Trump saves the Canadian Liberals while throwing stones
By Dr. Harold A. Black
blackh@knoxfocus.com
haroldblackphd.com
Canada just asserted its sovereignty. Before Trump’s tariffs, the Canadian Liberals were on the run. A sluggish economy and the boorish tactics of Justin Trudeau had propelled the Conservatives into a 25-point lead in the polls. Then came the president with his tariffs threatening to force Canada into becoming the 51st state and Elon Musk tweeting that Canada was not a real country. Trump, in his usual hyperbole, said, “Without us, Canada cannot make it. Canada relies on us 95%. We rely on it 4%.” Of course, the truth is a bit different. U.S. trade accounts for only 19% of Canadian GDP.
Trudeau resigns, the Conservatives are ascendant and then voila! Trump declares war against Canada. All of a sudden, the Liberals were up by two points as their new leader, Mark Carney, made Trump the focus of his campaign. Never mind the slow-growing economy. Never mind the dire economics and budget excesses of Liberal governments past and present – Trump, not the economy, became the issue. Although the Conservatives tried their best to pivot from attacking the failures of the Liberals to attacking the president, they lost. Now, instead of reform, Carney will double down on the failed Liberal agenda. He is Al Gore with a Canadian accent. But Carney is a smart man, having been head of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England. He is talking about decoupling Canada from the U.S. and cultivating trade deals with China, India and Japan. Trump is forcing this upon Canada, and the Canadians, at least for the moment, seem willing to suffer more economically in order to assert their national pride. Carney probably sent Trump a thank-you note.
I wonder if the president was surprised to find that Canadians are a people with a backbone and national pride? I believe that only they and the Chinese have countered his tariffs with tariffs of their own on American goods. Sixty percent of Canadians have canceled American vacations. Many are selling their American vacation homes. Eighty percent are boycotting American products and turning hostile toward their neighbors to the south. Ninety percent reject the ridiculous idea of an American statehood. Seventy percent consider America as the enemy. Only Trump could transform our closest friend into our closest enemy. I guess my Canadian bear hunting days are over.
Closer to home, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted the Biden Administration for its lack of transparency, “I can tell you there was certainly a lack of transparency from the former president, from the entire former administration.” Well, those in glass houses should not throw stones, especially if the glass house is the White House. Then Leavitt excoriated Amazon over its decision to show the costs that Trump’s tariffs add to consumer purchases on its website, calling it a hostile and political act. Huh? Had she no shame for telling the world that Trump’s White House is also less than transparent?
Why is this different from separating the sales tax from the merchandise price on a receipt? For years, gas pumps broke down the cost of the gas and showed how much went to federal and state taxes. Wasn’t Amazon just trying to show the consumer that the seller is not responsible for the increase in prices? If Trump’s tariffs stay in place, the American consumer will see a rise in prices. Is Trump going to blame “greedy” corporations? Is he going to blame the Fed? Is he going to blame Joe Biden? You can bet he will try to shift the blame. Shutting down the disclosure from Amazon shows that he is trying to hide that he is responsible for the price increases. He obviously threatened Amazon like he threatened the automobile makers, not to raise prices but to eat the increased costs. They may be able to do that for a little while, but not so for all the small businesses whose viability will be threatened by the increase in their costs. Again, like during covid, Trump is anti-small business. I hope they all will put a Trump tariff increase on their merchandise and in their advertising. I hope they put it on their sales tickets, too. Trump bullied Amazon into backing down. But he won’t be able to bully all businesses to hide the impact of his tariffs on consumer prices.
