Canada’s Minnesota-based diplomat on tariffs, kissing cod and ’51st state' talk

Beth Richardson has been Canada’s Consul General in the Upper Midwest since 2023, working to strengthen economic relationships, reinforce security alliances and enhance other political and cultural ties. The career diplomat was on assignment around the globe before arriving in Minneapolis to help manage the many unique and longstanding partnerships between the U.S. and Canada.

Richardson says Canadians are “perturbed” by the “unprecedented” talk of annexation and tariffs, especially since their country is a top U.S. trading partner. And she fills us in on the odd Newfoundland tradition of “screeching in.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Since diplomats mostly live abroad, it’s unfair to ask them to reflect on their home country’s culture, but …

A: Culturally, this part of the United States is very similar to where I grew up in Alberta: that kind of self-sufficiency, but also reliance on your neighbors and willingness to lend a helping hand. People’s connection to land is very powerful here, and that feels like home for me.

Q: How so?

A: One question I ask local people when I go on a posting is, “Tell me your favorite place,” because the answer is always enculturated. Here, every single person gave me a land or a landscape. Someone gave me their favorite camping site. Lots of people gave me their favorite canoeing place. Nobody said Mall of America. Nobody gave me a store or a restaurant.

Culturally, Minnesotans are very similar to Canadians. You say “roof” one way. We say “eh” the other way. And that’s about the only significant difference.

Q: We both share cod-kissing traditions! (Eelpout in our case.) Can you explain “screeching in”?

A: So, screech is essentially moonshine, yeah? The way you welcome someone who has come from away — which is how Newfoundlanders talk about anyone not from Newfoundland — is they have to drink this moonshine, recite a couple sentences that are like an ode about friendship and then kiss a frozen cod.

Q: Visa-free travel reflects the easy relationship between our two countries. What has border traffic looked like lately?

A: There has been a very precipitous decline in Canadian visits by car to the United States in the last two months. It was down 23% this February from last February. A lot of the tourism boards, especially in the South, where they have a lot of snowbirds, they’re quite worried about a decline in Canadian traffic, because Canadians are choosing to spend their tourism dollars in other places.

Q: How have Canadians been reacting to Trump’s remarks about America’s “51st state”?

A: We don’t give it a lot of oxygen. Canada is an independent country and will stay an independent country. Canadians are confused and disappointed in the tariffs, in the annexation talk. The U.S. has always been our most steadfast ally.

Q: Could you describe the significance of the trade relationship between Canada and the U.S., and Minnesota specifically?

A: We have the largest trading relationship between any two countries in the world, ever. If the United States were not a country, the relationship between Canada and the five states we cover would be the eighth-largest trading relationship in the world. The relationship with Minnesota is $21.4 billion a year. We’re by far Minnesota’s largest customer, and America’s largest customer. That’s why tariffs are a bit perplexing, since Americans would like to export more to the world, and we buy more than any other country in the world.

Q: Americans likely don’t realize how many products are impacted, from lumber to steel to agricultural goods. You noted that 90% of the gasoline in Minnesota comes from Canadian crude oil.

A: Free trade between Canada and the United States made our trade frictionless. Ironically, our trade will become much more visible, because you’ll see increases in food prices and gasoline prices and equipment prices.

Q: Could you explain how free trade led to specialization?

A: Before free trade, this part of the northern U.S. produced oats. But oats grow better and faster the colder it is, so over 35 years, all the oat production moved to Canada, whereas the processing facilities remained in the United States. One of Minnesota’s top imports from Canada is oats, which are then milled in Minnesota and Illinois, put into Cheerios boxes and sold to Americans — and re-exported to Canada.

Q: There’s a very integrated, back-and-forth nature to the production of goods.

A: I always use bacon as the example. So, Canada exports a lot of seeds to the United States, which are used to grow crops in the United States — corn and soybeans — and then they’re processed in the United States into animal feed, which is exported to Canada to raise pigs. But we don’t have enough processing facilities in Canada, so they come down here for processing, and then become bacon, which is exported to Canada.

Q: And every border-crossing imposes a tariff…

A: If you have a trading relationship like the United States has with a faraway country, where they’re going to trade a car and a boatload of grain, that’s a 25% tariff one time. But with the bacon example, it’s like 25% here, and then 25% here, and then 25% here, so it’ll dramatically increase the cost of everyday things that we use that are manufactured across our borders, because it’s the most efficient and stable way to have low-cost products.

Q: What do you want Minnesotans to understand about the situation?

A: This is really an unprecedented time in Canada-U.S. relations. But the alliance that we have built, trusting each other, is also unprecedented between any two countries. So I’m confident we will get through this time. It will be turbulent. We rely on everyone’s goodwill and desire to maintain the good connections that we’ve had over so many decades, so many centuries.

Q: Are you hearing from Minnesotans who want to become Canada’s 11th province?

A: No, but we’ve had dozens and dozens of Minnesotans call the Consulate General to express their support for Canada. One person actually came in last week and said she would like to know how to shop Canadian. I must admit, I can’t imagine calling a foreign diplomatic office about a geopolitical issue. But you can see how close it is to Minnesotans, and it’s lovely.