“Canada – USA Tariff Wars”

Manufacturing has plunged to its lowest share of employment in Ontario — below 10 per cent — since that data was first collected in 1976, a report by the Financial Accountability Office has found.

The fiscal watchdog warned the province continues to face economic uncertainty as workers in the automotive, machinery and metal products sectors grapple with 20,600 fewer jobs compared to two years ago.

In 2005, jobs in manufacturing accounted for 17 per cent of employment in Ontario.

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney appears in no rush to resume trade talks with the US.

He dismissed a question over the weekend about when he last spoke to US President Donald Trump, responding: “Who cares? It’s a detail. I’ll speak to him again when it matters.”

Carney added that, in his view, there is no “burning issue” to raise with his US counterpart.

The prime minister has faced criticism for his apparent lack of urgency, which raises the question about whether Canada is shifting its approach to trade talks with the US.

President Donald Trump has yet to follow through on his threat to impose an additional 10 percent tariff on Canadian imports, four weeks after he halted “all trade negotiations” over an anti-tariff ad the province of Ontario ran during the Major League Baseball World Series.

“Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Oct. 25, after announcing two days earlier that he was terminating trade talks over the the ”egregious” ad.

The hardest hit areas have proven to be concentrated in Ontario and parts of New Brunswick, reflecting their reliance on automotive manufacturing, steel, aluminum, and lumber

WASHINGTON, D.C. — When U.S. President Donald Trump first threatened tariffs on Canadian goods, the forecasts were grim.

GDP was expected to decline three per cent in seven months, job losses in the auto sector would top 100,000, inflation would tick up over 3 per cent and Canada would be mired in a recession.

HALIFAX – The tariffs imposed on Canada by U.S. President Donald Trump have clearly caused economic pain for Canada, but a U.S. senator from Maine says he’s more worried about how Canadians are reacting on a personal level.

“Like any neighbours, there’s always going to be issues back and forth, and we’ve been fighting about softwood lumber for as long as I could remember,” Angus King told an international security conference in Halifax on Saturday.

“But the deeper problem is the cultural break; the idea that Canadians don’t think of Americans as their friends and neighbours, but as adversaries.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the world can make progress on a range of issues without the US, and that consensus reached at a Group of 20 leaders’ meeting in Johannesburg this weekend carries weight despite a boycott by President Donald Trump’s administration.

South Africa, the G-20 host this year, defied the US by releasing a declaration from the meeting. Trump ordered the stayaway after repeating a debunked claim that White Afrikaner farmers in South Africa are being subjected to a genocide, and Washington said only a chairman’s summary could be released from the gathering in the absence of the US.

That sounds desperate, stupid and self-destructive.

There’s something that the U.S. ambassador to Canada thinks could help with thawing frozen trade negotiations over President Trump’s tariffs.

And that is for Canada to continue with a deal to purchase American-made F-35 fighter jets from the company Lockheed Martin. The government began an audit of that deal after Mr. Trump imposed tariffs on Canada.

The review will assess if the new fleet remains compatible with Canada’s military needs and the protection of its sovereignty “in light of evolving geopolitics,” according to the defense department.

Does an ambassador need to be diplomatic?

The U.S. envoy to Canada doesn’t seem to think so.

Pete Hoekstra, a former Republican Representative from Michigan appointed by President Trump to the important diplomatic post, is gaining notoriety in Canada for speaking bluntly about the poor state of relations between the two nations.

JOHANNESBURG – Prime Minister Mark Carney is in no hurry to resume trade talks with U.S. President Donald Trump but will speak again with the president “when it’s appropriate,” Carney said on Sunday.

Carney said he expects to speak with Trump sometime in the next two weeks but otherwise stands ready for when the Americans next knock on Canada’s door to return to the table.

“I look forward to speaking with the president soon, but I don’t have a burning issue to speak with the president about right now,” Carney said.

Ontario’s representative in Washington says he’s signed his Christmas card to U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra, and hopes the two are moving forward after an altercation last month.

“I’ve met Ambassador Hoekstra several times, I actually kind of like the guy,” David Paterson told CTV Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Sunday. “He’s different.”

“I’ve had people use salty language with me before, I don’t get too upset about it,” he added. “I don’t say anything back, as I say, my mom taught me better.”

U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra had three messages this week: Don’t run those ads again, you will need to accept some tariffs and the F-35 contract is key to a deal. On all three elements, Canada’s Laurentian Elite lost their collectivist little minds.

The Elbow People will cut off their nose to spite their face.