{"id":839058,"date":"2026-07-31T22:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T22:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/839058\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T22:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T22:14:11","slug":"melancon-striking-back-at-u-s-bully-in-chief-on-tariffs-could-backfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/839058\/","title":{"rendered":"Melan\u00e7on: Striking back at U.S. bully-in-chief on tariffs could backfire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some 25 years ago, a 12-year-old me was being bullied in high school.<\/p>\n

I was chubby. I was nerdy. And I was \u201cdifferent\u201d \u2014 because back then, being a gay teenager wasn\u2019t yet considered \u201ccool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those ingredients made me a perfect target for the school\u2019s older, more confident bullies.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, that didn\u2019t last too long, as I soon learned that the more you react to their constant attacks, the more you feed their appetite for more reaction. <\/p>\n

No reaction? No more reason to poke the bear.<\/p>\n

So I started ignoring their insults and, outsmarting them, they quickly grew tired of bullying me for nothing.<\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t a story about me. It\u2019s about Canada once again being the target of a bully \u2014 and, to add insult to injury, none other than its closest neighbour and ally.<\/p>\n

The lessons I learned in high school a quarter-century ago might as well apply to our current situation as a country. Because in reality, retaliating against U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s latest tariff salvo might be exactly what he wants us to do.<\/p>\n

A recent Angus Reid Institute survey shows 62 per cent of Canadians want to see Prime Minister Mark Carney hit back at the U.S.<\/a> \u2014 and most of them believe Ottawa should impose dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs.<\/p>\n

But wouldn\u2019t that just lead to further escalation in a trade war that already hurts both the American and Canadian economies?<\/p>\n

As patriots, it might be tempting in the face of adversity to want our country to stand up and fight back.<\/a> In fact, I was among those who initially thought Ontario Premier Doug Ford had a point when he called last week for a strong response, suggesting Canada should \u201chit back as hard as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the more I think about it, the more I believe that in doing so, we would be taking the bait and end up playing Trump\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n

The question we should be asking is why is he coming back with a new wave of tariffs \u2014 and, more importantly, why now?<\/p>\n

Looking at this fall\u2019s political calendar, an important milestone is approaching south of the border, with pivotal midterm elections set for Nov. 3. Recent polls and seat projections suggest Trump\u2019s Republican Party could lose control of at least one chamber of Congress \u2014 a result that would limit the president\u2019s ability to act as he pleases.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s administration is increasingly unpopular. His approval ratings have dropped below 35 per cent<\/a> in recent polls, his war in Iran is a disaster, and it is pushing gas and grocery prices even higher. For a man who ran on the promise to slash inflation and that there would be \u201cno more wars\u201d just two years ago, it\u2019s a difficult track record to defend, even to his core MAGA base.<\/p>\n

Some Republicans are worried about their party\u2019s prospects this fall, and the bully-in-chief is under pressure from his own political family.<\/p>\n

So Trump needs to deflect both the media\u2019s and the public\u2019s attention away from the daily problems he has contributed to since he returned to the White House. And what better solution than a new round of tariffs?<\/p>\n

The trouble is, if Canada were to retaliate, we could end up serving him \u2014 on a silver platter \u2014 exactly the argument he needs to rally his base and press his anti-Canadian rhetoric.<\/p>\n

But if we refrain from counterattacking, he won\u2019t be able to portray us as the bad guys in this whole story to turn American public opinion against Canada.<\/p>\n

Of course, doing nothing would be politically much harder to defend for Carney, especially when nearly two-thirds of Canadians want him to punch back.<\/p>\n

So far, the prime minister has shown little interest in strong retaliation measures. At this point, that might be the sound and reasonable thing to do.<\/p>\n

Because in the end, winning against a bully isn\u2019t necessarily about being stronger \u2014 sometimes, you just have to be smarter.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Profile<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tRapha\u00ebl Melan\u00e7on is a public affairs consultant and political analyst. A former journalist, he previously worked as a political adviser at all three levels of government.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some 25 years ago, a 12-year-old me was being bullied in high school. I was chubby. I was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-839058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}