Canada says too little, too late as Trump flip-flops on tariffs
Canada says too little, too late as Trump flip-flops on tariffs
Across the country, Canadians are defiant in boycotting American goods and travel even as Trump promises another temporary reprieve.
“I feel terrible for the American people because it’s not the American people, and it’s not even elected officials, it’s one person,”
Like hell. Congress is the one thing with the power to end this madness. The Republicans in control of both houses are absolutely responsible as they are doing literally nothing to rein in Trump's madness.
Agreed. It’s 80% of the elected officials at this point. It’s unfortunate that foreign puppets are in power.
Something also not touched on in the article is the HUGE number of ukrainians we have in our country, particularly in the praries. We're ranked in the top 3 for ukrianians/Ukraine heritage, below Ukraine and Russia.
I'd argue most Canadians are pretty pro-Ukraine, and the US wiffle-waffling on that as well stings deep.
What if, hear me out, what if we trick trump into thinking DC is canada? Maybe we would be DC statehood then? 👀
American here.
Keep doing what you're doing Canada. Don't play this retard's game. The ONLY thing conservatives understand is money. Hit them where it hurts. It's the only thing that'll make them sour on this traitor.
American trade is nearly worth half of Canada's total GDP. something like 75~80% of total Canadian exports go to the US. if they actually retaliate in force they could be dooming their country to an economic crisis if Trump is spiteful enough. so far the Canadian tariffs have only touched about $30B worth of goods, or 7% of the total trade.
While true, the Canadian government has already announced grants and loans to help Canadian companies restructure their supply chains away from the US. It's a start. While the legal framework exists, Canadian companies haven't yet had a reason to take advantage of new free trade agreements with the EU and the Asia Pacific. Now they do.
Also, in terms of numbers: about 25% of Canadian GDP is based on US trade; a little lower than the number you quoted, still too high, I'd say. Hopefully, the Canadian economies' smaller size will prove agile enough for the transition. I've also seen it suggested that the hit to the Canadian economy from Trump's attacks could be offset by removing internal trade barriers so that Canada can trade more efficiently with itself. This has been a huge shot in the arm for that project.
20% of US exports go to the EU, 18% go to Canada, 17% to Mexico, and less than 10% to China. Similarly, about 70% of US imports come from those same markets. This will be devastating for everyone, the US included. It won't be the 'short period of transition' the bloated diet coke goblin imagines. World trade patterns and supply chains will literally be upended.
Canada’s total exports are about 35% of total GDP. So that puts US exports at somewhere around 24% of GDP. Pretty high but then if we exclude oil and gas and potash exports it’s a much, much smaller number. So small in fact that we would probably replace those exports within 12 months.
I wonder if anyone else other than the US wants some oil, natural gas, or potash? And yes I know we currently lack pipeline capacity but at this point I’d be willing to let the government finance it all to move oil and gas to the east coast.
I really think Americans over played their hand.
Hell yeah - it'll be a looooong time, if ever, before we can trust the U.S. again as a neighbour and ally. Right now, they're nothing less than an enemy.
As an American, I can't blame you for having this sentiment. Canada and Canadians don't deserve the stupid shit the Trump administration and its followers are dishing out. Like many here, I'm disgusted that we are treating one of our closest abd staunchest allies in such a crappy way. I hope you guys continue to play hardball on this stuff.
I've got both family and friends in the U.S., and have always enjoyed my time there, like most Canadians I think - but we're pissed off now, and we're gonna protect ourselves and the country we love any way we can. Here's hoping this madness ends soon, although right now it's hard to see how :-(. Cheers, and thanks for the support!
It's a temporary reprieve for a reason. Canadians would have to have American levels of comprehension of what's happening to back off now
narcissists will not respect you if you don't fight them tooth and nail on every single possible thing.
if you give them an inch, you are done. do not let the americans have shit. punish every gesture.
At this point, they should just leave the tarriffs so they can focus on literally anything else for their constituents than f5'ing news sources to see if they're on or off...
Trump thinks he can simply order things up like he's getting a Big Mac, and the courts and other countries are demonstrating to him that the world and the US do not work that way.
Also, I hate how normal this feels. Everyone's still struggling to pay for food, utilities, and health care, but now the other 49% are making excuses because now it's their shitty guy in charge of it, and the people who were making excuses while it happened for the last four years are pretending they give a shit.
Eh, the last 4 years were rough, but we were coming out of a pandemic and had one of the best, if not the best recovery in the world. To pin how we responded to covid on Biden is disingenuous. I voted for him because I didn't want Trump, but outside of his really bad fumble for the recent election (and his support of Isreal genociding Palestinians), he did a rather decent job.
the pandemic response was fucked. trump failed catastrophically. biden failed catastrophically. covid is now endemic. it is not past tense.
more than that, the whole field of epidemiology and study of infectious diseases is now polarized; like 30% of the country is actively opposed to the very concept of public health measures now.
we did not recover. trump could have saved us with a fast and severe response, calling for immediate quarantines, saying to compartmentalize your social groups-maybe on the level of your office or your church to limit contagion, talking up the vaccine research he'd authorized, and wearing a mask in public whenever he could so his followers would take lead. he did the opposite of all those things. biden could have saved us by buckling down, keeping drug companies for taking profit from tax funded research, and making some hard decisions on sacrificing to do a big international aid push, quarantining, etc.
neither of them did those things. both of them had a responsibility to. fuck those guys.
Trump's only benefit during COVID was recognizing that getting the vaccine faster was worth paying a higher price for it.
His administration was playing favorites in distributing medical aid and he was part of the decisions to keep closures from happening early in the pandemic.
And a lot of Trump's first term was just being ineffective. He didn't really steer the ship because his administration didn't know how.
I don't think 'decent' is the correct adjective here.
Vast swaths of our population have never recovered, which is why Trump was able to expand his coalition to an Obama-era degree. People will point to inflation and job numbers, while ignoring the fact that prices have never gone down and most people are working 2-3 jobs and upwards of 100 hours a week to live in a roach-infested studio apartment because that's all their hustle can afford them.
And to make matters worse, Biden had Congress for two years. He could have accomplished anything if he cared about the working class and poor, but his governance strongly suggests he was only taking the phone calls of the billionaire class.
I think if anything the swing of Gen Z voters shows clearly that his economic recovery clearly wasn't helping everyone. Those with the least amount of money and no job experience entering the work force found a terrible job market that either was barely hiring or was only hiring people who already had experience. Combine that with high prices and the increased presence of AI in the hiring process and it makes sense Gen Z were upset about the status quo. A lot of people argue that it was the podcasts that made Gen z swing right but if anything I think that just connected Gen z with a message of tearing down the system that they were looking for. But anyways my point is that sure America's recovery was good for people with wealth or companies but for those either entering the workforce for the first time or those without money saved up and good jobs already there really wasn't much of a recovery.
Well hopefully with the impending economic downturn the US will get their shit together... Right?
We’re gonna get a nice trump recession. All the fuckbrains will have to contend with their stupidity. I just hope I don’t get what they deserve.
Lol 'Trump recession'.
Better get ready for Trump destitution, with the way things are going
I wonder how long it’s gonna take for the Americans to impeach him again
Impeachment is dumb af. It has been of no consequence for more than 50 years. We need a different solution, something effective, something we can execute without relying on help from traitors.
"I feel terrible for the American people because it's not the American people, and it's not even elected officials, it's one person,"
Americans elected Trump, and Americans are failing to do anything to reign Trump in.
These are the official policies for the COUNTRY! So unfortunately, this is not just one person, it is de facto USA as a whole.If it was only Trump, it would just be Trump refusing to buy Canadian for himself. As it is, the whole apparatus is enforcing these decisions, and they impact all of USA.
The US electoral system is broken and has always been broken. Republicans have spent the past 2 decades gerrymandering and introducing as much legislation as possible to manipulate the outcome of elections in as many districts as possible. They've introduced legislation: to prevent people with debt from voting, to prevent people with criminal records from voting, to prevent people who cannot physically make it to polling stations from voting. The Republicans and the ruling class own all the largest media organizations in the United States, and they have weaponized social media and traditional media to indoctrinate and manipulate as many people as possible.
Trump won this election with fewer votes than he lost in 2020. He won mostly because Republicans and Democrats are material allies in neoliberal and imperialist endeavors. Democrats refused to campaign on progressive politics, instead choosing to run on a more conservative campaign than they ever have before.
The working class is not responsible for their own manipulation at the hands of the ruling class. It is not their fault that the system is broken. It is not the fault of American families who literally can not afford to resist, as without the income from their jobs, they will lose their homes and be unable to feed themselves and their children.
Capitalism is the problem. Conservatism, and by extension neoliberalism and fascism, is the problem. Donald Trump is an accelerationist fascist. He will not wait and seeks to plunge the nation headlong into fascism as soon as possible. But do not mistake that as being in opposition to the social and political system of America. Donald Trump is entirely a representative of the failure of American democracy, not a representative of the American people. He manipulated people into voting for him, as evidenced by widespread outrage at his actions even among those who ostensibly voted for him.
Not to mention that the this "English is now the official language" decree is, I think, a way to set the foundation for a way to exclude even more people from voting. I predict they'll come out with some kind of English proficiency test to be allowed to vote.
The US electoral system is broken
Which is why it's considered a flawed democracy, which I stated.
Republicans have spent the past 2 decades gerrymandering
Except Trump actually won the popular vote this time. Making this argument void regarding the presidential election 2024.
Republicans and Democrats are material allies
That far I agree, they have arranged it so they share power, except this time, Republicans may choose not to share it anymore.
The working class is not responsible for their own manipulation at the hands of the ruling class. It is not their fault that the system is broken.
Isn't it? Haven't they mostly agreed on this arrangement because for decades many mostly whites benefited from it too?
Capitalism is the problem
I partially agree, but there is no real alternative to capitalism, and definitely not anything proven, the problem is not capitalism but how it is managed. In a social democracy it can work pretty well.
You people have worms in your brains, just like the Republicans.
Life is not black and white, though you know who loves to think in black and white? Fascists. Also, you know who loves this idea of lumping together the American people as a whole? Trump does.
you know who loves this idea of lumping together the American people as a whole?
I have often written in comments that criticize Americans that there obviously are good Americans, that tried to prevent this. Just because I didn't include that part here doesn't mean I am generalizing wildly, and think they are the same whether they voted for Trump or Harris.
But that doesn't change the fact that the Trump administration is the administration for ALL of USA, because they voted him in. We can't make trade agreements or buy weapons from the people who voted against Trump, because that is simply not how it works. We have to respond to the country, not individuals. So this situation is one that the COUNTRY is in, not just Trump or MAGA. And the country let Trump and MAGA win.
We also can't wait out the 4 years Trump is president like we did last time, because Russia has invaded Europe, and USA is failing completely as an ally, and is actively hostile now. Preventing F-16 planes and Himars from working, that were given to Ukraine by Europe. Failing even in sharing intelligence that doesn't cost any money to share, and negotiating 100% on behalf of Russia. The allied countries need to move on without USA, that's not at all up for debate. Allies can no longer trust American equipment.
It's not Trump alone, it's all of USA that is failing democracy and former allies. Not just Texas, and not just half the population that voted for the fascist despite the warnings.If you can't see that, you are denying reality.
And it’s not like the tariffs were a bait and switch. Trump literally had them in his platform.
In fact, all the crap he’s been pulling was in his platform. He’s doing exactly what he promised he would do, and half the country was like, “Maybe this isn’t a good idea” and the other half enthusiastically voted him and then are shocked he’s doing exactly what he said he would do.
This is like the time the UK voted for Brexit and then became shocked when Brexit happened.
In fact, all the crap he’s been pulling was in his platform.
Yes, and he was making similar attempts about everything he is doing now already in his first term. So these policies aren't new, and Americans voted for it.
This is like the time the UK voted for Brexit and then became shocked when Brexit happened.
Yes, but this is actually worse. Although Brexit cannot be reversed, and Trump's first term was somewhat reversed. The way USA is acting now, threatening every ally they have, very seriously undermining NATO, Europe, democracy and Ukraine, threatening to destroy economies of Canada and Mexico. This can never be forgotten. USA is not even considered an ally anymore in most places that used to be the strongest allies of USA.
This. I can't stand how they blame the system for a choice they chose to make, be it voting for the orange turd, or sitting it out to protest a war halfway across the world, knowing fully well that he'd use that complacency ro return to office. Now the rest of us are dragged into the muck.
Absolutely, Trump was elected in a democratic election.
USA is a (flawed) democracy supposedly with checks and balances.
It's not like some military general overthrew the democracy out of nowhere.Obviously there are good Americans that oppose this, and tried to prevent it, but they are unfortunately a minority, and as a whole USA as a country is doing this, and letting it happen.
The people who voted for him got scammed. They're stupid, but it's not their fault either. They are spiritually invested in a scam.
but it’s not their fault either.
IDK isn't it? Good information is available, and they choose to ignore it. I know victims of scams can be so entangled with it, that they can't see it, even when the police arrest the scammers, and show them the evidence they were being scammed.
But at that point, isn't that too their own fault that they choose to believe the scammer over police and evidence?I don't think we shall give a pass based on "stupidity", staying stupid is generally their own choice.
As an American, I hope more countries choose this path. Trump, and a large number of Americans need to understand that “American exceptionalism” only matters to (some) Americans. A community of nations means no one country gets to dictate to all the others. Eventually that isolationism some of my country clamor for will come to feel pretty lonely as fewer and fewer countries put up with our BS.
You tug on the leash too many times and eventually the dog is going to turn on you
Good
Some highlights I found interesting:
The tariffs have been met with deep anxiety in Canada, whose majority of exports are sold to companies and clients in the US. Officials predict up to a million job losses if a 25% across the board levy went ahead, while economists warn that a recession is imminent if they persist.
Even with the tariffs being scaled back temporarily, the uncertainty alone is hurting both American and Canadian economies, says Rob Gillezeau, an assistant professor of economic analysis and policy at the University of Toronto.
"The most sensitive thing to uncertainty is business investment," Prof Gillezeau says, adding that firms are "not going to want to spend a dime anywhere" until they have some clarity.
That trepidation is also seen in the stock market, which had erased virtually all its gains since Trump won the presidency in November.
million job losses if a 25% across the board levy went ahead, while economists warn that a recession is imminent if they persist.
Obviously this will harm the economy initially, probably much like when Finland lost most of Nokia. (Nokia was a huge part of Finish economy and jobs)
But Finland rose again quickly, and Canada will too, because Canada is a country that is very well liked in most of the world, and will have no problem increasing trade elsewhere.
There will be a transitional period, but on the upside also greater independence from USA.
Luckily Canada does not suffer from Dutch disease like Finland did. So Canada will be more flexible in the ways it can recover quickly.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease
USA on the other hand, will not be in similar position to recoup their trade losses with, Mexico, Canada, EU, UK and China.
So USA will probably face a harder recession than Canada.And that's probably Trump's plan, to weaken the entire west, including USA, NATO and of course Europe to benefit Russia.
On top of that, I think Canada could make a trade agreement with UK. After Brexit, UK has been looking for ways to mitigate their economic predicament, so old colonies like Canada seem like a good place to start. UK really needs the deal too, so Canada could be in a good position to set some conditions.
Honest question - are Canadians generally fine with normal US citizens with no untoward agenda still coming to visit and shop in Canada? I love partaking in the cuisine, a museum, and a library in a relatively nearby border town. Especially the more ethnically-diverse cuisine, because shitty generic Americana fare gets tiresome. Canadian Tire is fun, too, although I do secretly wonder why it's not Canadian Tyre. Curious to know if US plates on a car in Canada generate a negative response nowadays.
Also, I'm sorry about the reality for which I felt the need to ask this question.
I own a business in Canada which gets a ton of tourists. I'm fine with everyone coming in.
That said, if they're wearing a MAGA red hat or a Trump shirt, I'm not quite sure what I'd do. I'd probably tell them they can't come in wearing that. I think it would be hilarious to make these scrubs leave their hats in the car.
You should absolutely turn them away. They are your enemy. They chose to vote to hurt you and your business.
I do secretly wonder why it's not Canadian Tyre.
Because in the same way we are not American, we are not British.
Curious to know if US plates on a car in Canada generate a negative response nowadays.
Depends on if you're talking an American negative response or a Canadian negative response. I don't imagine you'd be getting flipped off or have stuff thrown at you but you may not have people stop to let you back out of a parking spot or let you out of a driveway in busy traffic.
Come and spend your money in our economy, sure!
I doubt you'll have any trouble unless you have MAGA bullshit on display or are driving a Tesla.
We dislike your president and the shit show he's caused. If you're willing to spend your hard earned money here though we'll welcome you with open arms.
We were recently in Vancouver, and people were happy to have us! You shouldn’t worry. We did some extra shopping in solidarity and they appreciated our support.
Come spend your money, just don't act all full of yourself like some Americans do.
Also, "tyre" is British spelling. We kind of have our own spelling where we generally use British spelling, but not for everything. For example, we don't spell fetus as "foetus" or estrogen as "oestrogen" either. There's probably some fancy official name for it.
I like to think of it as Canadish.
Although Trump has since lifted some of the tariffs imposed this week and put others on pause until 2 April, many Canadians say the damage has already been done.
The Cheeto Devil started backtracking already?
He's backtracked within 24 hours of every threat he's made when his bluff gets called. The only thing worse than a bad negotiator is a bad negotiator that's been discovered.
The title could really use an extra comma and some quotation marks...
It took me a while to work out why they were so critical of Canada
New headline: Bourbon is out, patriotism is in - How Canadians are facing Trump threats head on