Author: Blazingcatfur

This weekend, hundreds of thousands of people are attending the Iowa State Fair — a major attraction featuring several days of entertainment, a rodeo and even a life-size butter cow that’s been carved every year since 1911.

Much like the Calgary Stampede in Canada, the Iowa State Fair is a crucial stop for politicians to meet voters, making it a hotbed for political debates — especially when U.S. midterms are coming up.

And this year, one of the topics on Iowans’ minds is U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.

Pork chops on a stick, that’s all anyone should care about.

As U.S. President Donald Trump’s Wednesday tariff deadline looms, there are worrying signs that Canadian manufacturers are going to pack up and move south of the border. This is unsurprising for a country that imposes high costs on businesses and seems to have resigned itself to being Trump’s whipping boy.

Last month, KPMG Canada released the results of a survey of 275 Canadian manufacturers conducted in May, which found that 42 per cent of them have considered, or are currently considering, moving production south of the border. Eleven per cent said they’re thinking of moving their head offices to the United States.

In his trade negotiations with the United States, Prime Minister Mark Carney should seize the opportunity that comes with a strong hand. Because however much pain U.S. President Donald Trump can cause Canadian exporters with his tariffs, his domestic hand is very weak.

Not sure I buy into this analysis.

One of the more intriguing aspects of Canadian society is the observation that Americans constitute the sole nationality toward which citizens may express bias openly. This perception is especially pronounced in Eastern Canada compared to the West, yet a reciprocal sentiment is absent in the US. Such hostility bears an analogy to sibling rivalry and underscores a form of tribalism. Regardless of the motivations behind the recent petition to have the US Ambassador Pete Hoekstra named persona non grata, some Canadians have identified themselves far too closely with the “elbows-up” campaign associated with Prime Minister Mark Carney. To do so, they risk conflating the Prime Minister’s propaganda with their own personal identity. A detailed explanation of this identity fusion was provided by Jasmin Laine recently.