On Truth Social, U.S. President Donald Trump has announced American tariffs on steel and aluminum will increase from 25% to 50%:
“It is my great honor to raise the Tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25% to 50%, effective Wednesday, June 4th. Our steel and aluminum industries are coming back like never before. This will be yet another BIG jolt of great news for our wonderful steel and aluminum workers. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
In response, Canadian Minister Melanie Joly announced Canada would retaliate, and work on measures to support the sector:
This is the unfortunate new reality we live in as a result of Donald Trump’s chaotic style: At any moment, Donald Trump can make an announcement that carries potentially devastating consequences for key Canadian industries.
In this increasingly dangerous and destabilized environment, where unjustified U.S. tariffs are the ‘new normal,’ we must focus on what we can control. And right now, that means the government must act fast and place large military orders to boost the steel & aluminum sector.
To start, the government should provide immediate financial support to the sector to preserve jobs and industrial capacity. That short-term stability should then be leveraged into medium and long-term resilience through a large Canadian military buildup.
For example, Algoma Steel, based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, produces armour plate for tanks, trucks, and personnel carriers. The government should place an immediate order for significant quantities of armour plate.
In late April of this year, Ontario Shipyards announced that Algoma Steel had entered into a letter of intent to be the exclusive steel supplier for Team Vigilance, aiming to produce a made-in-Canada ship “equipped entirely in Canada,” for the Canadian Continental Defence Corvette.
Algoma Steel also provides steel for Canada’s new Joint Support Ships.
Thus, a significant expansion of Canadian shipbuilding – something our nation needs in light of China’s massive naval expansion – would be wise.
The government should further expand investment in 155mm artillery shell production and demand that Canadian steel be used.
To support the aluminum sector, the government should place a significant small arms order and stipulate that Canadian-made aluminum be used in production. The government should also place a large overall order with Canadian aluminum producers to create a strategic stockpile, which could then be disbursed for military purposes.
This would align with what Prime Minister Carney proposed during the election campaign, as his party’s platform promised the creation of a defence procurement agency and pledged to use Canadian steel and aluminum in procurement when applicable. Those words must be turned into action.
Why the steel and aluminum sector must be preserved
As the world becomes more dangerous, Canada must not only rebuild and expand our military but also maintain domestic production capacity. If our steel and aluminum sectors were to weaken, our ability to rapidly produce ships, artillery shells, small arms, and more would be compromised.
That is an unacceptable risk.
Thus, we must act now to protect the steel and aluminum sector. And since we need a large military buildup anyway, the government can enhance our national security and protect Canadian jobs and industrial capacity at the same time through increased defence investment.
There is no time to lose. We cannot remain naive in such an unstable world. We must possess the strength to defend ourselves, and we must protect the industries that are essential to producing that strength.
Spencer Fernando
Image – YouTube
For full access to principled insight on Canadian sovereignty, national security, and more, subscribe to SpencerFernando.com for C$6 per month or C$72 per year. Subscribe here.
If this piece left you clearer than it found you, that's the point. I write for readers who want to think past the week, to see the longer pattern beneath the daily story, and to come away steadier rather than more agitated.
That longer view gets built somewhere. On Patreon, essay by essay, I'm constructing The Long Work, a body of analysis meant to outlast the news cycle that prompted it. The readers there make it possible. No subsidies, no strings. The work answers to them.
$8/month to read it as it's built, and to have a hand in building it.
