Michelle Wu’s trip to Canada was inescapably political as she played diplomat in Nova Scotia

But unofficially, the tableau was inescapably political: an international stage for a blue city mayor whose sharp rebukes of President Trump have made her a prominent voice of opposition in the Democratic Party.

It’s not as if Wu needed to be there in person to retrieve the tree (though she did lend a hand with the chain saw); the evergreen has managed to make it to Boston each of the last 50-plus years without an official mayoral escort. But the sojourn, only her third international trip in four years as mayor, positioned Wu as a peacemaker in a country where Trump has picked fights. The publicly funded visit could also serve as an early signal of her priorities and ambitions during her second term, which she has so far only hinted at in broad terms.

Wu insists her focus is squarely on Boston, but the mayor is also building up her reputation beyond city limits — be it on international soil or in the pages of New York Magazine.

Wu extended an olive — err, conifer — branch to one of New England’s most important trading partners at a moment when Trump is antagonizing the longtime ally with stalled trade talks and high tariffs. Her diplomatic mission was obvious at a rash of meetings with business leaders and government officials, including a brief visit with the premier of Nova Scotia on Wednesday.

“The person-to-person relationships between Halifax and Boston — between eastern Canada and New England — go back hundreds of years through generations, and truly transcend any current political moment,” Halifax Mayor Andy Fillmore said Tuesday after meeting with Wu and exchanging gifts. (Wu presented Fillmore with an engraved Paul Revere bowl.)

The ties between their two cities, Fillmore said, “can’t be shaken by a temporary political situation.”

Wu was explicit about that “temporary political situation” — Trump’s second term — as she toured the province. Everywhere she went, every day, the message was the same.

“I wanted to make sure that our friends up here . . . knew that the people of Boston feel differently about our relationship than it might seem from the federal government and from the White House,” Wu told reporters Monday.

She met with officials at the Halifax Port Authority and the PIER, a “living lab” for innovations in transportation and supply chain. At the Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub, Wu used a machine resembling a hand drill to remove a stuck ring from the finger of a staffer who gamely offered his hand up for the demonstration.

“No blood?” she confirmed when she was done. Officials noted the “Ring Rescue” technology, supported by the local organization, is also used by public safety workers in Massachusetts.

At a Remembrance Day ceremony — Veterans Day in the US — Wu wore a traditional red poppy decoration on her lapel as she laid a wreath to honor veterans. When crowds gathered afterward in Halifax’s Grand Parade, a town square, a smiling constituent posed with Fillmore, and Wu offered to take the woman’s iPhone and capture the moment. She also fielded questions from a gaggle of international press, who asked her about everything from Boston’s bike lanes to her own personal backstory, including her mother’s struggles with mental illness.

Mayor Michelle Wu (left) watched on Wednesday as arborist Waddie Long cut the white spruce tree selected as Nova Scotia’s 2025 Tree for Boston.Darren Calabrese

Wu’s family was part of the charm offensive, too. Foreign dignitaries cooed at 10-month-old baby Mira, who now boasts several visible teeth, as Wu’s sons, Blaise and Cass, eagerly examined the chain saw Wu wielded to help cut down the “Tree for Boston” on Wednesday. Her husband, Conor Pewarski, often wearing a Bruins cap, talked hockey with some locals.

City records show taxpayers paid about $5,000 for flights and hotel rooms for Wu and two staff members. The totals provided to the Globe on Friday did not include a full accounting of the trip’s costs, including expenses for the mayor’s security detail.

The trip was an opportunity for Wu to serve as a smiling foil to the glowering American president who has said he would cut off trade negotiations and levy new tariffs on Canada. Those moves in October were in retaliation for an ad run by the province of Ontario. The commercial featured April 1987 remarks by President Ronald Reagan, who spoke at the time in opposition to tariffs.

Canadian tourism to New England has plummeted as the historically warm relationship between the United States and Canada chills to a “deep freeze” under Trump, said Fen Hampson, a professor at Carleton University in Ottawa.

“I don’t think you can underestimate the amount of damage he has done to America’s relations . . . to your closest ally and neighbor, namely Canada,” Hampson said. Amid those challenges, he added, relationships between local officials are the “hidden wiring of the North American relationship.”

“It’s even more important to keep it connected now,” he said.

Wu has not always embraced the national spotlight, and even as her dominance in local politics prompts questions about her interest in higher office, she insists she has “no national ambitions.”

In an interview in Halifax, Wu dismissed the suggestion that the international sojourn was intended to elevate her political stature.

“I have not heard from anyone else around the country who is paying attention to this trip,” she said with a laugh. “I’m not worrying about that.”

Then, she hit the talking point: “I’m here to say thank you to friends who have been making our holiday season in Boston very special year after year.”

The foray into international affairs nevertheless earned international headlines, and at many of her stops, she encountered enthusiastic fans.

“I got my selfie!” gushed Carol Abbott, 61, who posed with Wu on Tuesday at the event honoring veterans. A retired service member, Abbott said the second she heard Wu was present, she fired off an excited text to her husband.

“Whoop whoop!” she cheered.

Abbott said she likes that Wu stands up to an American president whom she considers wrongheaded and ridiculous. She has a backpack that says “Elbows Up / Not 51,” a reference to a hockey slogan that has become a rallying cry for Canadians against Trump and his threat to make Canada the 51st state — by “economic force” if necessary.

The trip, coming five days after her reelection, is one of a few early indications about where Wu is putting her focus for her second term. She delivered a high-profile speech last month about the future of Boston Public Schools, and has already announced a handful of personnel changes, including elevating intergovernmental relations head Clare Kelly to serve as chief of staff, a pick that pleased some Boston business leaders who felt alienated from City Hall. Wu said she has also talked to business leaders in the city about “how to up our business recruitment efforts,” perhaps through direct outreach.

Wu said her priorities for her second term include schools and “housing, housing, housing.” She said she does not plan to change her approach to Boston’s business leaders, or with the Legislature, where many of her policy priorities for the city have died. She did not rule out getting involved in electoral challenges to Boston area state senators who have opposed her agenda, though she said she has not been in touch with any potential candidates.

In Halifax on Tuesday, Abbott, the veteran and Wu fan, didn’t know what the official reason for Wu’s trip to Nova Scotia was until an interview with a Globe reporter.

“Oh, you answered the question — she’s here to get the tree,” Abbott said.

It dawned on her that there might be some public relations at play, too.

“Oh,” she added, in her Canadian accent, “it’s P-Err.”

Emma Platoff can be reached at emma.platoff@globe.com. Follow her @emmaplatoff.