A Rare Cross-Canada Political Consensus Forms Against Trump’s Border Threat

On Monday, Chrystia Freeland, the finance minister and deputy prime minister, will present her much-delayed fall economic statement just in time for the holidays. And the government has promised that it will address the issue that preoccupied politicians this week: how to respond to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s threat to impose potentially devastating 25 percent tariffs on exports to the United States from Canada and Mexico unless the two nations tighten their borders.

In pushing for the tariffs, Mr. Trump has pointed to an “Invasion” of migrants and large quantities of fentanyl from Canada. Though that claim is not supported by federal data, Canadian leaders quickly agreed that calling his bluff would be unwise. Danielle Smith, the premier of Alberta, told me this week that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “understands that with this president, he means what he says. And so when he says that the border is an issue — do something about it, we’ve got to take it a lot more seriously.”

Mr. Trudeau and members of his cabinet gathered the premiers for a virtual meeting this week to lay out the federal government’s plans for the border.

[Read: Drones, Dogs, Drug Labs: Canada’s Plan to Avoid Trump’s Tariffs Takes Shape]

They include drones and dogs along the border, technologies to detect fentanyl and the chemicals used to make it, expanded cooperation with provincial and municipal law enforcement agencies and improved intelligence sharing with the United States.

Ms. Smith, who is otherwise not given to praising Mr. Trudeau’s government, called it a “pretty robust approach.”