“Canada – USA Tariff Wars”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the world can make progress on a range of issues without the US, and that consensus reached at a Group of 20 leaders’ meeting in Johannesburg this weekend carries weight despite a boycott by President Donald Trump’s administration.

South Africa, the G-20 host this year, defied the US by releasing a declaration from the meeting. Trump ordered the stayaway after repeating a debunked claim that White Afrikaner farmers in South Africa are being subjected to a genocide, and Washington said only a chairman’s summary could be released from the gathering in the absence of the US.

That sounds desperate, stupid and self-destructive.

There’s something that the U.S. ambassador to Canada thinks could help with thawing frozen trade negotiations over President Trump’s tariffs.

And that is for Canada to continue with a deal to purchase American-made F-35 fighter jets from the company Lockheed Martin. The government began an audit of that deal after Mr. Trump imposed tariffs on Canada.

The review will assess if the new fleet remains compatible with Canada’s military needs and the protection of its sovereignty “in light of evolving geopolitics,” according to the defense department.

Does an ambassador need to be diplomatic?

The U.S. envoy to Canada doesn’t seem to think so.

Pete Hoekstra, a former Republican Representative from Michigan appointed by President Trump to the important diplomatic post, is gaining notoriety in Canada for speaking bluntly about the poor state of relations between the two nations.

JOHANNESBURG – Prime Minister Mark Carney is in no hurry to resume trade talks with U.S. President Donald Trump but will speak again with the president “when it’s appropriate,” Carney said on Sunday.

Carney said he expects to speak with Trump sometime in the next two weeks but otherwise stands ready for when the Americans next knock on Canada’s door to return to the table.

“I look forward to speaking with the president soon, but I don’t have a burning issue to speak with the president about right now,” Carney said.

Ontario’s representative in Washington says he’s signed his Christmas card to U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra, and hopes the two are moving forward after an altercation last month.

“I’ve met Ambassador Hoekstra several times, I actually kind of like the guy,” David Paterson told CTV Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Sunday. “He’s different.”

“I’ve had people use salty language with me before, I don’t get too upset about it,” he added. “I don’t say anything back, as I say, my mom taught me better.”

U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra had three messages this week: Don’t run those ads again, you will need to accept some tariffs and the F-35 contract is key to a deal. On all three elements, Canada’s Laurentian Elite lost their collectivist little minds.

The Elbow People will cut off their nose to spite their face.

OTTAWA — The future of Canada-U.S. trade talks depends on how Canada’s review of its decision to buy U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets turns out, says President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Canada.

Pete Hoekstra told a conference hosted by the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters on Wednesday that it will not be easy to restart the now-stalled trade talks, and urged Canada to “harmonize” as much as possible with the U.S. on a range of economic and military co-operation issues.

The U.S. ambassador to Canada on Wednesday warned federal and provincial governments to “seriously consider” whether anti-tariff advertising in the United States will help achieve Canada’s goals, adding he thinks the ads amounted to trying to “participate in our electoral politics.”

Speaking at the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters’ national conference in Ottawa, Ambassador Pete Hoekstra took aim at an Ontario government-funded ad campaign that aired in the U.S. last month and quoted former U.S. President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs.

The ad prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to suspend trade negotiations with Canada.

The sunny weather. The beach views. The relaxed lifestyle. These are the things that drew Jo-Ann Rowe to South Florida.

When the Toronto woman retired 10 years ago, she started spending her winters in Fort Lauderdale, renting a condo for three months. Being in the United States was familiar for Rowe, whose grandmother was American, and because she’d travelled throughout the U.S. as a young athlete.

It takes nerves of steel to be a manufacturer these days. Costs and prices now hinge on the whims of a president who treats import duties as if they were a source of external revenue rather than a tax paid by Americans — and uses them as leverage to strong-arm companies into bringing production back to the United States.

And if you’re a North American player with operations on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, you’re also juggling split allegiances. Like someone who has dual citizenship, you’ve always known which flag to wave depending on where you’ve stood — no need to choose sides, only to protect your interests on both.

That’s no longer so easy.

Despite Trump’s cane sugar activism, Canadian Coke drinkers should get used to high-fructose corn syrup

WASHINGTON, D.C. — “Coke is it” was a popular TV ad for the famed soda back in 1982, featuring teens singing Coca-Cola’s praises around a piano. It was around that same time when the company started using high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) instead of cane sugar in their main product — and would soon launch the flop known as “New Coke” — so a better catchphrase might have been, “Which Coke is it?”

Coke always brings a smile. K loved “Mexican Coke” made with cane sugar.

After months of insisting tariffs had nothing to do with rising grocery prices, U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly reversed course this week, rolling back duties on more than 200 food-related products.

The list is broad: beef, coffee, cocoa, spices, bananas, orange juice, tomatoes, tea, and even certain fertilizers.

Recent data from both sides of the border show that Canadians are travelling to the U.S. in much smaller numbers, thanks to an ongoing trade war, U.S. President Donald Trump’s talk of annexation, more intrusive border crossing requirements and a weak Canadian dollar.

But U.S. tourist destinations are fighting back with a variety of schemes to lure Canadians back across the border, either by tugging at their heartstrings or their pursestrings. Here are a few of them.