The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/02/21 at 10:00 EST

Episode Date: February 21, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/02/21 at 10:00 EST

Did you know it was nearly eight o'clock at night in Washington when Donald Trump set a date for Canadian tariffs? I think we'll do it February 1st. And his plan for steel and aluminum just sort of slipped out on the way to the Super Bowl. It's going to have a 25% tariff. The new U.S. administration is making news that matters to Canadians whenever and wherever it wants. And we stay on top of it. I'm Stephanie Scanderis, the weekend host of Your World Tonight from CBC News. Find us wherever you get your podcasts. From CBC News, it's the world this hour. I'm Joe Cummings.

For hockey fans, it's the shot heard right across the country. ...Center and pass, McDavid scores! Connor McDavid wins it for Canada! In Boston last night, that is Connor McDavid scoring the game winner in overtime, as Canada beat the United States to capture the inaugural Four Nations faceoff tournament. 3-2 was the final score, and here in Canada, the celebration was on. It's great. It's great. Go Canada, go! It's a big deal for our country politically right now with everything going on, and also hockey's our sport.

I'm proud of my country. On social media, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has commented saying, quote, You can't take our country and you can't take our game. And there will be more of this to come. The two thousand twenty six Winter Olympics in Italy will include NHL players. So last night's game is a preview of what we'll see again this time next year. Now to Washington and the annual Council of Governors Summit. It has all the U.S. governors on Capitol Hill today and joining them to discuss the Trump

administration's ongoing tariff threats are two Canadian premiers. Cameron McIntosh has more. Well, quite simply, it's just about being seen and heard. Ontario premier Doug Ford, Nova Scotia premier Tim Houston are both here. Now relations with Canada aren't formally on the agenda for the governors but the premiers are just trying to take advantage of an opportunity with nearly all the governors and hundreds of state officials all in one place. Just building the case for partnership with Canada in the face of President Trump's tariff threats here is Premier Tim Houston.

No tariffs. I mean ultimately that's what we're trying to get to. But it's a process, you know, we understand that. So we just continue to talk about how the impact it can be, you know, put the price up for Americans, have an impact on Canadians, have an impact on Nova Scotians. So the success is just getting people to listen and engage in dialogue. This also builds on similar lobbying last week when all 13 premiers are here. They got a meeting with some Trump officials, both sides saying the dialogue was positive, but certainly no promises made. Cameron McIntosh, CBC News, Washington. A new study is suggesting that a Canadian high-speed rail line would generate billions of dollars in economic benefits.

The study from the C.D. Howe Institute says the proposed line between Toronto and Quebec City would generate between $15 billion and $27 billion in revenue over a 50-year span. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is moving ahead with a plan to develop the high-speed rail corridor, but it's still very much in the planning phase, with any construction still at least five years away. In the midst of the mounting tariff tension between Canada and the United States, a Vancouver island man is offering up some Canadian hospitality to our neighbors south of the border. Todd Maffin has posted a special invitation on TikTok for Americans to come and visit Nanaimo and the response so far has been surprisingly strong.

Georgie Smythe has more. Hey, Americans who support Canadians, I have an idea. What if we picked a day in like a month and a half or so where all of you come up here to Vancouver Island? Todd Mathen is throwing down the welcome mat for thousands of Americans. Should we do this? To support Canada by signing up to visit his town, Nanaimo,

in the spring. The invite and the video went viral down south, provoking shares like this. He says, hey, $1 worth of $1.46 up here, right? Maffin, who's a business journalist, says the idea was kind of an accident but could have a huge positive impact on the seaside town. We're past 2,000 people now.

If 10% of those 2,000 show up, 200 people, it's still going to be, I think, a pretty decent boost to the Mid-Island economy. The local tourism board has already got hotel bookings from people as far as Texas and Florida. Canadians and Americans trading travel tips again instead of tariffs for now. Georgie Smythe, CBC News, Vancouver. And that is World This Hour. You can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts. Remember, the World This Hour is updated every hour, seven days a week.

For CBC News, I'm Joe Cummings.