U.S. Ambassador Hoekstra says he and Eby \u2018both smiling\u2019 after meeting<\/p>\n
Published 5:00 pm Tuesday, March 10, 2026<\/p>\n
U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra emerged from a meeting with Premier David Eby saying the two had a \u201cgreat\u201d conversation, but offered few substantive details.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still smiling, and I think he is too,\u201d Hoekstra told a group of reporters gathered outside the premier\u2019s office on Tuesday (March 10) afternoon.<\/p>\n
Hoekstra requested the meeting, but Eby said earlier in the day that he planned to use the occasion to push trade-related issues important to B.C.<\/p>\n
Hoekstra wouldn\u2019t discuss trade relations between the two nations \u2014 he said updates should come from the prime minister or president \u2014 nor would he comment on his remarks last July in Washington state, in which he called Canadians \u201cmean and nasty\u201d to deal with on trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cI probably shouldn\u2019t talk about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the premier called the meeting \u201cpleasant and constructive,\u201d and Eby issued a statement afterwards saying he and Hoekstra had a \u201cfrank discussion\u201d about what it would take to make progress on the softwood lumber dispute.<\/p>\n
U.S. tariffs and duties on Canadian softwood lumber have now reached 45 per cent.<\/p>\n
Eby also asked Hoekstra to relay a message to President Donald Trump and Congress, urging them to allow western states to join B.C. on its recent change to permanent daylight saving time \u201cso our commerce can be greater aligned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoekstra seemed doubtful this would be possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how we can get all of the states and the provinces all on one page,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hoekstra and Eby also discussed putting U.S. liquor products back on provincial liquor store shelves, but no commitments were made.<\/p>\n
The ambassador wouldn\u2019t delve too deeply into that subject, even though it has been a sore subject for the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmerican alcohol is an awesome product,\u201d Hoekstra said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Ambassador Hoekstra says he and Eby \u2018both smiling\u2019 after meeting Published 5:00 pm Tuesday, March 10, 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":{"0":"post-528013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-surrey","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-surrey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}