Ontario Premier Doug Ford says his government is suspending its 25 per cent surcharge on electricity exports to three U.S. states after securing a meeting in Washington with the commerce secretary.
In a day filled with escalation between Ford and U.S. President Donald Trump, the premier announced the meeting with Howard Lutnick in the afternoon — hours after Trump said he would impose a 50 per cent tariff on Canadian aluminum and steel imports.
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Canada is about to get a new prime minister sometime this week, but what we really need is an election. That could come within days, but perhaps not as soon as this Sunday as had previously been discussed.
U.S. President Donald Trump has been jolted by Ontario’s 25 per cent surcharge on electricity sold stateside in retaliation his tariffs.
Twelve hours after Premier Doug Ford imposed what he dubbed “tariff response charge” to be paid by utilities in New York, Michigan and Minnesota that import Ontario power, Trump took to social media to complain.
Trump raises Canadian steel, aluminum tariffs to 50% in retaliation for Ontario energy duties
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has ordered his administration to raise tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports by an additional 25%, bringing the total duties to 50%.
The new policy will go into effect Wednesday morning, Trump said in a Truth Social post that also repeated his calls for Canada to be absorbed into the U.S. as the “Fifty First State.”
h/t DS
U.S. President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser is accusing Canada’s law enforcement agencies of not taking enough action on fentanyl labs, while reiterating previous comments from the U.S. administration that the tariffs put on Canada are part of a “drug war, not a trade war.”
“I can tell you that in the Situation Room, I’ve seen photographs of fentanyl labs in Canada that the law enforcement folks were leaving alone. Canada’s got a big drug problem, even in their own cities,” U.S. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said during an interview on ABC News on March 9.
Drug cartels are using Canada’s trade system to launder the proceeds of drug trafficking, according to an internal police intelligence report obtained by the Investigative Journalism Foundation.
The 2022 assessment from the RCMP’s organized crime division says that “cartel drug trafficking” accounts for most of the money being laundered in Canada through trade, according to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
One June day in 1996, three years after he became prime minister, Jean Chrétien made his way to a recreation centre in Fort McMurray, now the gritty northern Alberta heart of the oil sector, sitting atop the world’s third-largest oil reserves.
We should be richer than Sheiks.
Mark Carney has won the Liberal party leadership contest by an enormous margin. He will soon be the prime minister of Canada. It’s a moment of triumph for the former governor of the Bank of England, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, a senior banker at Goldman Sachs based in the United States, Japan and Britain, for a former shapeshifting personage of the United Nations, for a Davos regular: for one of the most ambitious, globally ambitious, guys around. It’s a repudiation of the idea that a citizen of nowhere financier type educated at Harvard and Oxford could never rise to the top in our populist age.
Oh, Canada – you guys are a trip.
Every last Canadian politician has been in the middle of sputtering in indignation and couldn’t wait to get to the next microphone surrounded by a press scrum to rail against Donald Trump.
Life in the shadows– Toronto’s undocumented migrants – most of whom initially entered the country legally – grapple with substandard employment, health and housing options
Every morning across the Greater Toronto Area, thousands of undocumented workers head out to their jobs in construction, cleaning and home care, despite the fact that they are not legally allowed to live or work in Canada.
Unlike in the U.S., where many undocumented people entered without authorization at the southern border, most of these individuals in Canada entered the country legally. They came as temporary workers, international students, tourists or refugee claimants, and saw their visas expire or refugee claims rejected before they were able to transition to another type of legal status.
The Globe’s BIG Concern: The public may turn against “migration”.
How corrupt are they? They write positively about the Liberal government’s recent decision to reward unscrupulous employers who hire illegals.
They don’t give a crap that you are unemployed, that your health is sacrificed due to system strain, that your rent went through the roof or that your children may never be able to afford a home.
They get to virtue signal and peacock their progressiveness because you pay their salaries.
Ottawa’s deficit is projected to be just under $50 billion this year. According to the latest projections, it’s set to remain above $20 billion until at least 2030.
The risk is undoubtedly to the downside. The uncertainty caused by the threat of U.S. tariffs and now the fallout from their imposition will lower the GDP projections underpinning the government’s fiscal plan. It’s quite likely therefore that the deficit will be higher—particularly this year and next year.
After reminding Canadians of the recent tariff threats and the musing of Canada becoming the 51st U.S. state, we asked if the Canadian government should look into joining the European Union. 44% of Canadians think that the Canadian government definitely or probably should look into joining the European Union, while 34% are opposed to it. About 1 in 4 Canadians are unsure about the suggestion.
As if the Liberals and NDP aren’t already economy wreckers now they want the EU to help!
Premier Doug Ford has made good on his threat to slap a 25 per cent surcharge on electricity sold to the U.S. in retaliation for President Donald Trump‘s tariffs.
Raising an estimated $300,000 to $400,000 per day, the “tariff response charge” will be paid by utilities in New York, Michigan and Minnesota importing power from generators of electricity in Ontario.
Line 5? Bueller? Anyone?
Anybody clinging to the hope that the United States will continue its post-Second World War role as the world’s policeman without major changes was likely disabused of that notion during the tumultuous Feb. 28 White House meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Perhaps the most astonishing part of that clash was that Trump was — for him — relatively restrained. Vice-President J.D. Vance seemed determined to derail the meeting and Zelenskyy apparently came looking for a fight. In the end, it was clear that, going forward, the United States government will assist other countries on its own terms, and only if there’s something to be gained.
Tariffs aren’t about hiding behind walls; they’re about wielding a sword, carving out space for self-reliance in a ruthless arena.
In the grand theater of 2025, where America’s economic stage is lit by the flickering glow of a manufacturing revival, tariffs have emerged as the unsung hero — or the villain du jour, depending on who’s clutching the pearls. President Trump’s latest salvo — 25 percent on Canada and Mexico, 10-20 percent on China — has reignited a debate that’s less about spreadsheets than sovereignty. For too long, we’ve played the globalist game, trading our industrial soul for cheap trinkets and hollow promises.
Canada likes to portray itself as a nation of free trade. But there’s at least one major relic of the past holding Canada back: our system of supply management.
It’s also a major irritant in Canada’s now-rocky trading relationship with the United States.
