Canada's ambassador to the United States says Senator JD Vance, recently announced as the running mate for former U.S. president and vice presidential candidate of Republican candidate Donald Trump, “knows Canada well.”
Kirsten Hillman spoke with Vassy Kapelos, chief political correspondent for CTV News, at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Monday, shortly after Trump announced that Vance, a senator from Ohio, was his running mate.
“I think he's actually someone who knows Canada well, who has been very important to his state, who is essential to the economic success of his state, and we've already built some relationship, so that's good,” Hillman said.
Hillman said she had met Vance – a Yale Law School graduate who rose to fame thanks to his 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” – “a few times” because of his state's close economic ties with Canada.
“Ohio is the third largest export state to Canada at over $20 billion a year,” Hillman said. “We're a big customer for Ohio, so (Vance) has come to a lot of our Canada-US events and I've chatted with him there.”
In her interview, Hillman also discussed her reasons for attending the Republican National Convention, the heated tone of political rhetoric in the United States and Canada's recent announcement to meet NATO's target of spending two percent of GDP on defense by 2032.
You can watch Hillman's full interview in the video player at the top of this article.