Twitter blast or bluster? Exploring the Trump impact on Canada-U.S. relations

Some of the top policy makers in Canada will be on P.E.I. this week for a conference to discuss the current state of Canada-U.S. relations.

That will be the focus of this year's Palmer Conference at UPEI, and in particular, how the seemingly spontaneous outbursts and policy choices of President Donald Trump affect that relationship.

UPEI political scientist Don Desserud, one of the conference organizers, said he's interested to hear from the policy makers how they are handling Trump's behaviour.

"Are they being startled by it? Is this changing the way they are going to proceed, or are they seeing this as simply a tactic and therefore getting down to the real work off camera?" said Desserud.

"These are the things we don't know and hopefully the things we can find out."

This is the fifth biennial Palmer Conference, which was founded as a forum to discuss public sector leadership.

The keynote speaker for the conference, which runs Tuesday to Thursday, will be Andrew Leslie, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs.

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