Canada must reject any moves toward deeper economic integration with the United States, and we must reject those who counsel appeasement. Instead, we must become more resilient, and we must seek out more rational and reliable trading partners in Europe & Asia.
The tariffs are illegal.
This is a point that was made yesterday by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, as she expressed her support for Canadian retaliatory measures:
“Alberta fully supports the Federal response announced today by the Prime Minister. I will be meeting with my Cabinet today and tomorrow to discuss Alberta’s response to these illegal tariffs, which we will announce publicly tomorrow.”
Premier Smith is correct here.
By imposing 25% tariffs on Canada, the United States is violating the Canada-Mexico-United States Trade Agreement.
Canada adhered to the agreement.
Mexico adhered to the agreement.
The United States violated the agreement.
It’s important to say this, because it gets at the underlying problem of trying to negotiate with Trump’s America:
Trump’s America cannot be trusted.
Having illegally imposed tariffs, the Trump Administration now seeks to negotiate exemptions to tariffs on some industries (having already backed off on auto sector tariffs for a month at the behest of the ‘Big Three’ U.S. car companies).
Yet, any ‘new deal’ would be largely worthless.
Why would we trust a new trade deal when the previous ‘new trade deal’ that Trump signed himself and boasted about is the same deal he’s now violating?
This is a point made by Kevin Lynch – former Clerk of the Privy Council & vice-chair of BMO Financial Group – and Paul Deegan – CEO of Deegan Public Strategies – in an excellent Financial Post column:
“First, we need to realize that the trade deals we’ve had with the U.S. since the original FTA in 1988 are essentially dead. Trade agreements depend on rules and trust, which the president has broken. We should therefore not “over-pay” for the 2026 renegotiation. It won’t have the value of certainty. Short-term reality is that much trade will continue because it is in American corporate and consumer interests. But for the medium term we need to find alternative markets for Canadian goods, both at home by dismantling internal trade barriers and abroad with like-minded countries that see Trump tariff walls in their future, too.”
We must internalize this, because there will not be a return to the status quo. Given how Republicans have surrendered to Trump, he now has near free-reign to blow up any trading relationship at a moment’s notice. In the kind of environment, there can be no trust.
And it’s not just Canada learning this lesson.
In Europe, many countries are realizing – to their horror – that weapons they bought from the United States can be rendered nearly useless on a whim after the U.S. reportedly switched off targeting for HIMARS systems provided to Ukraine amid a broader freeze on all U.S. intelligence help for Ukraine:
“Did anyone think this through? Some two-thirds of European defense procurement is spent on American weapons. If the U.S. indeed switched off the targeting of HIMARS in Ukraine — a country fighting a war that not just Kyiv, but most of Europe, consider existential — buying any American technology will soon be considered a security risk.”
This unreliability goes hand in hand with the outright disdain the U.S. is showing towards its stalwart allies. U.S. Vice President JD Vance has caused outrage in the United Kingdom – and across Europe – with his dismissal of America’s European allies as countries that have “not fought a war in 40 years,” despite those nations standing with the United States – and paying a high price in lives – in Afghanistan and Iraq:
A clear pattern
At this point, the pattern is clear and undeniable:
Through a mixture of tariff threats, annexation threats, and threats to abrogate treaties, the United States is actively seeking to detach itself from its traditional allies and weaken Ukraine, while making unilateral concessions to Russia to forge some sort of U.S.-Russia Pact.
And this is something that puts Canada in real danger:
There are growing indications Russia and the U.S. are looking at joint resource development in the Arctic:
Understandably, many Canadians don’t want to believe this is happening.
As I’ve noted before, the prospect of the United States abandoning Canada and its traditional allies to side with Vladimir Putin’s Russia is so horrifying that many simply put it out of their minds.
But it’s something we must prepare for.
And preparing first requires an acknowledgement that the United States is no longer a trustworthy nation.
We cannot take the U.S. President, nor U.S. officials, at their word.
Even words of reassurance from Canada’s allies within the United States – like much of the Democratic Party – are largely meaningless at this moment, even though they are appreciated, because the Democrats are not in power. It’s all well and good for Democrats to say they stand with Canada, stand with NATO, stand with Ukraine, and stand against Russia, but the levers of power in the United States are controlled by the Republicans, who appear certain of none of those things.
No appeasement
In the face of such a rapid shift in the U.S. posture toward Canada and other allies, some will counsel appeasement.
We see this in those who say Canada “just has to fix the border,” as if Trump would relent on tariffs if we gave him what he wants.
The issue of course is that Trump is also threatening tariffs on Mexico, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, China, and many more nations.
Trump has also openly spoken of his desire to turn Canada into a U.S. State.
Thus, he’s not negotiating in good faith.
When dealing with someone like Donald Trump – an autocratic bullying personality – appeasement only invites further assaults on our nation.
Notice how Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s aggressive rhetoric in response to tariffs quickly got the attention of the U.S., and how Lutnick now appears to be looking for a way out of the tariff war (though Trump may not want it to end).
The federal government wisely picked up on that approach, making it clear that Canadian retaliatory tariffs will remain in place until all U.S. tariffs are eliminated – refusing to play Trump’s tariff ‘exemption’ game.
This is the attitude we need going forward. We can’t try to appease Trump’s America and hope things will get back to ‘normal.’
‘Normal’ isn’t coming back.
Instead, Canada must seek self-reliance and reach out to other nations – like our European allies, fellow Commonwealth nations, Japan, and South Korea – who remain relatively rational and reliable.
And under no circumstances should we accept deeper economic or defence integration with the United States. That would only make it easier for the U.S. to take advantage of us and – as Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre put it, lead to Canada getting “stabbed in the back” again.
Canada’s relationship with the United States has been irreparably changed, and the sooner we accept this, the sooner we can take action to deal with it.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
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