Canada’s New Trump Whisperer

OTTAWA — With less than two months left as prime minister, his party sagging in the polls, and former colleagues vying to replace him as Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau has turned to a loyal childhood friend to handle Ottawa’s most urgent problem: a threatened trade war with Donald Trump that could sink the economy.

Dominic LeBlanc, a 57-year-old lawmaker from New Brunswick, is as close as Canada gets to political royalty: the son of a former governor general (representative of the monarchy in Canada) who was part of the Trudeau family’s inner circle — occasionally serving as the future prime minister’s babysitter.

Despite his rarefied upbringing, Trudeau may be betting LeBlanc’s so-called bro qualities will play better in Trumpland than did the woman he replaced as Canada’s finance minister: the cerebral and globe-trotting Chrystia Freeland who negotiated the USMCA trade agreement and was labeled “toxic” by Trump.

Unlike Freeland, LeBlanc is not prone to speeches about the “rules-based international order.” He’s a cancer survivor who still enjoys a good cigar.

It was LeBlanc, not Freeland, that Trudeau brought as his plus-one to dinner at Mar-a-Lago in November (a move that is said to have contributed to her dramatic exit from Cabinet).

LeBlanc played it cool that night — and continues to — in the face of existential threats to a trade relationship that sees C$2.7 billion worth of goods and services cross the border each day.

“If you're going through turbulence, it’s not a particularly good idea to take your seat belt off, run up and down the aisle and kick the cockpit door in,” LeBlanc told POLITICO last week. “You stay buckled up, and the turbulence passes.”

At the clubby dinner, LeBlanc focused on Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick for commerce secretary, and the billionaire’s wife, Allison. The charm offensive worked. He and Lutnick are now texting buddies, and they’re planning their next meeting — one of many LeBlanc is arranging with Trump’s team.

“He is one of those remarkable people that is fun. But he’s also a really sharp public-policy mind and a problem solver,” David Paterson, Ontario’s top envoy to Washington, told POLITICO.

Unlike Freeland who quit Cabinet and is now running to replace Trudeau, LeBlanc’s loyalty to the prime minister is total. He was quick to announce he would not enter the leadership race — calling the fight against Trump’s tariffs too important to abandon.

Over almost a decade in Trudeau’s Cabinet, LeBlanc developed a reputation as a fixer for the Liberal government and has handled an array of federal portfolios, Fisheries and Oceans, Public Safety, and Intergovernmental Affairs. The latter one requires managing the diverse group of provincial premiers — and their conflicting interests. As Canada prepares plans tit-for-tat trade reprisals for tariffs, keeping provincial premiers united will be a major challenge. The oil-producing province of Alberta has already bristled at Ottawa’s threats to cut off Canadian energy to America.

Trudeau is counting on LeBlanc to keep them on board. “Full disclosure: I think the world of him, and so do all the other premiers,” gushed Ontario premier Doug Ford, after a meeting about the federal government border security plan that is meant to appease Trump and forestall his tariffs. Ford called the border plan “phenomenal.” He says he talks with LeBlanc almost every day.

“He’s foregoing his [Liberal Party] leadership [bid] because he’s putting Canada first. And I just want to thank you,” Ford said with LeBlanc in Toronto. “We’re going to work closely with all the other premiers, along with the federal government.”

Canadian Sen. Peter Boehm, who has known LeBlanc for three decades, says the new finance minister is fit for purpose to engage Trump 2.0.

“He is an astute politician, highly capable and clearly has the ear and friendship of the prime minister,” Boehm told POLITICO. “His good relations with the premiers and voice will be very helpful in the context of developing a coordinated, coherent approach to dealing with the incoming Trump administration.”

Trump’s to-do list

LeBlanc’s top priority is to solve Trump’s border problems.

The president has threatened tariffs unless Canada can stem what he sees as the unacceptably high flow of illegal migrants and fentanyl flooding into the U.S. from Canada. LeBlanc’s ability to demonstrate calm could be his greatest asset as he strives to demonstrate progress on the relatively small amounts of illicit drugs and humans entering the U.S. from the north.

Back in December, Ottawa announced a joint "strike force" focused on transnational organized crime. That has since evolved into a C$1.3 billion plan with Black Hawk helicopters and high-tech surveillance.

LeBlanc has engaged with Trump “border czar” Tom Homan. “I couldn’t ask for a better conversation,” Homan told CTV News after their meeting. “Actions have to follow, but I’m very optimistic from the conversation I had that we’re going to come up with a good border security plan.”

And days after Christmas, LeBlanc returned to Mar-a-Lago, this time accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, to meet Lutnick and Interior Department nominee Doug Burgum.

Joly was back in Washington this week for meetings, including with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. She said there’s no way she can be in Trump’s “headspace,” so the best she can do is to make Canada’s case to the people around him. Public Safety Minister David McGuinty also headed to D.C. after Joly wrapped up her visit.

Trump continues to dangle the possibility that he might impose tariffs as early as Saturday. LeBlanc is coordinating Canada’s response, which is dependent on whatever Trump does. Retaliatory tariffs and supply-chain disruptions are among the options.

LeBlanc insists it’s all-hands-on-deck. “There are dozens and dozens of people, dozens of times a day, who are engaging in pretty important economic conversations,” he told POLITICO.

“I've met the presidents of the six big Canadian banks, and they talk about their footprint in the United States, their clients in the United States … Canadian businesses that are doing very, very significant business with American partners.”

LeBlanc has a deep reservoir to draw from to fight the uphill political battles that lie ahead.

More than five years ago, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

LeBlanc dodged death thanks to a young man in a small town in Germany who donated stem cells at an unusually young age. Jonathan Kehl, now 25, turned out to be LeBlanc’s perfect genetic match. Kehl eventually tracked down LeBlanc, and the two men had an emotional reunion on Parliament Hill two years ago. Before Christmas, Kehl messaged birthday wishes to LeBlanc.

“This kid fully saved my life. A vial of my blood and a vial of his blood is the same. So, I have his blood and immune system,” LeBlanc recalled in a pre-Christmas Canadian political podcast.

With that second chance comes a political challenge LeBlanc almost never lived to see.

“The good news is it all comes back,” he told the Canadian podcast. “The weight, the hair, bad habits — the cigar smoking — it all comes back. So that’s the good thing.”

But he won’t be bringing any of his favorite Montecristos to Mar-a-Lago.

“It’s a violation of American law to be in possession of the Cuban cigar,” he reminded POLITICO. “You don’t want to get in a mess at the border.”