Canada

WASHINGTON — Canadians are feeling a foreboding sense of déjà vu as the country waits to see whether U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of economy-wide tariffs ultimately materialize on Tuesday, tipping North America into a trade war.

“Canada has to prepare for a world where it can’t rely on the United States for stability in its trading relationships or in its security relationships,” said Matthew Lebo, a specialist in U.S. politics at Western University in London, Ont.

Despite a month-long diplomatic push in Washington and boosted border enforcement, Canadians remain uncertain whether Trump will slap America’s closest neighbours with devastating duties.

The importance of having Canada in an intelligence-sharing alliance with the United States and other countries was raised when ministers met last week with Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan.

The meeting among Homan, Canada’s Public Safety Minister David McGuinty, Immigration Minister Marc Miller and other officials was staged to show the Trump administration Canada’s efforts to boost border security.

The scene in the Oval Office on Friday between Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Donald Trump was deeply unsettling.

The geopolitical ramifications remain uncertain, but one thing is clear: peace in Eastern Europe may have drifted even further out of reach. For global food security, stability in that region is critical, and the current trajectory suggests an increasingly bleak outlook for Ukraine and its ability to regain economic and agricultural footing.

President Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s televised berating of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine suggests that things could be worse between Canada and the U.S.

But when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau steps down in a few days, his successor will face the worst relations between the U.S. and Canada since the trade war of the Great Depression. Arguably they are nearing a nadir not seen since the 19th century.

After a week of confusing signals from the White House, Mr. Trump said he was committed to imposing potentially devastating 25 percent tariffs on most exports from Canada except oil and gas, which face a 10 percent tax.

A diplomatic row has exploded after Sir Keir Starmer declined to back Canada against Donald Trump’s ambitions to turn it into the 51st state of the USA.

A Conservative MP in Canada and a former ambassador are among those to criticise the UK prime minister for failing to stand up for their country.

Mr Trump has made repeatedly made calls for Canada to become America’s 51st state in recent months, including a claim that without a massive subsidy from the US “Canada ceases to exist as a viable country”.

The backlash followed The Independent’s White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg challenging Sir Keir on his position on Canada during a press conference after the meeting between the US president and prime minister.

Reporter's White House question to Starmer "And for the prime minister, did you discuss with President Trump his repeated statements of desire to annex Canada?"

"And has the king expressed any concern over the president's apparent desire to remove one of his realms from his… pic.twitter.com/6BpzQrxd6k

— cbcwatcher (@cbcwatcher) February 27, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump often talks about Canada. Frequently disparagingly, and lately menacingly. But it’s not often he opines on the country’s internal politics.

He broke from that pattern in a just-published interview with a U.S. conservative writer who asked him about the country’s upcoming election.

In that interview with The Spectator, Trump is asked whether Canada’s Conservatives can still pull off a win in the next election, despite the tightening polls.

I’m no fan of Michael Moore’s politics or his propaganda films sold as “documentaries,” but there is one entry on his résumé that I thoroughly enjoy: Canadian Bacon, featuring the great John Candy in his final film. Moore wrote and directed this comedic gem about an American president starting a war with Canada in order to gain traction in the polls. Candy, one of Canada’s most beloved entertainers, plays a hilariously anti-Canadian American sheriff who is thrilled about taking up arms against our northern neighbors. The whole thing is top-notch farce earning a funny disclaimer in the final credits: “No Canadians were harmed during this production.” Strangely, it’s Moore’s only non-documentary effort in three decades.

Brace yourselves: whatever crazy, awful things Trump may have done to date, it’s only going to get worse

Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it’s been. That bit of trite wisdom, attributed to Wayne Gretzky, might usefully be applied in assessing the risks posed by Mr. Gretzky’s political idol, Donald Trump.

Every time we think we have taken the measure of Mr. Trump, every time we think we have understood the depths of his depravity, the absoluteness of his nullity, the scale of the threat he represents – to American democracy, to Canada, to the peace of the world – he defeats us. He does or says something far worse than we had ever thought possible, even of him.