08:50 AM EST, 11/28/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Canada's premiers are urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step up border security and defense spending to assuage US President-elect Donald Trump's concerns, with the leader of the largest province calling the federal government "slow to react" and "stuck on its back foot", Bloomberg reported overnight Wednesday.

Ontario's Doug Ford said after a meeting of the premiers and prime minister on Wednesday that he has been pushing Trudeau's government for months to show that Canada cares about U.S. economic and security worries. He said it simply hasn't moved quickly enough.

"I expressed my hope that this evening's meeting is the start of a more proactive approach from the federal government, including by showing that it takes the security of our border seriously," Ford said in a statement. If it doesn't, he said, it risks the "economic chaos of Trump tariffs."

Bloomberg said the blunt statement, sent after a meeting that Trudeau hoped would unify premiers under a 'Team Canada' banner to oppose the tariff threat, underscores a key challenge for the prime minister during a second Trump administration. While Trudeau was new to office and relatively popular the first time around, that isn't the case anymore -- and he faces a coterie of premiers with their own grievances about his policies, Bloomberg added.

Ford was joined by Quebec Premier Francois Legault, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, who all made statements demanding stronger action from the government. Legault, for his part, has long standing concerns about migrants entering his province from the U.S., while Smith took the opportunity to criticize Trudeau's emissions cap on the oil and gas sector.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc emerged from the premiers' meeting to reiterate that they plan to boost border security. LeBlanc said that will include investments in law enforcement and local police, but did not provide specific dollar amounts or timelines.

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