Senator JD Vance, who recently announced he is running mate for former U.S. President and Republican Donald Trump, “knows Canada well,” Canada’s ambassador to the United States said.
Kirsten Hellman spoke with CTV News chief political correspondent Vassie Kapelos at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Monday after Trump announced Vance — the Ohio senator — as his choice for vice president.
“I think he’s actually someone who knows Canada very well, what’s very important to his country, what’s important to the economic success of his country, and we’ve built a very good relationship with him, and that’s a good thing,” Hillman said.
Hillman said he met Vance, a Yale Law School graduate who became famous for his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” “on several occasions” because of his state’s close economic ties to Canada.
“Ohio is the third-largest exporting state to Canada, with more than $20 billion a year. “We’re a big customer of Ohio, so (Vance) has been to a lot of Canada-U.S. events and I’ve talked to him there,” Hillman said.
In his interview, Hillman also discusses his reasons for attending the Republican National Convention, the heated political discourse in the United States, and Canada’s recent announcement that it intends to meet NATO’s goal of spending 2 percent of its GDP on defense by 2032.
You can watch Hillman’s full interview in the video player at the top of this article.
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