With the Trump regime set to impose a 25 percent tariff on Canada’s exports, British Columbia is deploying cherry tomatoes and cucumbers to defend itself. Premier David Eby is touting a “Buy BC” Program starting with food and produce.
Of the tariff, says Eby, “We have everything we need to get through this,” Eby told a Friday news conference. He pointed out that 10,000 products carry the “Made in BC” moniker, enough to sustain residents and inflict pain on exporters in America’s red states.
Other sources of pain: British Columbia is a major supplier of natural gas and strategic minerals to the US. The vast majority of its populace lives near the border and crosses to shop. An old Whatcom County joke: What are the first words spoken by a B.C. toddler? Answer: “Attention, Kmart shoppers.”
The intellectually lazy Trump didn’t realize that his desire to make Canada “the 51st state” would trigger a backlash in the Great White North. The sower of wind is reaping the whirlwind. The threat of Trump has unified Canadians of all stripes.
On the night of a strong reelection win Monday night, Ontario Premier Doug Ford took the podium and declared “Donald Trump thinks he can break us. He thinks he can divide and conquer, pit region against region. Donald Trump doesn’t know what we know. He is underestimating us. He is underestimating the Canadian people.”
Trump has also triggered a reaction against Canadian reactionaries. The governing Liberal Party was about to get smashed in an upcoming election, falling 20 points behind Conservatives in the polls. Not anymore.
The Conservatives’ leader, Pierre Polievre, is abrasive and prone to Trump-like abusive prose. The party’s popularity largely stems from the unpopularity on the Liberals’ leader, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but Trudeau has announced his resignation. The Liberals have surged in the polls as they pick a new leader.
The new leader will become prime minister at an election later this spring. The frontrunner is economist Mark Carney, Harvard- and Oxford-educated and former governor of both the Bank of Canada and Bank of England. He does not currently sit in parliament.
Justin Trudeau is one of many people in the world that Donald Trump hates. Even though Trump claims that Trudeau “destroyed” Canada, the prime minister made a post-election pilgrimage to Mar a Lago. He has at times defied a man who callls himself king — Canada already has one, based in London.
In his final months as PM, Trudeau has pursued a multiple-pronged strategy against his nemesis across 4,000 miles of border. One is to encourage “Snowbirds” not to head to Florida or Hawaii on vacation but to stay home. Canada’s provinces are also easing the tariffs they charge each other.
The Trump tariffs will be matched by duties on the $300-odd billion in annual imports from the U.S. Ontario is advertising, heavily on Fox News, what an important trading partner it is to the United States. In claiming Canada has nothing that we need, Trump has ignored auto parts.
Canada is also bolstering trading ties with its Commonwealth colleagues Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, forming a CANZUC bloc. “There’s a silver lining to all of this: It gives Canada a golden opportunity to look elsewhere and explore other avenues with our closest friends abroad,” said James Skinner, CEO of CANZUK International, which promotes free movement of people and goods between these nations.
The threats from Trump are, in Eby’s words, “alarming” and “disconcerting.” He adds, of impacts from tariffs, “this hurts everybody.” Even so, the olive branch is still out: The peace arch proclaims Canada and the U.S. to be “Children of a Common Mother.”
“Canada will never be a 51st state” said Eby, “but we are keen to work together on areas of shared interest.” Eby and other premiers carried that message to the White House. While Trump’s aides gave the Canadians an audience, Trump gives no signs of listening to anyone — except Elon Musk.
The phrase “truth north strong and free” jumps out from Canada’s national anthem, and they aim to keep it that way.
This article also appears in Cascadia Advocate.
Regarding your article title, as well they should. Under the current circumstances, it would be my preference to become the eleventh province of Canada. I believe her government runs closer to my preferences than our current government.
But then, like you, Joel, I grew up very close to BC and never regretted a single day of that relationship. After 77 years, I’m beginning to seriously question our direction.
The Canadians I know are really p*ssed this time and it took some real goonery to force it. Our one-time greatest friend and ally is questioning everything.
True believer Drumpfheteers are desperately trying to justify or rationalize his little stunts; our relationship with Canada will not recover for a good long time. Stupid Americans.
Then there’s Ukraine. Read the recent statements from Putin’s people. Glee.