the program lives on.
Canada and the U.S. also have signed a series of commitments on semiconductor production and critical minerals — part of a coordinated attempt to challenge China’s hegemony in these areas.
These recent victories might explain why Canada is prepared to roll out the red carpet for Biden.
The visit could be a chance to sign some other win-win deals, said Maryscott Greenwood, CEO of the Canadian American Business Council and an expert on cross-border relations.
She said further action on critical minerals is likely — the U.S. is eager to get its hands on these valuable manufacturing inputs and there are only so many places around the world that can supply them.
If Ottawa cannot compete dollar for dollar with U.S. subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act, it has to do so deal by deal, says CEO at the Canadian American Business Council Maryscott Greenwood.
Greenwood said the president’s visit is “quite significant” for bilateral relations.
While the two men have met on the sidelines of some summits, there’s nothing like a face-to-face on Canadian soil, she said.
“It causes the entire bureaucracy of the U.S. to basically stop whatever it’s doing and focus on Canada. That’s a positive,” she said.
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona voters have approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion access up to fetal viability, typically after 21 weeks — a major win for advocates of the measure in the presidential battleground state who have been seeking to expand access beyond the current 15-week limit.
Arizona was one of nine states with abortion on the ballot. Democrats have centered abortion rights in their campaigns since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Abortion-rights supporters prevailed in all seven abortion ballot questions in 2022 and 2023, including in conservative-leaning states.
Arizona for Abortion Access, the coalition leading the state campaign, gathered well over the 383,923 signatures required to put it on the ballot, and the secretary of state’s office verified that enough were valid. The coalition far outpaced the opposition campaign, It Goes Too Far, in fundraising. The opposing campaign argued the measure was too far-reaching and cited its own polling in saying a majority of Arizonans support the 15-week limit. The measure allows post-viability abortions if they are necessary to protect the life or physical or mental health of the mother.
Access to abortion has been a cloudy issue in Arizona. In April, the state Supreme Court cleared the way for the enforcement of a long-dormant 1864 law banning nearly all abortions. The state Legislature swiftly repealed it.
Voters in Arizona are divided on abortion. Maddy Pennell, a junior at Arizona State University, said the possibility of a near-total abortion ban made her “depressed” and strengthened her desire to vote for the abortion ballot measure.
“I feel very strongly about having access to abortion,” she said.
Kyle Lee, an independent Arizona voter, does not support the abortion ballot measure.
“All abortion is pretty much, in my opinion, murder from beginning to end,” Lee said.
The Civil War-era ban also shaped the contours of tight legislative races. State Sen. Shawnna Bolick and state Rep. Matt Gress are among the handful of vulnerable Republican incumbents in competitive districts who crossed party lines to give the repeal vote the final push — a vote that will be tested as both parties vie for control of the narrowly GOP-held state Legislature.
Both of the Phoenix-area lawmakers were rebuked by some of their Republican colleagues for siding with Democrats. Gress made a motion on the House floor to initiate the repeal of the 1864 law. Bolick, explaining her repeal vote to her Senate colleagues, gave a 20-minute floor speech describing her three difficult pregnancies.
While Gress was first elected to his seat in 2022, Bolick is facing voters for the first time. She was appointed by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to fill a seat vacancy in 2023. She has not emphasized her role in the repeal vote as she has campaigned, instead playing up traditional conservative issues — one of her signs reads “Bolick Backs the Blue.”
Voters rejected a measure to eliminate retention elections for state Superior Court judges and Supreme Court justices.
The measure was put on the ballot by Republican legislators hoping to protect two conservative justices up for a routine retention vote who favored allowing the Civil War-era ban to be enforced — Shawnna Bolick’s husband, Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick, and Justice Kathryn Hackett King. Since the measure did not pass, both are still vulnerable to voter ouster, though those races hadn’t been decided by early Wednesday morning.
Under the existing system, voters decide every four to six years whether judges and justices should remain on the bench. The proposed measure would have allowed the judges and justices to stay on the bench without a popular vote unless one is triggered by felony convictions, crimes involving fraud and dishonesty, personal bankruptcy or mortgage foreclosure.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska voters supported a measure Tuesday that enshrines the state’s current ban on abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy in the state constitution, and they rejected a competing measure that sought to expand abortion rights. Nebraska was the first state to have competing abortion amendments on the same ballot since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending the nationwide right to abortion and allowing states to decide for themselves. The dueling measures were among a record number of petition-initiated measures on Nebraska’s ballot Tuesday.
What were the competing abortion measures?
A majority of voters supported a measure enshrining the state’s current ban on abortion after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy in the state constitution. The measure will also allow for further restrictions. Last year, the Legislature passed the 12-week ban, which includes exceptions for cases of rape and incest and to protect the life of the pregnant woman.
Voters rejected the other abortion measure. If they had passed it by a larger number of “for” votes than the 12-week measure, it would have amended the constitution to guarantee the right to have an abortion until viability — the standard under Roe that is the point at which a fetus might survive outside the womb. Some babies can survive with medical help after 21 weeks of gestation.
Abortion was on the ballot in several other states, as well. Coming into the election, voters in all seven states that had decided on abortion-related ballot measures since the reversal of Roe had favored abortion rights, including in some conservative states.
Who is behind the Nebraska abortion measures?
The 12-week ban measure was bankrolled by some of Nebraska’s wealthiest people, including Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, who previously served as governor and donated more than $1.1 million. His mother, Marlene Ricketts, gave $4 million to the cause. Members of the Peed family, which owns publishing company Sandhills Global, also gave $1 million.
The effort was organized under the name Protect Women and Children and was heavily backed by religious organizations, including the Nebraska Catholic Conference, a lobbying group that has organized rallies, phone banks and community townhalls to drum up support for the measure.
The effort to enshrine viability as the standard was called Protect Our Rights Nebraska and had the backing of several medical, advocacy and social justice groups. Planned Parenthood donated nearly $1 million to the cause, with the American Civil Liberties Union, I Be Black Girl, Nebraska Appleseed and the Women’s Fund of Omaha also contributing significantly to the roughly $3.7 million raised by Protect Our Rights.
What other initiatives were on Nebraska’s ballot?
Nebraska voters approved two measures Tuesday that will create a system for the use and manufacture of medical marijuana, if the measures survive an ongoing legal challenge.
The measures legalize the possession and use of medical marijuana, and allow for the manufacture, distribution and delivery of the drug. One would let patients and caregivers possess up to 5 ounces (142 grams) of marijuana if recommended by a doctor. The other would create the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission, which would oversee the private groups that would manufacture and dispense the drug.
Those initiatives were challenged over allegations that the petition campaign that put them on the ballot broke election rules. Nebraska’s attorney general said supporters of the measures may have submitted several thousand invalid signatures, and one man has been charged in connection with 164 allegedly fraudulent signatures. That means a judge could still invalidate the measures.
Voters also opted Tuesday to repeal a new conservative-backed law that allocates millions of dollars in taxpayer money to fund private school tuition.
Finally, they approved a measure that will require all Nebraska employers to provide at least 40 hours of paid sick leave to their employees.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters in Missouri cleared the way to undo one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans in one of seven victories for abortion rights advocates, while Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota defeated similar constitutional amendments, leaving bans in place.
Abortion rights amendments also passed in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland and Montana. Nevada voters also approved an amendment, but they’ll need to pass it again it 2026 for it to take effect. Another that bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes” prevailed in New York.
The results include firsts for the abortion landscape, which underwent a seismic shift in 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a ruling that ended a nationwide right to abortion and cleared the way for bans to take effect in most Republican-controlled states.
They also came in the same election that Republican Donald Trump won the presidency. Among his inconsistent positions on abortion has been an insistence that it’s an issue best left to the states. Still, the president can have a major impact on abortion policy through executive action.
In the meantime, Missouri is positioned to be the first state where a vote will undo a ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with an amendment that would allow lawmakers to restrict abortions only past the point of a fetus’ viability — usually considered after 21 weeks, although there’s no exact defined time frame.
But the ban, and other restrictive laws, are not automatically repealed. Advocates now have to ask courts to overturn laws to square with the new amendment.
“Today, Missourians made history and sent a clear message: decisions around pregnancy, including abortion, birth control, and miscarriage care are personal and private and should be left up to patients and their families, not politicians,” Rachel Sweet, campaign manager of Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, said in a statement.
Roughly half of Missouri’s voters said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 2,200 of the state’s voters. But only about 1 in 10 said abortion should be illegal in all cases; nearly 4 in 10 said abortion should be illegal in most cases.
Bans remain in place in three states after votes
Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota became the first states since Roe was overturned where abortion opponents prevailed on a ballot measure. Most voters supported the Florida measure, but it fell short of the required 60% to pass constitutional amendments in the state. Most states require a simple majority.
The result was a political win for Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican with a national profile, who had steered state GOP funds to the cause. His administration has weighed in, too, with a campaign against the measure, investigators questioning people who signed petitions to add it to the ballot and threats to TV stations that aired one commercial supporting it.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the national anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America, said in a statement that the result is “a momentous victory for life in Florida and for our entire country,” praising DeSantis for leading the charge against the measure.
The defeat makes permanent a shift in the Southern abortion landscape that began when the state’s six-week ban took effect in May. That removed Florida as a destination for abortion for many women from nearby states with deeper bans and also led to far more women from the state traveling to obtain abortion. The nearest states with looser restrictions are North Carolina and Virginia — hundreds of miles away.
“The reality is because of Florida’s constitution a minority of Florida voters have decided Amendment 4 will not be adopted,” said Lauren Brenzel, campaign director for the Yes on 4 Campaign said while wiping away tears. “The reality is a majority of Floridians just voted to end Florida’s abortion ban.”
In South Dakota, another state with a ban on abortion throughout pregnancy with some exceptions, the defeat of an abortion measure was more decisive. It would have allowed some regulations related to the health of the woman after 12 weeks. Because of that wrinkle, most national abortion-rights groups did not support it.
Voters in Nebraska adopted a measure that allows more abortion restrictions and enshrines the state’s current 12-week ban and rejected a competing measure that would have ensured abortion rights.
Other states guaranteed abortion rights
Arizona’s amendment will mean replacing the current law that bans abortion after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. The new measure ensures abortion access until viability. A ballot measure there gained momentum after a state Supreme Court ruling in April found that the state could enforce a strict abortion ban adopted in 1864. Some GOP lawmakers joined with Democrats to repeal the law before it could be enforced.
In Maryland, the abortion rights amendment is a legal change that won’t make an immediate difference to abortion access in a state that already allows it.
It’s a similar situation in Montana, where abortion is already legal until viability.
The Colorado measure exceeded the 55% of support required to pass. Besides enshrining access, it also undoes an earlier amendment that barred using state and local government funding for abortion, opening the possibility of state Medicaid and government employee insurance plans covering care.
A New York equal rights law that abortion rights group say will bolster abortion rights also passed. It doesn’t contain the word “abortion” but rather bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.” Sasha Ahuja, campaign director of New Yorkers for Equal Rights, called the result “a monumental victory for all New Yorkers” and a vote against opponents who she says used misleading parental rights and anti-trans messages to thwart the measure.
The results end a win streak for abortion-rights advocates
Until Tuesday, abortion rights advocates had prevailed on all seven measures that have appeared on statewide ballots since the fall of Roe.
The abortion rights campaigns have a big fundraising advantage this year. Their opponents’ efforts are focused on portraying the amendments as too extreme rather than abortion as immoral.
Currently, 13 states are enforcing bans at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions. Four more bar abortion in most cases after about six weeks of pregnancy — before women often realize they’re pregnant. Despite the bans, the number of monthly abortions in the U.S. has risen slightly, because of the growing use of abortion pills and organized efforts to help women travel for abortion. Still, advocates say the bans have reduced access, especially for lower-income and minority residents of the states with bans.
The issue is resonating with voters. About one-fourth said abortion policy was the single most important factor for their vote, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 110,000 voters nationwide. Close to half said it was an important factor, but not the most important. Just over 1 in 10 said it was a minor factor.
The outcomes of ballot initiatives that sought to overturn strict abortion bans in Florida and Missouri were very important to a majority of voters in the states. More than half of Florida voters identified the result of the amendment as very important, while roughly 6 in 10 of Missouri’s voters said the same, the survey found.
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Associated Press reporters Hannah Fingerhut and Amanda Seitz contributed to this article.
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This article has been corrected to reflect in the ‘other states’ section that Montana, not Missouri, currently allows abortion until viability.
