USA

For Southwestern Ontario’s auto sector, the reckoning caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s threatened trade war is as intense as anywhere in Canada.

Hundreds of domestic automotive parts and equipment manufacturers, who supply multinational automakers on both sides of the border, were braced at the start of the week for nearly the entire industry to shut down if Mr. Trump made good on his vow to impose a 25-per-cent tariff on Canadian and Mexican imports.

Not sure Ontario will have much left when Trump is done.

BREAKING: Donald Trump just said THE ONLY OPTION IS THE 51ST STATE.

Canadians would pay 50% LESS IN TAXES and get FULL U.S. MILITARY PROTECTION.

And where’s JUSTIN TRUDEAU? In PARIS.

HE’S 100% SERIOUS ABOUT THIS.
pic.twitter.com/B0Kisl7KJJ

— Marc Nixon (@MarcNixon24) February 10, 2025

He’s ragging us, I think. But VDH said much the same thing about Trump’s Intentions in this interview of 2 weeks ago.

This is the full VDH vid

h/t XC

President Trump’s threats to put a 25 percent tariff on most Canadian and Mexican imports—now on hold for 30 days, pending negotiations with both countries—have overturned the reigning orthodoxy in trade and diplomacy. Unlike his tariffs on China, the tariffs on Canada in particular lack any direct national security rationale. He may be pursuing them because he thinks Canada’s rules on fentanyl precursors are too loose, because he wants to shock the global trade system, or even because it’s his opening salvo in a bid to induce Ottawa to join the Union. But whatever Trump’s true aims are, one thing is clear: the tariffs would affect the nearly half a trillion dollars of goods and services that Americans import from Canada each year and lower near-term living standards up and down the North American continent.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he will announce on Monday that the United States will impose 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, including from Canada and Mexico, as well as other import duties later in the week.

“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 per cent tariff,” he told reporters Sunday on Air Force One as he flew from Florida to New Orleans to attend the Super Bowl. When asked about aluminum, he responded, “aluminum, too” will be subject to the trade penalties.

Trump also reaffirmed that he would announce “reciprocal tariffs” —”probably Tuesday or Wednesday” — meaning that the U.S. would impose import duties on products in cases where another country has levied duties on U.S. goods.

Canadians collectively breathed a sigh of relief when President Trump offered a reprieve on the proposed 25 percent tariff on Canadian trade goods. The trade war is not over, however. It has been put on pause for 30 days. As the deadline approaches, or a later one as U.S. officials review existing trade relations, the Trump administration will make new demands, and Canada’s dairy supply management system will be targeted.

Canadian ministers recognize this threat, as International Trade Minister Mary Ng made it clear in a recent interview that there will be no concessions made on supply management.

As Canada and the U.S. careened toward a trade war this past weekend, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, found himself in the crosshairs.

First, Liberal leadership candidate Chrystia Freeland proposed slapping 100 per cent tariffs on cars made by Tesla Inc., Musk’s electric vehicle company. “We need to be very targeted, very surgical and precise. We need to look through and say who is supporting Trump and … make them pay,” she said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Those of us who confidently stated that in waving about 25 per cent tariffs against Canadian goods, U.S. President Donald Trump was just playing poker and raising the ante, appear to have been vindicated. Those who were preparing for guerrilla war, such as the Toronto Star editorial board and the worrisomely incoherent and oddly malicious Andrew Coyne, have been left to self-sedate in a quiet place and return to normal life when they are ready, without rushing it or being over-ambitious. It was outrageous, as I and others have written, for the U.S. government to treat Mexico and Canada alike. As our capable ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae, pointed out on Fox News, when tourism and investment are taken into account, our trade relationship provides huge benefits for both Canada and the United States. And whatever grievances the Americans may think they have over the entry of undesirable people and dangerous drugs into their country across the northern border, we have at least as great a grievance over the flow of illegal firearms and migrants, who have fled across our border in fear of the new president’s threats to deport them. The United States has acknowledged that the flow of fentanyl from Mexico to the U.S. is nearly 500 times greater than the quantity that has come from Canada.

Donald Trump wants to buy Greenland, own Gaza, take back ownership of the Panama Canal and turn Canada into the 51st state. The President is a liar and a con artist, but his desire to occupy vast parts of the planet does not seem a bluff or a negotiating tactic.

But why Canada? The United States dominates north-south trade and plays a leading role in many Canadian industries, including oil, mining, autos and retailing. It buys any product or commodity it wants from Canada with ease. Economically, if not politically, Canada is in effect the 51st state, has been forever. But there is one crucial commodity that the United States does not have access to: water.