OTTAWA — US lawmakers from both parties are pushing back against President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada, with one Republican senator warning Ottawa’s growing relationship with Europe could make it harder to repair ties with Washington.
Republican Maine Senator Susan Collins and Democratic Delaware Senator Chris Coons spoke with CBC News Washington correspondent Katie Simpson as frustration with the Canada-U.S. trade dispute grows on Capitol Hill.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Wednesday to identify Canadian-origin goods in federal civil government procurement and take steps to remove them, the White House said.
The move came a week after Trump banned the import of Canadian alcohol, motorcycles and various other products into the U.S. in an escalation of the trade war.
In the memo, Trump directs the U.S. Trade Representative and the Office of Management and Budget to “take steps” to identify items of Canadian origin that could be “removed or made non-available for purchase” from the federal government’s procurement system.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney now believes he is more than just the Western foil to Donald Trump and his MAGA movement—he is the global one. Accordingly, he seems determined to demonstrate to the world how to stand up to Donald Trump, to force Trump to lose the midterms, and to hurt the U.S. economy to such a degree that Trump will never again bully other nations.
Ursula says she welcomes Canadian Tax Dollars
🇪🇺🇨🇦 EU chief von der Leyen just offered Canada a path to becoming the bloc's first ever "associate member."
Associate membership doesn't exist.
It's not a category in the EU treaties, so this would be an entirely new status built from scratch, binding Canada much closer to…
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) September 16, 2026
Former prime minister Stephen Harper, who led Canada’s Conservative Party for over a decade, backed the federal government’s decision to walk away from trade talks with the United States “to see a trade war commence in earnest.”
Harper delivered the closing keynote to hundreds of the world’s wealthiest investors gathered in downtown Toronto for the first-of-its-kind Canada Investment Summit.
“This had to be a very difficult decision, but I do believe that our government had no choice but to take this path,” Harper said.
I bet he hasn’t read the deal either. But the CBC won’t even ask that question.
“Wouldn’t it be lovely if Canada was the 28th state of the European Union rather than the 51st state of the United States?” asked Finland’s President Alexander Stubb this summer.
The question was rather tongue-in-cheek. US President Donald Trump, who is currently locked in an escalating tariff tussle with Ottawa, has, on a number of occasions, declared his ambition to make Canada the 51st American state – causing deep offence amongst many Canadians.
CANADA HAS BEEN INVITED TO BE AN ASSOCIATE MEMBER OF THE EU!
"We want to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible. We are opening the door for Canada to being the first associate member of the European Union" pic.twitter.com/feb0Mhk8cf
— NXT EU (@NXT4EU) September 16, 2026
Mark Carney’s admiration for the European Union is so deep that he was accused of aiding and abetting Project Fear, the campaign to stop the U.K. exiting the massive economic bloc.
As governor of the Bank of England, he failed to stop Brexit but as prime minister his Project Fear II against the U.S. has been far more successful and far more galvanizing. If Wall Street Journal is to be believed, Carney is now trying to integrate Canada into the European Union, a move that would surely entail a loss of sovereignty and independence far greater than anything we could surrender to America. The prime minister suggested on Sunday that the Journal’s reporting overstated what the government is seeking.
I think Carney is using the EU as a backdoor for China.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced what he called “the biggest oil deal in world history” with Venezuela on Aug. 28. Two days later, on Truth Social, he posted that “Trump’s historic oil deal with Venezuela realigns global energy and puts OPEC, Canada on notice.”
What does Venezuelan oil have to do with Canada, and should we be worried? The short answer is maybe; a little bit. The long answer is below.
This Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney is due to address the opening of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Guest addresses like this aren’t unheard of, but they have mostly been reserved in recent years for civil society figures focused on Ukraine, which was already a signal that something significant was to be announced, and reporting has suggested that some sort of new relationship between Canada and the European Union was in the cards.
Reflecting on the political excitement over tariffs these past couple of weeks might lead one to conclude that someone holding the monkey’s paw had wished to see Canada reverse its Trudeau-era experiment with post-nationalism. We are witnessing a remarkable irruption of impassioned national sentiment in a formerly staid country.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, of course. Indeed, having a modicum of national pride is prerequisite to a country’s ongoing existence, and it was deeply foolish of Canada’s elites to make self-abasement a basic feature of our political rhetoric over the past decade.
As satisfying as it is to be “Elbows Up” against U.S. President Donald Trump in the current Canada-U.S. trade war, it might be a tad counterproductive.
As I have written before, it might be more effective to break our dependence on trade with America by building pipelines west and east to get our oil and natural gas to European and Asian markets. It would also be a tremendous boost if provinces reduced internal barriers to trade.
It will be a “comprehensive partnership” covering trade, security and diplomacy.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission’s president, is expected to announce a new deal with Canada in her state of the union address next week.
Before long, she will be shaking hands with Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, and the Ode to Joy may be ringing out across Ottawa.
But this may not be the miracle agreement it’s cracked up to be.
Don’t blink this fall. It’s going to be a critical — and unpredictable — few months for our country. That’s why I’m watching three categories of events: cheers, jeers, and peers.
First up is a phenomenon called cheering theory, where people root for a proposition or person or institution. This is Canada’s secret weapon in the trade war against the United States, because Canadians are cheering for their federal government so loudly that it’s a self-reinforcing roar. People want Prime Minister Mark Carney to succeed — even plenty of people who didn’t vote Liberal in the last election. Seven in 10 Canadians support the decision to suspend trade talks with the U.S. rather than accept a bad deal, according to Abacus Data. When was the last time any public policy initiative had that level of backing? The Liberals are winning byelection after byelection. Look at the public comments on Carney’s latest Forward Guidance video and you’ll see more positivity than you knew existed on the internet. One Australian commenter said, “I don’t even know what elbows up means, but ELBOWS UP!” Whatever the game, people want Carney to win.
Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal.
I’d like to offer an update on the Canadian-American trade spat.
Shortly after Canada and America became embroiled in the worst bilateral trade war in their modern history, the secure phones of Europe’s top leaders lit up with a trans-Atlantic call. Mark Carney was pushing to take Canada’s relationship with the EU to the next level—a bold gambit to rewire the economic cabling of the Western alliance.
For months, the Canadian prime minister had held private conversations with almost every major European leader—from France to Italy, Germany and Scandinavia and even some of the continent’s lesser-known royals—on how to more deeply plug Canada and its 41 million people into Europe’s 27-nation club.
Now, Carney was accelerating Canada’s pivot to Europe, matchmaking a shotgun marriage to offset the pain of its divorce with America. In effect, a threat to make Canada the 51st state is pushing America’s northern neighbor so close to Europe that leaders have begun to half-in-jest dub it the EU’s newest member.
“This is my piece on President Trump’s five new proclamations signed this week, which should end any illusion in Ottawa that this trade fight is a negotiation among equals.
As the White House notes, “President Trump is taking decisive and appropriate action to respond to Canada’s additional retaliation and continued discriminatory treatment of crucial American exports.”
This means that as of September 29, Canadian beer, wine, spirits, whey, molasses, and heavyweight motorcycles will not merely be taxed at the American border. Under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, they will be banned.
h/t handy n handsome, pic by reader DA
