It would be naive to think we can just ‘go back to normal’.
No tariffs.
For now.
Canada has a 30-day reprieve from Trump’s tariff threat.
After Canada agreed to take some steps on the border and fentanyl that were largely announced in December of 2024, the U.S. announced that tariffs would be postponed by 30 days. During that time, further economic negotiations will take place.
Mexico was able to get the same 30-day reprieve, by announcing a deployment of 10,000 troops to the border – an announcement that mirrored a similar move from 2019.
The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg are framing the move as Trump caving:
Trump has followed his usual pattern:
Create a conflict/crisis.
Threaten to impose tariffs.
Get some sort of ‘concession’/repacked announcement that can be spun as a ‘win’.
Take tariff threat off the table.
Trump followed this pattern in the latest short-lived ‘trade war.’
As a result, some Canadians may be breathing a sigh of relief and hoping all goes back to normal.
But this time was different, and there is no going back to normal.
Trump’s tariff threats were paired with repeated references to making Canada a U.S. state. Trump openly talked about using ‘economic force’ to end Canada’s sovereignty and even spoke of a ‘threshold of pain’ in dealing with tariffs.
Trump also lied repeatedly in attempting to justify his tariffs. He falsely claimed the U.S. trade deficit with Canada was a ‘subsidy’ (that’s not how trade deficits work), and claimed Canada was taking advantage of the U.S. when in reality the U.S. benefits from getting our oil at a discounted rate (the U.S. would have a trade surplus with Canada if not for those discounted oil imports).
U.S. Vice President JD Vance also managed to anger many Canadians by calling Canada’s claims to be a good friend of the U.S. a ‘sob story.’ Many Canadians responded by pointing out how 158 Canadians died fighting with the U.S. in Afghanistan – a war Canada entered after NATO Article Five was invoked.
And Canadians were well aware that by threatening massive tariffs, the U.S. was threatening to abrogate the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement.
From this experience, many Canadians have drawn the following conclusions:
- The Trump Administration is seeking to deliberately weaken Canada to soften us up for an attack on our status as a sovereign nation.
- The Trump Administration is willing to lie about Canada to ‘justify’ damaging our economy.
- The Trump Administration has little respect for Canada’s long history of being a strong U.S. ally.
- The Trump Administration cannot be trusted to adhere to trade agreements.
Stand on Guard
As former Prime Minister Stephen Harper said, the way Donald Trump spoke about Canada is not how a friend or ally speaks.
This is the kind of reassessment many Canadians have made regarding our relationship with the United States.
In the past few weeks, we’ve learned some important things:
We learned that counting on the U.S. and being overly dependent on the U.S. is untenable.
We learned that our sovereignty is at risk.
And we learned that Canadian Patriotism is alive and well. In the face of a potential external threat, Canada’s national identity has strengthened and our love of our country has grown. Canadians across our nation and the political spectrum are increasingly setting aside our differences and realizing that being Canadian is what matters most. And we are realizing that we can no longer allow ourselves to be vulnerable, whether from an economic or military perspective.
We must retain this newfound patriotism and awareness.
We can’t let our guard down.
We are going to face more tariff threats in 30 days. We could face ongoing threats to our sovereignty. We cannot just hope things will be fine.
Instead of helplessly looking at a chaotic world and hoping we will somehow survive, we need to ensure that we deal with this world from a position of strength.
It’s time for our country to build.
We need pipelines, refineries, military factories, military bases, air bases, ports, new roads, new railways, and much more.
Not years from now.
Not decades from now.
Now.
There is no time to waste.
We can become a safe, prosperous, and powerful nation, but only if we are willing to stand together as Canadians and only if we are willing to work for it.
Spencer Fernando