Canada

Donald Trump has loaded the trade gun. He’s pointed the gun. He hasn’t pulled the trigger one day into his latest presidential term.

But he insists it’s coming next week.

Sitting in the Oval Office for the first time in four years, Trump said he’s planning to imminently follow through with the massive tariffs he’s threatened against Canada and Mexico.

Canada’s drug dealers seem well connected politically with China, Khalistan and ME terrorist groups all having influence. I doubt much will be done at the border.

ICYM: I launched The Bureau to build on the method of journalism and success of Wilful Blindness, one of the most successful and consequential works ever in Canadian reporting. This story is another chapter.
https://t.co/4LzTYeG0lX

— Sam Cooper (@scoopercooper) January 17, 2025

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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is getting support from an unlikely ally for refusing to sign on to a communique that would have curbed US oil exports — Ontario’s manufacturing sector.

That’s because the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada (CCMBC) has expressed strong support for Smith in her firm stance against Ottawa’s energy policies and potential US tariffs despite pressure from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and fellow premiers including Ontario’s Doug Ford.

BREAKING. Donald Trump says 25% tariffs coming February 1st if Canada cannot get the border secured.

Can Trudeau get out of the way so Canada can implement a substantial border security plan and avoid tariffs? pic.twitter.com/9YzmQDGmbO

— David Krayden (@DavidKrayden) January 21, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C.—A new sphere of American hegemony, with Canada as the 51st state. That sounds fantastic to the man in the purple-hemmed toga and the gold laurel wreath that’s perched around his “Make America Great Again” ballcap.

He’s going for irony, donning the garb of a Caesar for laughs when so many have warned that Donald Trump could imperil democracy in the American republic. Like a centurion, he holds a long staff with a banner that portrays a silhouette of Trump after a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his ear last summer. A flag with the stars and stripes streams down Trump’s face, instead of blood.

“I think it would be fantastic… for global, political and economic power,” says the man, 27, whose name is Logan Howard.

Donald Trump has stated his intent to impose 25-per-cent tariffs on all imports from Canada on his first day in office. Let’s consider what we did the last time Mr. Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian exports.

In 2018, Mr. Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian exports of steel and aluminum under the national security provision (Section 232) of the U.S. Trade Expansion Act. Canada retaliated tit-for-tat, and the American tariffs were withdrawn under a deal that put a ceiling on increases in Canadian exports.

In Canada’s arsenal of possible responses to a Trump tariff, the nuclear option is the threat to withhold, reduce or place export tariffs on Canadian energy.

Already, the mere suggestion of such a tactic has caused a split between the government of Alberta, on one side, and the governments of Canada and all other provinces on the other.

Tariffs on imports from the U.S. have the potential to cause pain to certain industries and regions, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself has acknowledged that the effect of Canada’s import tariffs would be diluted by the size of the U.S. population and economy.