Trudeau and Trump want to meet ‘soon,’ but no word on when

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau congratulated U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call on Saturday, and the two leaders "looked forward to meeting soon," the Prime Minister's Office said.

But it still remains unclear when such a meeting will take place, and whether Mr. Trump will pay his first international visit to Canada, as is tradition, but not always the case.

The PMO said in a follow-up e-mail there were no further details about a meeting between the two leaders. In a press conference Saturday, in which he berated reporters about the size of Mr. Trump's inauguration crowd, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the two leaders were to discuss more meetings "in the days to come." He did not respond to a request on Twitter as to when Mr. Trump would visit Canada.

"The president had a constructive conversation with Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada about strengthening the relationship between our two nations," Mr. Spicer said.

"They also discussed setting up additional meetings in the days to come which we will follow up on."

Mr. Spicer said that Mr. Trump is set to meet with British Prime Minister Theresa May next week, and talked about meeting Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Jan. 31 to discuss trade, immigration and security.

The two men also spoke in November after Mr. Trump's stunning election victory and Mr. Trudeau invited the then president-elect to visit Canada at the earliest opportunity.

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The discussion between the two leaders comes the day after Mr. Trump's inauguration, as more than a million people took to the streets in Washington and around North America to stand up for women's rights and protest against Mr. Trump's presidency.

Holding handmade signs on everything from reproductive rights to Russia to Mr. Trump's hair, the women's march packed Washington's metro system and closed off streets near Capitol Hill. That included the Canadian embassy on Pennsylvania Avenue, where sparse crowds had lined up to watch Mr. Trump's inaugural parade on Friday.

"I'm extremely worried about a Trump presidency on women's rights," said Ciara Durkan, who travelled to D.C. from Maryland. She held up a sign that said 'Tweets don't equal policy,' a reference to the president's propensity to make bold declarations on the social media site.

"I'm worried about his presidency on just about everything, on the environment, on policy, on global peace. So, extremely, extremely worried. But as you can see here, there's a lot of us who are."

On Friday, Mr. Trump delivered a protectionist inaugural address that likely had many in Canada worried as well.

Attendees at the Canadian embassy party sat stone-faced and silent as Mr. Trump pledged to put America first on every front and "protect our borders from the ravages of other countries."

Still, Canadian officials put a positive spin on the speech.

Both Liberal and Conservatives attending the party argued that millions of American jobs depend on trade with Canada and that the United States would not want to jeopardize that relationship if Mr. Trump goes ahead with a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, as promised.

"Canada is not in America's sights," Conservative Sen. Michael MacDonald said. "What we have to ensure in Canada is that we're not collateral damage when they make some changes."

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, now an adviser to Mr. Trump, told the Globe and Mail that much of the trade between the two countries is interrelated.

"Canada may be the least affected country in the world," he said.

A recent report in the Sunday Times suggested Mr. Trump's first visit would be with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Iceland within weeks of his inauguration. But Mr. Spicer later said that was false.

U.S. presidents have traditionally visited Canada first, but it is not always the case. In February 2001, George W. Bush took his first foreign trip to Mexico, followed by Canada two months later. In 1981, Ronald Reagan made his first trip as president-elect to Mexico, but his first official trip as president was to Ottawa, where he addressed Parliament and met with former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

- With a report from the Canadian Press