Mark Carney’s strategy for the last several months has been simple: Avoid meaningful discussions with the Americans and wait for the midterm elections. The hope is that Democrats retake the House of Representatives, perhaps even the Senate, weaken U.S. President Donald Trump and deliver Canada a better deal.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to impose 50 percent tariffs on a range of Canadian exports has sparked alarm across the country. But according to a leading trade economist, the actual economic impact may be far less dramatic than the eye-popping headline number suggests.
On Monday, Trump signed three proclamations under Section 338 of America’s Tariff Act of 1930—a provision unused for decades—imposing the new duties in response to what the administration calls Canada’s discriminatory treatment of American motor vehicles, alcohol, and dairy products.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Mark Carney did not rule out retaliation in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threat on a number of Canadian goods, part of the latest escalation of the U.S.-Canada trade conflict.
“We have a situation where the American tariffs, the 338 tariffs, will come into effect in 29 days, and we will look at all options in terms of how we would respond if they do come into effect,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday.
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney says he has agreed to “intensify” trade negotiations with the U.S. after President Donald Trump threatened punishing new tariffs on Canada.
Carney said he spoke with Trump on Tuesday morning following Monday’s announcement that the United States plans to impose 50 per cent tariffs on a wide swath of Canadian goods in 30 days.
Trump is asked "Last night, the Canada tariffs, one, are those a response to the wildfires in Canada? No, no, no. That's separate."
Trump: "Canada has been very, very tough on us over the years, for many years, and no other president has done anything about it. I love… pic.twitter.com/Ta9chDHtMO
— cbcwatcher (@cbcwatcher) July 21, 2026
h/t Patti Jo
TORONTO — Ontario Premier Doug Ford has vowed not to lift the province’s ban on U.S. alcohol and urged Canada to take an aggressive approach to looming American tariffs, declaring that “we could dismantle the U.S. if we wanted to.”
‼️JUST IN
Doug Ford says Canada could DISMANTLE the USA if all provinces work together: pic.twitter.com/9YFwamOkxo
— Tablesalt 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@Tablesalt13) July 21, 2026
h/t Mauser, Clink and Auntie Polly
Donald Trump’s latest tariff tantrum, delivered the day after the World Cup finals, was a sucker punch to Prime Minister Mark Carney, who was seated with the President during the match.
The new measures, which were announced Monday, impose 50-per-cent duties on roughly US$20-billion worth of Canadian goods, from milk and cream to alcohol, hockey equipment and electrical machinery, and are set to take effect on Aug. 19. The administration cast them as retaliation for what it calls Canada’s unfair treatment of American dairy, alcohol and automakers. Tellingly, the list spares energy, potash and critical minerals – all things the U.S. urgently needs from us right now, along with goods already captured by the separate steel and auto tariffs.
The United States has announced a sweeping 50% tariff on Canadian goods, citing discriminatory treatment of American alcohol, automobiles and dairy products. The duties are expected to take effect Aug. 19 and, unusually, will reach some products that would ordinarily receive preferential treatment under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement. Energy, potash, fish and critical minerals are among the reported exemptions.
It may appear that U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to hit many Canadian products with new tariffs of 50 per cent came out of the blue, but there are clear signs of what’s driving the tactic.
Monday’s announcement comes as the U.S. pushes for significant changes to the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), changes that would lock any Canadian trade concessions into the text of a trade deal.
The Trump administration wants to wipe out as much of Canada’s leverage in those CUSMA talks as possible.
This guy gets it. Canada is not going to win with Carney’s strategy.
On USMCA, there’s a reason that Professor Ian Lee of Carleton University doesn’t get much time on legacy media. He speaks more truth to power than they can handle.
1⃣ We are far more dependent on the 🇺🇸 than they are on us.
2⃣ If 🇨🇦 cannot maintain the current level of free trade… pic.twitter.com/Hl1sXfV7sp— RMC86 (@RMC19861987) July 19, 2026
This idiot doesn’t get it.
It’s unbelievable how far the Canada-U.S. relationship has deteriorated, and it’s hard to see it recovering. The anti-Canadian rhetoric and attitudes coming out of Washington are likely at their lowest point since calls to take over parts of British Columbia were expressed in the slogan “54-40 or Fight.”
Meanwhile … Hoekstra says Canadians ‘don’t think very highly’ of U.S. as Trump threatens new tariffs
Listen to Mark Warner. Every word “So it’s not so much are we discriminating against American products in the areas that he’s, he’s identified, but are we doing that relative to other countries and that there may be some factual questions there.”
“We’re kind of in It’s 5440 in… pic.twitter.com/OGHgWHtkOw
— cbcwatcher (@cbcwatcher) July 21, 2026
Carney the great negotiator.
Pete Hoekstra, speaking at a conference in Edmonton on Monday, said that Mr. Carney made the pitch during an Oct. 7, 2025, meeting at the White House. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright were eager to take the deal, Mr. Hoekstra said, but President Donald Trump held them back.
The U.S. said Monday it will be imposing an additional 50 per cent tariff on Canadian imports due to retaliatory and “discriminatory” measures Canada took in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The new tariff will take effect 30 days after Trump signs the executive order and will apply to goods covered by the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on free trade, a senior administration official told reporters on background.
Trump’s new 50% tariff targets even CUSMA-compliant goods
Maybe Carney should be sent on a long vacation.
Premier Doug Ford says U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to introduce new tariffs on Canada over northern Ontario wildfire smoke that’s drifted south of the border is a “bunch of rubbish.”
“Rather than sit there and complain, why don’t we see some help from President Trump. Send up some water bombers, send up some wildland firefighters, but then again, they have thousands of fires going in the U.S. right now, but you don’t hear Canada ever complain,” Ford said at a news conference Monday.
The collapse in American-Canadian relations since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House is usually measured by tariffs, trade agreements, and diplomatic insults. But the real cost is being paid in border towns.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in Michigan, where deteriorating relations between Washington and Ottawa are hurting communities.
Amid the confusion over precisely what deal Canada struck with the U.S. to open the Gordie Howe International Bridge, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has weighed in on social media with his own calculations.
“The USA struck a great deal with respect to the Gordie Howe Bridge,” he wrote in a social media post on Saturday. “Before this deal we got NOTHING. Now, the U.S. gets 50% of net revenues until 2041 and a say in setting the tolls. Our share is before interest and principal.”
Summertime, and the living isn’t easy for U.S. workers dependent on Canadian tourism. Boycotting travel is a trade irritant unlike any other, and one the American ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, sheepishly raised during an interview with CTV earlier this month in Vancouver.
Canadians are exercising this political defiance in opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada. Leger polling suggests 67 per cent of those who decided to boycott travel to the U.S. in 2026 have done so because of the political climate and tensions between the two countries. An expensive U.S. dollar also makes it easier to say no.
I don’t agree with the permanence the author predicts.
Canadian visits to the US have been trending higher and I suspect our weakening standard of living keeps as many home as politics.
