‘Make Canada Great Again’: BC Conservative President Attends Inauguration

The president of the Conservative Party of BC travelled to Washington, D.C., to celebrate the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

Aisha Estey posted a photo to her X account Monday morning, showing her lapel pin with overlapping Canadian and U.S. flags and the caption “Make Canada Great Again.” Another board member, Connor Gibson, can be seen behind her, wearing a Conservative Party of BC pin.

Estey also shared a screenshot of the post to her Instagram account with the caption “If this doesn’t get me cancelled, then cancel culture is definitely, officially, super dead.” She added the hashtag “#wearesoback.”

Anthony Koch, a former federal Conservative party spokesperson who worked with the B.C. Conservatives on their fall election campaign, also posted a photo from Washington, saying he was at the Canadian Embassy to watch the inauguration.

The Tyee contacted Estey and the Conservative Party of BC to ask for confirmation that she and Gibson were at the inauguration and whether she has other plans during her time in the U.S. capital. The Tyee also asked for details on how Estey and Gibson’s travel was paid for.

Since winning the November election, Trump has repeatedly said he wants to see Canada join the United States as the “51st state” and has said he would use “economic force” to annex Canada. He has also said he wants the United States to take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal and would consider using military force to do so.

During a rally before the official inauguration ceremony, Trump backer Elon Musk drew condemnation for repeatedly making an arm gesture that was similar to the salute adopted by Italian fascists and the Nazis.

Estey shared the inauguration-day photo a day after the B.C. Conservative leader, John Rustad, posted a video statement calling on Premier David Eby to work with Trump on his threat to impose punishing tariffs on Canadian exports.

Rustad said the federal government and Eby’s provincial government were wrong to threaten to “expand this trade war” by saying that retaliatory tariffs on B.C.-produced energy sold to the United States are a possibility.

Last week, Eby warned that Trump “has made repeated declarations of economic war on Canada and British Columbia.” Eby said he was aligned with almost all premiers on a strategy that includes the possibility of retaliatory tariffs.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is the only premier to break from that united approach. Smith has said she does not agree with threatening retaliatory tariffs and travelled to Trump’s Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, to meet with him in the hope of negotiating a “carve-out” from possible tariffs for Alberta’s oil and gas sector.

Rustad said B.C. should be working with Trump.

“David Eby is putting at risk the people in this province by threatening a trade war instead of figuring out how you work with the Americans,” Rustad said.

“Let’s make sure we protect our borders, make sure that we stop this flow of fentanyl that’s killing people in this province and actually get down to work with having a relationship with our largest trading partner, with our greatest ally.”

Smith has previously said Trump has legitimate concerns with border security and with the flow of drugs between Canada and the United States, and she has announced plans to increase security spending on the border between Alberta and Montana.

There is also a federal plan to increase resources for border security as a way to respond to U.S. concerns that are linked to Trump’s tariff threat.

Smith also attended the inauguration Monday, watching from inside the Canadian Embassy. She later told Keean Bexte, an alternative right-wing journalist, that she had informally met with a number of U.S. lawmakers to tell “the Alberta story” in hopes of being able to set up formal meetings in the future.

Economic experts and Canadian politicians have warned that imposing tariffs on Canadian exports — especially the relatively cheap oil that Canada sells to the United States — will hurt U.S. businesses and consumers with sharply higher prices. While Trump had initially threatened to impose tariffs on Canadian products on the first day of his administration, his team later backed down from that threat.

In his inauguration speech, Trump said he would be focused on reducing inflation and promised to “drill, baby, drill” to increase U.S. oil and gas production. He promised to protect U.S. workers in sectors like auto manufacturing and to “export American energy all over the world.”

“I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families,” Trump promised. “Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax other countries to enrich our citizens.”

Breaking with tradition, country leaders from outside the United States were invited to the 2025 inauguration and many right or far-right international politicians attended.

Those included one of the co-leaders of the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, a far-right party that is considered extremist in Germany.

Musk, the billionaire owner of the social media platform X, recently hosted an interview with a leader of the AfD on the platform and urged German voters to support the party.