It didn’t take Donald Trump very long to realize that our federal government wasn’t going to roll over and immediately scream, “Uncle!” mere seconds after imposing a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods and services entering the United States.
It was almost worth the bother to watch hard core Justin Trudeau haters cheer at their television sets as he immediately delivered a response that, verbally speaking, could be considered the equivalent of him giving Trump father Pierre’s famous “You’re Number One” salute. After quickly rhyming off a list of American products that would immediately become targets of countervailing duties when imported into Canada (Florida orange juice, Kentucky bourbon, etc.), Trudeau’s threat to introduce further retaliatory actions should Trump’s tariffs remain in place simply left both Trump and in particular Vice President J.D. Vance momentarily speechless as to the rapidity with which Canada committed its unified troops to engage in this economic “war”.
Still, even as liquor and beer were being pulled off the shelves of Ontario retailers faster than rum “Mickey’s” on a Maritime provincial election day, Ontario premier Doug Ford was already asking his almost “Where’s Waldo?” question: How, exactly, does his “friend” Scott Moe intend to respond to this threat coming from Canada’s once-upon-a-time “best friend and neighbour”.
As Saskatchewan voters may recall, Moe was but one of several Canadian premiers laughed out of Washington last week when they tried to sit down and reasonably explain the economic reasons as to “why” Trump’s vacuously thought-out tariff imposition plan could force both Canada and the United States economies to implode. Reeling from having been ridiculed by the MAGA hordes feeding Trump’s ego, he returned to Saskatchewan, only to release a somewhat simpering statement to the effect that “Further measures in response to the US tariffs will be announced in the days ahead.”
Worried about the perception that Moe’s timidity could be possibly misconstrued by Canadians as not being “onside” with a Team Canada united approach, Ford’s advice to Moe as to how to respond to Trump could just have has easily been drafted by virtually any of the thousands of business managers in the province increasingly worried about how this latest assault upon export commodity pricing could increase our already bloated deficit.
Ford’s approach is straightforward enough for even the dumbest of Canadians who think it would be “great” for Canada to become the 51st province; Americans should – and must – “feel the pain” of Canada’s response, and Saskatchewan is in the driver’s seat with its abundant richness in potash and uranium, and the world now increasingly focusing upon obtaining these products to help improve food productivity or enrich the ore that will or is already being used to fuel its nuclear reactors.
Even Grant Devine had no problems in reminding Washington free trade rabblerousers who held the high ground when in the early 1980’s complaints were made that the Canadian government was somehow “subsidizing” the potash industry because most of its operations in Saskatchewan were under government control. Miffed at the stupidity of the American complaints, he simply raised the price on potash and dared American free trade arbitrators to do something about it. American farmers made certain that they didn’t, and the issue hasn’t been brought forward since.
Even Alberta premier Danielle Smith has succumbed to the realism of Canadians wanting their leaders to tell Trump to stuff his tariffs somewhere less visible to public exposure, as over 70 per cent of Alberta’s population want to see the province in lock step with a Team Canada approach, even if it means supporting Canadian actions espoused by our still annoyingly “preachy” Prime Minister Trudeau and telling the “Take Back Alberta” fanatics who until recently she’d been quoting chapter and verse from their separatist Bible to take their message elsewhere, at least for the moment.
In Prince Albert, our own MP Randy Hoback, and the Conservative Party in general, continue to babble incoherent nonsense complete with fuzzy, photo-edited pictures of current Liberal Party leadership candidate Mark Carney being just another “Trudeau” supporting a carbon tax.
Prior to March 4 when Trump issued his tariff proclamation, Hoback was out desperately attempting to “sell” the idea that Canada needed an election more than they did a new “leader”, a word that has no meaning until Carney wins the Liberal leadership race and becomes PM, or perhaps even Chrystia Freeland, a possibility that could conceivably have Trump develop an aneurism.
Mr. Hoback might want to try to make the point that Canadians have been expressing a lack of confidence in the government for some time; however, those alleged inclinations as to public sentiment and substantiated by weirdly out-to-lunch polling numbers favouring the Conservatives to win, an election now would have resulted in a non-response to Trump’s imposition of tariffs, and that is something that the Canadian public does NOT want to see happen – a point made obvious by the public response to Trudeau’s initial announcement respecting countervailing duties.
The spontaneous erosion of Conservative polling numbers following Trudeau’s response to Trump is NOT “the story” here; our survival as a nation is – and as long as Conservatives continue to argue to the contrary, their numbers should continue to erode.
