{"id":828658,"date":"2026-07-27T06:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T06:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/828658\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T06:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T06:19:09","slug":"we-will-never-surrender-canada-the-hill-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/828658\/","title":{"rendered":"We will never surrender: Canada – The Hill Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHELSEA, QUE.\u2014Rage, fear, contempt: an incomplete list, but it captures this country\u2019s overall reaction to United States President Donald Trump, easily the most aggressively-ignorant, narcissistic, emotionally-damaged bully to lead that country in living memory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is our misfortune to live right next door, although no corner of the globe has escaped Trump\u2019s towering need to humiliate, intimidate, and dominate.<\/p>\n

So we loathe him, we can\u2019t stand the sound of his voice\u2014although we are careful to exempt American friends, relatives, and allies from our fury\u2014but what do we do? How do you defend against a bully as powerful and remorseless?<\/p>\n

Fight, flatter, disregard, or finesse?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford offers the populist\u2014and probably most popular\u2014prescription: push back. \u201cIf he continues to bully us, we can\u2019t back down. You have to stand up to bullies in the schoolyard, or they\u2019ll take your lunch money.\u201d Last week, Ford hinted at withholding unspecified energy exports to the U.S.: \u201cWe could dismantle the U.S. if we wanted to \u2026 they need to feel the pain, rather than us constantly feeling the pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

When you recall Trump\u2019s furious reaction to Ford\u2019s World Series ad last year\u2014the one that quoted then-president Ronald Reagan praising free trade\u2014putting tariffs on our oil exports (which would not pass muster with Alberta, obviously), or turning off the lights in New York City could provoke the notoriously unstable genius to close the St. Lawrence Seaway, occupy Newfoundland, even force the Blue Jays out of Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, would Trump\u2019s response amount to anything more than a few scary headlines, foot-stomping tantrums, and frankly ludicrous threats? We are supposed to be punished, somehow, for the recent wildfires fuelled by climate change, caused by the carbon emissions that are one of America\u2019s biggest global exports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In January, we faced a threat of 50-per-cent tariff on Canadian-made aircraft. Then there was the staggering 100-per-cent levy on everything, to be imposed if Canada signed a trade deal with China, also in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for the 10-per-cent additional tariff that followed the World Series ad, it has been superseded by an almost weekly cascade of ongoing threats, leaving most Canadians apprehensive, but puzzled as to actual impacts.<\/p>\n

Many of these penalties vapourized, or were much diminished, and, notwithstanding the latest threat, the great majority of Canadian goods covered by CUSMA continue to cross the border tariff-free. The new 50-per-cent tariffs, however\u2014announced last week, on the cusp of CUSMA negotiations\u2014would apply to CUSMA goods, as well.<\/p>\n

If they ever materialize.<\/p>\n

Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney urges calm\u2014although he doesn\u2019t criticize Ford\u2019s reaction. He said Canada must be \u201cstrategic not tactical; patient, not impulsive.\u201d He offered reassuring perspective not only about the latest shoulder-shoving, but also on Trump\u2019s whole approach to trade.<\/p>\n

The latest threat, for instance\u2014while possibly fatal for some small and medium-sized businesses making hockey sticks, cement, furniture, wigs, and 500 other mostly retail products\u2014covers $20-billion-plus in exports, but only two per cent to five per cent of our total trade outflow.<\/p>\n

Second, as with most of Trump\u2019s threats, these latest proposed tariffs come with a 30-day deadline. This gives\u00a0opponents, in the U.S. and Canada, time to push back, to press the argument that it is American consumers who pay, not only Canadian businesses. Or, wait for Trump to be distracted by another issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even if Trump proceeds\u2014if Canada doesn\u2019t put U.S. booze back on the shelves, open our dairy market to U.S. milk, and drop counter-tariffs on American-made cars, as he demands\u2014American courts are not guaranteed to endorse the president\u2019s latest tactic, which is based on a never-used clause in a 1930 U.S. trade law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump is already on the wrong side of public opinion in his own country, where two-thirds of Americans oppose his foreign tariffs which have driven costs higher for everyone living there. As well, November midterm elections could produce a Democratic majority in Congress, and embolden the president\u2019s trade critics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kenney, and others, have also noticed that Canadian potash, oil and critical minerals are exempt from the putative 50-per-cent tariff, to take effect Aug. 19. So perhaps the U.S. does need some of what Canada has, after all. As Kenney says \u201cwe have headwinds, he has tailwinds.\u201d<\/p>\n

But should these crucial exports be used as leverage in ongoing CUSMA negotiations? That extremely fraught decision rests with Prime Minister Mark Carney, and no one envies him the responsibility. Putting oil and potash in play would frighten Saskatchewan, infuriate Alberta, and potentially destroy the national solidarity evident at last week\u2019s first ministers conference in Charlottetown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To date, Carney has tried artful flattery\u2014repeatedly praising Trump for galvanizing new defence investments among NATO partners, for instance, and even endorsing the president\u2019s reckless and failed attack on Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He hasn\u2019t been as cringeworthy as former British prime minister Keir Starmer\u2014who flourished an embossed invitation to Windsor Castle for the president in the Oval Office\u2014and nowhere near as embarrassing as NATO chief Mark Rutte, or slimy FIFA boss Gianni Infantino. But when Carney gave Trump his chair at a recent G7 meeting, that small gesture grated nerves at home.<\/p>\n

The prime minister\u2019s preferred tactic with his easily-triggered counterpart has been finesse\u2014calling the president \u201ctransformative,\u201d for example. But, while Trump isn\u2019t the sharpest twig in the dam, he can sniff out mockery in a nano-second. Those feral instincts fed his dislike of Justin Trudeau, whom he denounced as two-faced after the 2018 G7 in Charlevoix, Que., in a spat over\u2014again\u2014tariffs.<\/p>\n

Canadians continue, by and large, to support Carney\u2019s approach, as do most premiers, recognizing that the world is dealing with an arsonist with unlimited access to matches. But patience is running out after a number of government concessions\u2014on the digital tax, the Gordie Howe Bridge, our disgraceful support for the war on Iran\u2014have not changed a thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Canada agrees to buy more F35 fighter jets from a hostile neighbour, Carney will be deservedly roasted.\u00a0<\/p>\n


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On the other hand, unlike keyboard warriors and inflamed podcasters, Carney has to measure the potential damage to Canadian families of a tougher stance. So far, that has been limited to the steel, auto and lumber sectors, and somewhat mitigated with aluminium, where smelters are profitable thanks to $1.5-billion federal support and a rebounding U.S. market, despite 50-per-cent tariffs. (The U.S. has no other ready, affordable source of aluminum, and has exhausted stockpiles.) \u00a0<\/p>\n

To conclude: finesse only works until it doesn\u2019t. Flattery only demeans the flatterer; keep your Nobel Prize and your dignity. Disregarding U.S. posturing and developing new markets is smart, but will take time\u2014and some painful disruption.<\/p>\n

That leaves fight\u2014not bombast, but unified, targeted resistance. Canadians are, increasingly, up for it. We will fight in the grocery aisles, we will fight in the liquor stores, we will cancel our trips south: we will never surrender!<\/p>\n

British Columbia Premier David Eby spoke for many last week when he declared: \u201cThere is not a chance in hell that U.S. alcohol is going back on the shelves!\u201d<\/p>\n

Not exactly Churchillian as a rallying cry, but Eby has the full-throated support of an increasingly disgusted nation.<\/p>\n

Susan Riley is a veteran political columnist who writes regularly for The Hill Times.<\/p>\n

The Hill Times <\/p>\n

\u00a0 \n <\/p>\n

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