The current mood between Canada and the United States was best summed up at the opening of the Ottawa Senators home ice hockey game against the visiting Minnesota Wild on Saturday night. A sustained chorus of booing broke out during the singing of the Star Spangled Banner.
Mandia, the Ottowan R’n’B artist who performed the song, confirmed afterwards that she knew the jeers were coming and that as they weren’t directed at her, “didn’t give a f**k” about what happened.
There are a million and one US quips and jokes about Canada’s dependable boringness and otherness but on Sunday, the ideologically sundered citizens of the US got a glimpse of what national unity looks and sounds like.
The response to US president Donald Trump’s announcement of a 25 per cent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico, and 10 per cent on China, met a perplexed but determined response from their northern neighbours. Tariffs on the European Union are expected to follow.
“The path the US is on right now is a lose-lose path,” warned Chrystia Freeland, the former Canadian deputy prime minister and a front-runner to succeed prime minister Justin Trudeau, in a TV interview on Sunday.
“And at the end of the day you cannot defy the laws of economics. The people who are going to suffer from this the most are Americans, including the Americans who are voting for Trump. The president has decided now to make gas in the United States more expensive. He has decided to make groceries in the United States more expensive. And our retaliation is going to cost Americans jobs. That is completely ridiculous.
“We do not want to do this. And the right thing for the Americans to shake their heads and go guys, the Canadians are actually great partners, they are great neighbours. Let’s not do this. Because I want to tell you. Canada is formidable. We are resolute. We know what we are fighting for. We don’t want to have this fight but we are not going to lose it.”
The Canadian response – the imposition of 25 per cent tariffs on the $30 billion of imports originating in the US, is effective immediately and in place until such a time as the US lifts its tariff measures.
Some 75 per cent of Canada’s exports travel across the border to the US. Just 12 per cent of US exports are to Canada. It’s an uneven battle but the rationale behind it has drawn dismay and general warnings for inflation of up to 3-4 per cent within the US, in addition to international upheaval.
[ Trade tariffs, Boston and Berlin: How exposed is Ireland to the US economy? ]
The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, which posted positive editorials on Trump during his election campaign, gave its view under the headline “The Dumbest Trade War In History”.
“Tariffs will also cause mayhem in the cross-border trade in farm goods,” it warned.
“In fiscal 2024, Mexican food exports made up about 23 per cent of total US agricultural imports while Canada supplied some 20 per cent. Many top US growers have moved to Mexico because limits on legal immigration have made it hard to find workers in the US. Mexico now supplies 90 per cent of avocados sold in the US. Is Mr Trump now an avocado nationalist?”
There is a fair chance that the absence of avocado from the presidential breakfast menu would not cause Trump undue concern. But the tariff war is likely to have an immediate impact on the American consumer. Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum stated on Sunday that while her country “doesn’t want confrontation” with the US, details of retaliatory tariffs will be announced on Monday.
“Problems are not addressed by imposing tariffs, but with talks and dialogue,” Sheinbaum said.
[ What will be the impact of Trump’s North American trade war?Opens in new window ]
The wilful provocation of a trade war and the attendant rise in gas and grocery prices – key promises of Trump’s election campaign – generated individual responses from the Democrats, but the party lacks a cohesive message – or a recognisable leading voice.
Trump turned to social media to explain his rationale by stating that the US is paying “hundreds of billions of dollars to subsidise Canada. Why? There is no reason. We don’t need anything they have. We have unlimited energy, should make our own cars, and have more lumber than we can ever use. Without this massive subsidy, Canada ceases to exist as a viable country. Harsh but true!”.
The post contains echoes of Trump’s remarks after meeting Trudeau in Mar-a-Lago last November, when he said that his visitor conceded Canada couldn’t exist without US import business. Conceding that the tariff orders may involve “some pain” for US consumers in the short-term, Trump will argue that tariffs are tied to his broader vision of a self-sufficient domestic economy.
But the initial announcement of the tariffs was tied to border security and the new administration’s promise to halt the flow of fentanyl into US towns and cities, as well as its programme against undocumented immigration.
This was a point that new homeland security secretary Kristi Noem emphasised on Sunday, describing the tariffs as an opportunity for both Mexico and Canada “to partner with us to deal with illegal immigration; to take back their individuals who have been in our country illegally”.
“Canada has some work to do with regards to securing its northern border. The president has been very clear from the beginning that there is a new sheriff in town,” Noem said.
Sheinbaum, meanwhile, denounced the insinuation that Mexican authorities were colluding with drug cartels operating in their country.
“We categorically reject the White House’s slander against the Mexican government of having alliances with criminal organisations as well as any intention of intervention in our territory. Sovereignty is not negotiable.”
[ Trump warns tariffs may bring ‘pain’ to Americans, as Canada and Mexico retaliateOpens in new window ]
The global impact of the latest Trump administration initiative was instantaneous, with markets in Japan and South Korea falling 2 per cent and presaging the slide expected on Wall Street when markets opened there on Monday. The steepest share-price declines were in Japanese auto manufacturers, with Nissan falling by more than 7 per cent, as one of the key providers to the Mexican and Canadian car part supply chains.
Share valuations rise and fall, but the damage to relations on the northern US border is inestimable. An old Canadian joke says the US is “our best friend – whether we like it or not”: nobody is laughing now.
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