Obama, Trudeau target methane emissions in new agreement

Global Business

It’s been nearly two decades in the making — an official visit for the prime minister of Canada.

The dinner between U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took place at the White House Thursday night, and it came on the heels of real progress in preventing climate change.

CCTV America’s Jessica Stone reports from the North Lawn of the White House.

They are two leaders cut from the same progressive cloth.

Since meeting in the Philippines last year Trudeau, son of famed Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau and Obama have struck up a friendship.

Since the Paris climate talks, both countries have been working to align strategy on reducing green house gas emissions.

On Thursday, they took the next step: committing to reduce methane emissions by 40-45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025.

“The president and I have announced today that we’ll take ambitious action to reduce methane emissions nearly by half from the oil and gas sector,” Trudeau said.

Obama said their work will urge other countries to get involved.

“If we don’t agree, if we’re not aggressive, farsighted, pool resources around the R&D, and clean energy agenda, that’s required to solve this problem, then other countries won’t step up and it won’t get solved,” Obama said.

While climate change is common ground, acceptance of Syrian refugees – is not.

In the past four months, Canada has welcomed 25,000 Syrian refugees. The U.S. has promised to take in 10,000, but few have arrived.

All this comes as both nations seek to increase border protection, but somehow cut security lines at checkpoints.

They’ve agreed to extend pre-clearance at border crossings from airports…to train stations in Montreal and Vancouver.


The long history of Americans fleeing to Canada for refuge

A new television series “Underground” has just premiered in the United States recounting the perilous journeys made by American southern-state slaves escaping north in the 1800s.

CCTV America’s Roee Ruttenberg reports.

Ultimately, an estimated 30,000 made it to freedom in British North America, which would eventually become Canada.

A hundred years later, thousands more would follow. Young American draft dodgers, fleeing U.S. prosecution for refusing to fight in Vietnam.

Many Americans still think of Canada as a refuge of last resort. Its proximity, its language, and its liberal immigration policy have made it an obvious choice.

Yet few know much about their neighbors to the north. There is, of course, ice hockey. And maple syrup. And the occasional pop culture export. Republican U.S. presidential hopeful Ted Cruz was also born in Canada.

But according to Google analytics, Trump’s success in pre-election primaries this month triggered, at its peak– a surge of more than 1,000 percent in ‘how to move to Canada” searches.

Ed Ungar, of Toronto’s U.S. Democrats Abroad, says historically, after elections, few people actually follow through on their pack-it-up pledges.

“I don’t know a single American up here that’s come here for primarily for political reasons. They come up here because of life, they come because they got a job, and they stayed here, they come up here because they went to school up here, and they met their eventual spouse, had children and stayed,” Ungar said.

One website may change that.

Cape Breton If Trump Wins” promises a new life for Americans on the Canadian island, if the real estate mogul secures the White House.

In the week after its launch, Cape Breton officials said they received more inquiries than the whole of last year.

“My advice would be to research it very carefully,” Citizenship Lawyer John Richardson said. “If the whole idea is to somehow escape America, to be clear as an American citizen in Canada, you’re legally required to have more contact with the U.S. government while you’re living in Canada than you would if you were still living in the United States.”


Politics professor on US-Canada relations

CCTV America’s Mike Walter interviewed Pierre Martin, a professor of politics at the University of Montreal about the U.S.-Canada relationship.


Columnist Diane Francis on Canada’s economy
CCTV America’s Rachelle Akuffo interviewed Diane Francis, a senior fellow at Atlantic Council in Washington D.C. about Canada’s economy.