OTTAWA — Five senators walked into the Canadian Parliament on Friday determined to help repair relations between two bedrock allies.
On paper, it’s a trip that very few Republicans would want to take. They’d be pressed to answer for President Donald Trump’s hostility toward a longtime U.S. ally — most notably his tariffs, which most oppose. And a meeting with new Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose defiance in the face of Trump’s antagonism helped fuel his rise to the office, might not be so pleasant either.
It was perhaps fitting that the Senate delegation’s co-leader — and the only Republican in the group — was Sen. Kevin Cramer (N.D.).
The jovial and usually unscripted Cramer, whose state shares a 300-mile border with Canada, didn’t try to defend or explain away Trump’s actions. He acknowledged that Canadians feel offended by Trump, later saying, “We have an obligation to stop the offenses.”
For any other Republican, these comments would be risky at best. Not Cramer.
“I don’t want to get in Donald Trump’s way. There’s no [trade] deal that happens without his involvement,” Cramer told us here. “But at the same time [I want to] be an encourager to Canada and their officials and try to be a partner in some way. Hopefully I navigated it OK, but I’ll find out on Truth Social.”
Leaning in. That last part was meant to be a joke, but it’s a reality Republicans have to contend with every day. Cramer is unique in that he’s among a select few Trump allies who can break with the president occasionally. Defending Trump isn’t necessarily a reflex for Cramer, despite his longtime support.
“I think the president has a high regard for Kev’s insight and loyalty — and that means the president can probably hear some things from him that, if I said it, I wouldn’t get paid attention to,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who was part of the delegation, told us here. “That’s a very helpful perspective to have at the table.”
That’s probably why to Carney, Cramer was the ideal Republican for the trip. It was led by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who similarly aims to shun partisan allegiances when traveling overseas. Cramer told us that Carney’s focus on him during their hourlong meeting was “crystal clear” to him.
Cramer has long had close relationships with Canadian businesses and politicians, having previously served as North Dakota’s tourism director. He now co-chairs the Canada-U.S. Interparliamentary Group.
Cramer has a direct interest in cooling tensions between the two nations, given that more than a million Canadians visit North Dakota each year — greater than the state’s population. The recent tension has caused tourism to plummet.
What he said. Cramer is the opposite of guarded. He regularly holds court in the halls of the Capitol with reporters. That’s in addition to frequent TV appearances and local radio hits, during which Cramer takes non-pre-screened calls from listeners.
In Ottawa, Cramer didn’t shy away from — or try to dispute — the negative impacts of the Trump administration’s policies on the Canadian people and, more broadly, the U.S.-Canada relationship. It’s a sharp departure from Trump’s brash way of conducting diplomacy.
“For the moment, the United States has become an adversary to the Canadian people because of the offense that so many have felt,” Cramer said at a press conference here in response to a question from a Canadian reporter.
“What I would stress with the president would be, let’s keep our eye on the common adversary and how much stronger we can be.”
