Summary
Ontario will impose a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to New York, Michigan, and Minnesota starting Monday in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods.
Premier Doug Ford warned U.S. governors and vowed to maintain the surcharge until all tariffs are lifted.
Canada has already imposed $30 billion in retaliatory tariffs, with more planned.
Ford also threatened to cut power to the states by April and banned U.S. firms from bidding on Ontario contracts. A $100M SpaceX deal for rural internet was also scrapped in response.
The era of US-Canada being brothers in arms is over. I doubt US will be receiving any favors in the future without something in return. And if Canada chooses to expand their supply chains outside of the US, which they 100% should, there’ll be no coming back to a scale of trade as it exists today.
There is no greater enemy than a friend betrayed
Trump doesn’t want Canada as a friend. They will just try and stop him from deals with Russia.
I cut off a Canadian guy I was friends with recently, this guy agreed with everything Trump was doing.
Told him I don’t associate with Trump supporters, even weirder you’re Canadian (and lives in Canada)
He said he didn’t support trump, but reads all the policies front to back and agrees with them.
I said ok, bye and blocked his ass, we can talk again when you get invaded and become 51st state you love him so much.
Wtf is going on?? He had some bullshit reply to everything like he was Canadian maga.
It basically boils down to this: Trump is a lying, racist, rapist.
How do you put trust in anything he says? I can show you 200 lies, with evidence, just in the last week. He loves Putin and himself, gives no shits about us. He’s already broken long existing agreements with other countries, he CANNOT be trusted, no matter how good what he says sounds. His goal is to exact revenge on those that don’t like him or have said something bad about him, his skin is so thin. You don’t “accidentally” rape a person, he is an absolute terrible human being who deserves zero respect from anyone. Fuck Trump in the neck with a metal pipe.
Living in rural Alberta, I am actually fairly amazed how little I encounter Trump supporters since he’s been elected. If they are around, they keep their stupid fucking mouths shut.
I know at least 3 that vocally supported him during the election and have nothing good to say about him now, and the fact that Smith seems like she’s in bed with him has caused them to re-evaluate their UPC support. Polievre is probably still safe because nobody is voting Liberal, but people talk about how he didn’t push back against the tariffs, and it didn’t reflect well on him.
I know they’re still out there, but there’s an Oh Canada streak that’s pretty deep in rural areas countering Trump’s bullshit.
Cause- weirdly- Albertans also like being Canadian.
The same forces that created Trump are at work in Canada. And they are supported by US organizations. Have you noticed that suddenly even second tier US politicians have opinions about Trudeau, Carney, and Pollievre? It is the same as Musk in Germany. We are under attack.
Cant fix stupid!
I’ve met people like that here in the UK too. Trump has this incomprehensible charisma for arseholes the world over.
That’s a problem we have globally. Although it might seem like Trump style populism vs Canadian neo-liberalism(with all it’s pros and cons), we’re both purple. You guys just have a bit more right wing red in the dye mix. It’s plausible that Canada elects our own Trump then we can both be stupid.
The only ideology that has a chance at stopping the populist wave is Sanders style social democracy because it addresses the same core issue of wealth disparity. But it doesn’t look like anyone is electing that anytime soon.
Reich wing populism is on the rise, globally.
So, he might hate Trump, but he love the Canadian version.
John Stewart agrees with some of the DOGE objectives.
John Oliver agrees with some of RFKs beliefs.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. But believing these thieves at face value is dumb. RFK plays into whatever grift gets him more attention and money.
Everyone feels that the government can be more efficient, but literally firing 100k employees without even knowing what they do and then having to try and get them back due to the massive fuckup? And the childish emails they’re sending employees? All within 30 days?? This is amateur hour man, you have to start to think what is their game, how are they benefiting. Crashing the economy so they can buy up more property cheap like in 2008 and COVID years? There is a game plan and we’re not even being thought about, were just fucked
And I agree the US penny should have ended in the 90s, but fuck everything else the orange turd says.
They’re the Austrian who likes Hitler.
Up until a couple of weeks ago, Canada was well on its path to elect a right leaning government. Trudeau has already resigned and his party was in the gutters. So that tells you how majority of Canadians have been feeling. There is extreme false-facts-driven anti-immigrant sentiment going around, imo, propagated by the same media that is doing so in the US.
Luckily, Nazi musk and his orange monkey’s moves have taken off the veil for some Canadians so there is still some hope for sanity prevailing in their upcoming elections.
Eh Canada was on track to elect the conservatives because the liberals have been in 10 years and fptp trends to a two party system.
Not anymore. If Carney gets in (we’ll know today) he’s the one most Canadians think can handle our current crisis
Someone I know just keeps telling me he disagrees with every policy that’s bad, while also saying he agrees with Trump for 50 things per the 5 he disagrees with.
Anyway that relationship is very sour as you can imagine
You can replace Canada with any other country! Europe and the US aren’t really friends anymore these days.
This read as downplaying Canada’s significance for a moment, and then immediately circled back to the US being the isolationist Pariah state it is becoming
I just hope everyone is learning how easily your country can be owned and controlled by outside interest - if your country is filled with uneducated, incurious, and indoctrinated citizens. We have no one to blame but ourselves as we ask The Kremlin to take the wheel.
Canada - America trade amounts to a little over $920B https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12595
Canadian GDP is a little over $2.1T https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locations=CA
We’re talking nearly half of their GDP. In addition, half of Canadian foreign investment comes directly from the US. They will continue to be integrated into the US economy, even if Trump doubled the tariffs tomorrow.
And that’s because Canada, and Mexico to an even higher extent, are completely reliant on US trade. They both have no real choice but to grin and bear it. They will of course speak out publicly for the domestic audience but things will continue more or less status quo for the foreseeable future.
canada and Mexico are not “grinning and bearing it” though
Yes, they are. There will be no meaningful response because they have no leverage. Any meaningful change from status quo would mean an immediate economic crisis.
Ignore what they say on camera because they are speaking to their domestic audience.
Right now, Canada has placed a 25% tariff on $30B worth of imports. That’s 7% of US imports. Whereas Trump has placed 25% on everything that Canada exports to the US.
And 80% of Canadian exports go directly to the US.
So just for reference.
Canada retaliatory tariff -> $30B which represents less than 1% of total US exports
Trump’s tariffs -> ~$550B which represents nearly 80% of total Canadian exports
Ignore the rhetoric, look at the numbers. Canada and Mexico have no choice. They signed their economic autonomy away a long time ago. It’s sort of like when Greece went through their debt crisis and couldn’t do jack shit because they signed away their autonomy to Brussels (and really Germany).
There are trade-offs to every decision. Canada got easy access to the American market and a nice way to exploit their natural resources. But it also gives Washington an absurd amount of leverage over them.
Mexico is even more screwed.
I’m not disagreeing with you that free trade with the US was a very stupid thing for Canada to agree to, but back in the day it was shoved down our throats by the conservative government of the day. Canada is experiencing the consequences of that poor decision right now. That being said, as an export heavy, raw materials-heavy country we have a lot of options. In the first Trunp presidency we signed CETA with the EU, we already get a lot of food imports from Mexico (that won’t change) and since Donald was elected the 2nd time we’ve signed trade deals with Ecuador, and new military agreements with Brazil and the Philippines on top of all our existing allies. There will be more deals that Canada makes, unlike the US, our signature on international agreements actually means something. Canadians aren’t at all like Americans, we are united and we will do anything and everything it takes to protect our sovereignty and our country. Again unlike Americans, we are prepared to go without. We’re a smaller economy and therefore more nimble. We’re doing all kinds of things internally as well. Barring military action by the US on us, I am not that worried and have full confidence in all Canadians to stand up for ourselves and do what we need to do to rid ourselves of the US fascist protectionist isolationist scourge.
All countries are sovereign but some countries are more sovereign than others. If Canada’s priority was protecting sovereignty then they would not be in this position to begin with.
It’s something that has been decades in the making. It will take decades to reverse course. It isn’t going to meaningfully change in the upcoming 5-10 years.
You say Canadians are ready to “go without” but we’re talking about millions of people losing their jobs. A historic spike in poverty. Collapse of many industries. No sane leadership would ever cut off trade with America. National pride doesn’t feed a family.
Long term, sure, maybe there will be a realignment. I doubt it, but it’s possible. The near future is a chaotic one where Canada and Mexico are going to need the economic value from America. We’re headed for troubled times globally.
Unlike the US we don’t hate, despise, and distrust the federal govt. No matter which party is in power. Even our Conservative Party supports gay marriage, trans & LGBTQ rights, equity, gun control and legal weed. Our govt has already put in place supports for those who will lose their jobs due to the US being a bag of dicks. We believe there is a role for federal govt and that it has responsibilities to uphold. We’re much closer ideologically to most European countries so we’re going to continue fostering our excellent relationships with France, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, etc. The US is free to cut down its own national parks for lumber. Enjoy!
Just in case it isn’t clear I don’t support Trump nor the tariffs.
I voted against Trump and I hate him with a vengeance. I’m discussing the geopolitical and economic context of the tariffs and the dynamic between US and Canada. I was surprised when I started doing research about this recently just how reliant in the US Canada truly is. The numbers were shocking to me. Likewise with Mexico. For some reasons the news doesn’t really cover these details.
There really is no world where the US is not Canada’s largest trade partner. It doesn’t matter what government is in power. No amount if federal unemployment would cover a quarter of your economy vanishing overnight.
And on the topic of a united Canada- https://www160.statcan.gc.ca/good-governance-saine-gouvernance/institutions-eng.htm
Public faith in federal institutions is at an all time low… just like the US. Right wing populism is on the rise… just like the US. Canada is a lot closer to the US both culturally and politically than any European country. This should be intuitive- both are cut from the same cloth. British settler colonial societies.
And Canada is starting to fall victim to the same style of right-wing populism we are seeing in the US (Trump), Latin America (Brazil/Bolsonaro, Argentina/Milei), and Europe (UK/Brexit, Germany/AfD, Italy/FdI, France/Le Penn, Sweden/Dems) etc.
Don’t let some vague sense of national pride blind you from seeing the truth for what it is. Confront the truth head on even if it is uncomfortable.