Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) In a trip meant to foster regional cooperation amidst all kinds of competition, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe called his stay in Toronto with Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser a success.
“It was a great trip…we met with the Premier, talked about trade,” McAuliffe told reporters Wednesday. “We all had individual meetings with businesses, and then we came together for a big general reception.”
The excursion’s primary focus was trade and tourism. Canada remains both the United States’ and the D.C. region’s top trade partner, and the region can always count on a large influx of tourists from Canada.
“Last year, about 549,000 Canadians visited Virginia. They are our number one international partner,” McAuliffe said. “We do more trade with Canada, and the same thing for D.C. and Maryland.”
While regional organizations including the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and the Greater Washington Board of Trade had been urging more regional cooperation in recent years, it has been hard to come by of late. The future of Metro funding was the subject of disagreement at a recent meeting between the three, as reported by the Washington Post. Competition over Amazon’s HQ2 will also be pitting multiple jurisdictions in the region against each other. A plan was floated at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments to submit one proposal covering the entire region, but it was ultimately rejected.
McAuliffe said the Tuesday night reception marking the trio’s final night together in Canada was full of goods representing the region – wine, oysters, and peanut soup from Virginia, craft beer from the District, and crab dip from Maryland. Despite the theme of regional cooperation, McAuliffe couldn’t resist one more jab at his neighbor to the north.
“I remind everybody, if you forget, that every Maryland crab is born in Virginia…and then the current takes them up,” he said. “You’d be very proud of me, if you look at the pictures. I wore my beautiful pink tie with the crabs on it.”
Copyright 2017, WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (Photo: twitter.com/TerryMcAuliffe
