“Canada – USA Tariff Wars”

Every day $1bn worth of goods crosses the river dividing Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, two largely blue-collar US and Canadian cities that have come to act as one in the creation of North America’s auto industry.

News this week of Donald Trump’s escalating trade spat with Canada has everyone worried. Political and economic leaders and observers labeled the move an act of “hubris” , blamed Trump’s “ego”, and called the escalation “insanity”.

“We don’t need Canada, they need us,” Trump declared.

In the days leading up to Mark Carney’s first budget last fall, the prime minister delivered an address that included an ominous but vague warning about needing to make sacrifices in the face of American antagonism.

The budget came and went, and it was never made clear what Carney had had in mind. Now, Canadians are about to learn what his statement really meant — and it’s not pretty.

Most economic modelling of the fallout from the current trade war has shown acute pain in specific areas, as well as some mild, temporary hurt in the broader economy, followed by a recovery.

OTTAWA — United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Canada walked away from a trade agreement with the U.S. due to “political purposes” that involved Quebec’s upcoming provincial election and Alberta’s referendum.

“It was manufactured,” said Lutnick, during a press conference in Washington on Thursday. “So there’s the sovereignty party trying to run, and they’re in the lead in Quebec and so this was Mark Carney manufacturing something that would try to keep them from winning, and then you have Alberta has an independence resolution.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Outlines How Canada Manufactured Political Outrage for Domestic Consumption https://t.co/B2a4KwL2Vw

— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) August 27, 2026

Lutnick’s and the US version of events seems far more credible than the Carney con.

OTTAWA — A majority of Canadians support Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision to walk away from trade talks with the U.S., a new poll suggests.

Results of the Abacus Data poll also suggest a divide among Conservative voters, underscoring the challenges facing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre amid the ongoing Canada-U.S. trade turmoil.

Released exclusively to the Star, the survey asked respondents whether they believe Canada made the right call in suspending the trade talks on Friday, or if it should have accepted the terms offered by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

Donald Trump’s threat to impose 50 per cent tariffs on certain Canadian goods, including alcohol, clothing and hockey sticks, became a reality earlier this month. The specific details of why the negotiations unravelled are still unclear, with both sides unsurprisingly pointing fingers at one another for being the culprit.

Yet, one thing has become surprisingly clear. Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, is delusional enough to believe his country will come out of this trade war from a position of strength. “We’re stronger now than when the United States started this trade war,” Carney told reporters at a press conference the day after negotiations fell apart.

As new U.S. tariffs sink into the Canadian economy, the idea of a prolonged trade war is something Canadians will need to get used to — even after President Donald Trump leaves office, experts say.

“I don’t see this changing any time soon. I don’t think this goes away magically when Trump exits the White House, and so for Canada, it’s wishful thinking to think we can hold our breaths and white-knuckle it for the next 24 or 26 months,” says political science associate professor Aaron Ettinger of Carleton University.

Those calling for Prime Minister Mark Carney to tax or restrict energy exports to the U.S. as a weapon in the ongoing tariff war should explain the consequences if we do.

If, for example, we put an energy tax on our oil exports to the U.S., what will we do if the Americans shut down Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline in retaliation?

The premier of British Columbia has an additional suggestion for Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, in dealing with U.S. tariffs: stop plans to buy as many as 88 American-made F-35 fighter jets.
Not long after Canada said that it would retaliate against President Trump’s sweeping 50 percent tariff on hundreds of Canadian exports with tariffs of its own, Premier David Eby questioned why Canada would pursue supplying its military with the warplanes.

“When your friend kicks you in the back, one of the first rules is you don’t then go and buy $12 billion of fighter jets from that person,” Mr. Eby said on Tuesday, citing roughly the cost of the first 16 airplanes. “It makes absolutely no sense,” he added.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America, a change he said would take effect immediately.

A White House aide said the order directs the Department of the Interior and Secretary Doug Burgum to make the change.

One of the five Great Lakes of North America, Lake Ontario borders both the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York.

Trump crosses out LAKE ONTARIO — calls it LAKE AMERICA pic.twitter.com/MXJfL6Z7Cd

— RT (@RT_com) August 27, 2026

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has thrown his support behind Prime Minister Mark Carney’s retaliatory tariffs against the U.S., as tensions between Canada and the Trump administration continue to escalate.

Speaking at a media conference in Vaughan, Ont., on Wednesday, Ford said Carney had done the “right thing” by walking away from a deal with the U.S., and that the PM has his “full support in standing up for our country” by introducing retaliatory tariffs. He added that Canada is “going to fight like we’ve never fought before against President Trump.”

Peter Navarro interview

… And I can tell you that as nice as the Canadian people are, their trade negotiators are arrogant, backstabbing people. The Communist Chinese and the Canadians are the hardest to deal with, and they are the only two countries retaliating against us for our fair-trade measures.

h/t handy n handsome