Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP Carol Hughes writes a regular column about initiatives and issues impacting our community.
This is going to be a rare week where I talk about a personal dilemma. When writing this column every week, I tend to have a good idea about a topic I want to discuss, and I have some time to elaborate on an issue that is: either of national or regional importance; in my estimation, being under reported; or is breaking and needs to have some focus drawn to it. The tariffs the Trump Administration imposed on Canada were all three of those stories at once (although one could argue it certainly isn’t being underreported, it is of such a magnitude that any focus on it is necessary). But I couldn’t finish anything on the topic because Trump is approaching tariffs like the world’s stupidest game of keep away, with broad tariffs being applied one minute and a complete or partial retreat the next.
We could argue about what the point of it all is, but I think most of us can assume there really isn’t one, at least not one a rational person could articulate. Trump has kept on his insults towards our country: calling Canada the 51st state repeatedly, calling the Prime Minister our Governor, and going far enough to state that our shared border is “an artificially drawn line.” If we were to use his own rhetoric against him, it would make half of his last campaign pointless because he spent a huge chunk of it complaining about the Mexican border, another 'artificially drawn line.'
So, on March 4th, Trump applied a blanket 25 percent tariff on all goods coming into the country from Canada and Mexico. In retaliation, Canada applied retaliatory tariffs on a significant number of items, but still leaving some room to apply additional tariffs and non-tariff measures. That evening, Trump, in an address to Congress (his first as President), said, “tariffs are not just about protecting American jobs. They're about protecting the soul of our country. Tariffs are about making America rich again, and making America great again, and it's happening and it will happen rather quickly.”
On March 5th, as financial markets took a nosedive, there was that sense of uncertainty that we had in early February when he was threatening tariffs the first time. After discussing tariffs with the large three automakers, Trump immediately paused tariffs for vehicles, because, as anyone could have told him, our auto sectors are now part of trilateral agreements between us, the U.S. and Mexico. Then came news that he’d be pausing tariffs on Mexico. And then, a few hours later, he retreated, as he often does, from the issue of Canadian tariffs, at least by walking back to protect his own hide as he declared, “I wasn’t even looking at the stock market.” The cowardice involved in both causing and then immediately retreating from the level of damage he inflicted on his and our economies is astonishing.
At this point, tariffs are definitely, surely, clearly going to be applied in full on April 2nd, as opposed to the current situation where tariffs are being applied to some products but not products that are included under the CUSMA deal he signed under his first presidency (which he later criticized). Or maybe they won’t, especially if those policies impact his general popularity among his base specifically. This pointless trade war has shredded international confidence in the U.S. as a reliable trading partner and has impacted Canada’s view of our neighbours to the south. A recent Angus Reid Institute poll shows only 24 percent of Canadians currently hold a favourable view of the U.S. (the lowest ever recorded, and only four points ahead of Canadians who have a favourable view of China). A full 52 percent of Canadians now view the U.S. “as an enemy” (13 percent) or “as a potential threat to national interests” (38 percent). There’s no other way to cut it – Trump’s isolationist plans for his country have turned Canadians away and have laid bare that the emperor has no clothes.
Trump does not understand decency, as we saw with his invective attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He does not understand humility, as is clearly evidenced by his entire misunderstanding of the Canadian electoral system and his bizarre claims that Justin Trudeau was going to cling to power through the tariff discussion, even though the Liberals have just selected a new leader in Mark Carney. He doesn’t even understand cooperation, which is why he sees mutual economic benefit as somehow a 'subsidy on Canada.' Everything is a zero-sum game to him, with clear winners and losers. But that’s not how reality works.
But Canadians don’t lose. We fight, we work hard, we look after each other. And we win. Elbows up.