Joly tells Marco Rubio 'Canada's sovereignty is not up to debate, period'
Rubio says Trump's 51st state comments reflect a 'disagreement between the president's position' and Canada's
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly wrapped up the G7 meeting in La Malbaie, Que., on Friday with a stern message for U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio: Hands off our country.
"What I said to the secretary is Canada's sovereignty is not up to debate, period," she said at the closing news conference of the G7 foreign ministers meeting.
"There's no argument, there's no conversation about it, there's no need to talk about it," she said. "You're here, you respect us, you respect our sovereignty, you're in our country, you respect our people. Period."
After the summit, Rubio told reporters that U.S. President Donald Trump's position is that Canada would be better off joining the United States "for economic purposes."
"There's a disagreement between the president's position and the position of the Canadian government," Rubio said. "I don't think that's a mystery coming in, and it wasn't a topic of conversation because that's not what this summit was about."
‘Canada’s sovereignty is not up to debate. Period,’ Joly to U.S. secretary of state"It's crazy, his point is crazy. That's it," Prime Minister Mark Carney said in his first news conference Friday when asked about Rubio's remarks.
"We will never, ever — in any way, shape or form — be part of the United States. America is not Canada," Carney said. "We are a very fundamentally different country."
Carney said while he is off to France and the U.K. next week to meet the leaders of those countries, he currently does not have plans to travel to the United States. But he said he does look forward to speaking with Trump.
Canada's sovereignty 'not a joke,' Joly tells G7
Joly made her remarks a day after Trump had repeated his call for Canada to join the United States, saying his country does not need anything Canada has to sell.
"Canada only works as a state," Trump said at the White House on Thursday. "We don't need anything they have. As a state, it would be one of the great states.… If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it, between Canada and the U.S., just a straight artificial line.… Makes no sense."
Despite the conflict between the two countries over sovereignty, Joly said the G7 ministers decided at the outset of the summit they were not going to let the issues they did not agree on prevent them from working together in areas where they do.
Rubio agreed with that sentiment in his news conference, saying that often in foreign policy, "you have disagreements with people you like," or find yourself "unaligned on an issue with a nation that you work with very closely on a bunch of other things."
Joly said her G7 counterparts arrived in Canada for the summit with the impression that Trump's talk of Canada becoming the 51st state was something to be "taken in a humorous way," but she quickly set them straight.
"I said to them, 'This is not a joke.' Canadians are anxious. Canadians are proud people and you are here in a sovereign country, and so therefore we don't expect this to be even discussed, or clearly not laughed at," she said.
Joly said Canada was created "because we didn't want to be part of the United States," but also because we wanted to be closer to each other than we are to the Americans.
The future of Canadian trade
Looking forward, Joly said that in order to soften the blow of tariffs being imposed on Canada, the provinces need to "get rid of internal commercial barriers" to boost the flow of interprovincial trade.
"There are lots of opportunities in Canada to be able to work amongst each other, to be able to be closer from one province to another," she said.
Joly also said that Canada will seek to build stronger trading relationships with countries other than the U.S.
"Canada wants to foster new partnerships in the world, we want to be closer to Europe, we want to be closer to Britain," she said. "We need to diversify our economy."
On the issue of Ukraine, Joly said the G7 is united in supporting a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal for the country, which has been endorsed by Kyiv and is now awaiting a response from Russia.
In comments Friday morning, Joly said the international community is closely watching Moscow's reaction.
"Ultimately, the ball is now in Russia's court when it comes to Ukraine," she said.
Later on Friday, Trump said there is a "very good chance" the war between Russia and Ukraine can end after productive discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Thursday.
"We had very good and productive discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia yesterday, and there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end," Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Trump said he had requested that Putin spare the lives of "completely surrounded" Ukrainian troops in Kursk, Russia.
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With files from Reuters
BREAKING NEWS: Marco Rubio Speaks To Reporters At G7 Summit As U.S.-Canada Trade War Escalates
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Trump's threats leave Canadian Afghan war veterans feeling angry and betrayed
'I just think about the idiocy of it,' says retired corporal about recent events
Canadian and American troops fought together and bled together in the scorched hinterlands of Afghanistan.
And for that reason there is a palpable sense of dismay — even betrayal — among Canadian veterans toward the Trump administration over its threats and treatment of not just Canada, but other allies such as Ukraine.
A meme circulating online — a photo of troops in front of the maple leaf rock monument at Ma'sum Ghar, the Canadian forward operating base in western Kandahar — was recently captioned: "We went because you were attacked. We didn't ask for your thanks. Neither did 158 of us who died for you."
The notion that Canadians fought and died in Afghanistan to help defend the United States — because of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 — runs deep among Canadian veterans of that war and their families.
They're irked by the threats of President Donald Trump to annex Canada through economic force and the trade war. But it was the bullying of the Ukrainian president in the Oval Office and Vice-President JD Vance's insistence that Volodymyr Zelenskyy show gratitude that set off many veterans.
The anger was perhaps felt more keenly on Wednesday, the 11th anniversary of Canada's military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Canadian
soldiers gather at the base of a rock memorial to fallen Canadian
soldiers at a forward operating base in Panjwaii district in
Afghanistan. Memorial stones signifying the deaths of 72 soldiers were
buried in a sunset ceremony in Ma'sum Ghar, Afghanistan, on Wednesday,
June 8, 2011. (Murray Brewster/The Canadian Press)
"I think if 9/11 were to happen again, I honestly don't think I would be as willing — or ready — to help the Americans as I did in 2001," said retired corporal Bruce Moncur, who was gravely wounded when an American ground attack jet accidentally strafed Canadian troops at the start of the milestone 2006 battle known as Operation Medusa.
Down the years Moncur has tried to come to peace with the horrific friendly fire incident that took the life of one Canadian soldier — Trooper Mark Anthony Graham — and wounded 36 others.
But the now outspoken veterans advocate said he can't help but wonder about the country and the people he willingly defended.
Retired
corporal Bruce Moncur is seen in Afghanistan in 2006. He says he's not
sure he'd be so willing to come to the Americans' aid if they were
attacked today like they were on 9/11. (Submitted by Bruce Moncur)
"I just think about the idiocy of it," Moncur said about recent events.
In the latter stages of Canada's war in Kandahar, American troops fought and died under Canadian command. At the National Defence Carling campus headquarters, embedded in the memorial to fallen Canadians are plaques honouring U.S. soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice.
Retired major-general Denis Thompson had an American battalion under his command in 2008. Twelve U.S. soldiers were killed on that rotation.
Thompson said it's important for angry Canadian veterans to make the distinction between the current administration in Washington and American troops with whom they shared trenches.
"I totally understand that Canadian soldiers feel betrayed, but I can also say that I think there are similar sentiments being expressed across the border. Because we've always been stalwart allies," said Thompson, who said he still keeps in touch with former American soldiers and commanders with whom he served.
"In some cases, they're ashamed. They cannot believe what their president is saying, but you know, they are bound by the oath that they took to obey their commander in chief. I would suggest none of them can accept that Russia is the United States' friend. It just gobsmacks them that he speaks this way."
American
and Canadian soldiers pick their way through a grapefield at sunrise on
Thursday June 2, 2011, for a joint patrol, in Zangabad, Afghanistan.
Veterans say they're dismayed by the treatment of allies like Canada and
Ukraine by President Donald Trump. (Murray Brewster/The Canadian Press)
In all of his conversations since Trump's return to the White House in January, Thompson said he never once got the sense that U.S. soldiers shared the sentiment that Canada should become the 51st state in the union.
"It's not about the United States Army or the United States Armed Forces. It's about the president of the United States," Thompson said.
Canadian special forces troops, whom Thompson also commanded, were among the first on the ground in Afghanistan in October 2001 along with their U.S. counterparts in the aftermath of the terror attacks on New York and Washington.
Thompson said the ties between the two militaries run so deep that a U.S. Navy Seal — Senior Chief Petty Officer Thomas Ratzlaff — was awarded in 2010 Canada's second-highest military decoration for bravery while serving alongside Canadians.
Over more than a dozen years in Afghanistan, 158 Canadian soldiers were killed, along with seven civilians. An additional 2,000 troops were wounded.
Retired
Canadian Maj.-Gen Denis Thompson, photographed in Kandahar in 2008,
says he thinks there are likely U.S. soldiers who are feeling the same
way that Canadians are about Trump's treatment of allies. (Murray Brewster/The Canadian Press)
It is one of the reasons Trump's annexation threats are tough for veterans to swallow, even though they know a full-blown invasion is unlikely.
"I don't think it's a possibility, militarily," said Thompson. "He can certainly make an attempt to tank our economy. And I'm not an economist, but I would suggest that Canadians will take an awful lot of pain before they acquiesce to his demands."
He said he also doesn't believe that Trump has the support of the American public for his annexation agenda — beyond talking heads in the right-wing punditry.
The risk of civil disobedience in the U.S. is increasing, said Thompson.
"I think the United States will have internal problems long before they start turning their attention, before he can start to turn his attention towards actually annexing Canada," he said.
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Ford, feds say they had 'productive' meeting with top Trump trade official in Washington
'The temperature's coming down,' Ontario premier says; feds are tight-lipped
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and federal officials left an hours-long meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying they feel more positive about the Canada-U.S. trading relationship after weeks of bad blood and heated rhetoric.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Ford said he feels like "the temperature is being lowered, the temperature's coming down" after the bilateral talks.
"This, I can honestly say, was the best meeting I've ever had coming down here. We want the best outcome for both countries. We're like a family — sometimes there's tension between families but that was an extremely productive meeting. I'm feeling positive," he said.
Ford said there will be another meeting next week between Canadian and American trade officials but offered no details on what they are planning to discuss — but the promise of another meeting could be read as something of a good sign.
"We're having very productive conversations and they're turning out very, very well," Ford said.
Ford
speaks to the press after meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard
Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Thursday. (Ken Cedeno/Reuters)
Asked if he's prepared to put his 25 per cent tax on U.S.-bound electricity back on, Ford didn't answer as he hopped into a waiting black SUV.
Canada and the U.S. are in the throes of a trade war after U.S. President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on all Canadian goods — and later partially dialled back — to supposedly pressure the country to do more at the border on drugs and migrants.
This week, Trump levied a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum imports.
To hit back at what the federal government has called "unjustified" and "unjustifiable" tariffs on a long-time trade partner, Canada has levied retaliatory tariffs on roughly $60 billion worth of American goods in response.
Trump says Canada only works as a U.S. state
While officials sounded a positive tone, Trump himself continued with his 51st state taunts and outlandish claims about Canada-U.S. trade.
Asked Thursday if he's going to lift any tariffs on Canada, Trump told reporters: "We're not going to bend."
He vowed to destroy the Canadian aluminum and steel sectors and the auto industry.
"We've been ripped off as a country for many, many years," he said, falsely repeating his usual claim that the U.S. is somehow "subsidizing" Canada to the tune of $200 billion a year.
The U.S. trade deficit with Canada was $63 billion US last year, much of it driven by American demand for cheaper Canadian oil. If energy is stripped out, the U.S. actually has a trade surplus with Canada, data shows.
Trump said the U.S. doesn't need anything from Canada, even though his government's own data shows otherwise.
U.S. President Donald Trump again said Thursday he wants to see Canada as a U.S. state. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
Canada exports some four million barrels of oil a day to the U.S., which doesn't produce nearly enough on its own to meet demand.
American manufacturing is also reliant on Canadian aluminum because the country only makes only a fraction of what it needs.
Plus, provinces like Ontario supply electricity to millions of homes and businesses.
"You have to run your own country and, to be honest, Canada works only as a state," Trump said.
He said absorbing Canada would make the U.S. "the most incredible country, visually."
"If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line through it, somebody did it a long time ago and it makes no sense," he said.
The border between Canada and the U.S. was first set centuries ago after the American Revolutionary War and reaffirmed by a series of treaties in the years to follow.
The border is also not an "artificial line." In large swaths of the country it follows waterways like the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River.
Ministers call talk 'constructive'
In a separate news conference with reporters at the Canadian embassy, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said they could not say much about what was discussed in private today, only that things seem to be headed in the right direction.
LeBlanc said they had "a very constructive discussion" with Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and their respective teams.
Champagne says he and Finance Minister LeBlanc will 'still be ministers' ahead of electionThe finance minister said he and the other Canadians made it known that Trump's tariffs on some Canadian goods and his separate regime on Canadian steel and aluminum should be removed.
Champagne said he also stressed just how damaging those tariffs are to workers and businesses on both sides of the border — not to mention the stock market.
But LeBlanc said the conversation was also about how the two countries can "work together to build a strong North American economy."
He said there were discussions about what the countries can do to check China, but did not offer details.
Asked if there was a tangible outcome from these discussions, Champagne said the agreement to just continue talks in a civil way is something of a win.
"I would say we leave Washington better equipped to defend Canadian interests," he said
Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., said it was valuable to get face time with Greer in particular, a man she described as the president's "main quarterback" for the America First trade policy agenda, including Trump's threatened "reciprocal" tariffs on goods from around the world that are set to take effect on April 2.
Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc did not share many details about the meeting, but said it was 'constructive.' (Ken Cedeno/Reuters)
The focus of Thursday's talks was getting Greer to understand the possible consequences of those tariffs if they come into force on Canadian goods early next month, Hillman said.
This was not a chance to talk about renegotiating the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), the trilateral free trade deal between those three countries, something that isn't up for review until 2026, she said.
Some premiers have been angling to have that agreement renegotiated earlier than planned.
Champagne said Canada will continue to take a hard stance on the U.S., though, keeping its retaliatory tariffs in place for as long as necessary.
"We will do it the Canadian way — I think there's no alternative to standing up for Canadians," he said.
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'Canada is a sovereign state': Trump's ambassador pick distances himself from annexation talk
At confirmation hearing, Canada ambassador nominee Pete Hoekstra pressed over president's rhetoric
The man with the delicate task of representing U.S. President Donald Trump in Canada has offered an indication of how he plans to go about it.
Canada, meet good cop.
At his U.S. Senate confirmation hearing for ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra steered clear of annexation talk and saluted the countries' long-standing partnership.
He was peppered with questions from Democrats about what they described as disrespectful language from Trump that's poisoned an old alliance.
The president keeps calling for Canada to join the U.S., and in fact did so, again, on Thursday, a timely reminder of the diplomatic reality awaiting Hoekstra. At one point in the confirmation hearing, Trump's annexation talk came up.
"[His] negotiation tactics have profoundly unsettled our relationship with Canada," said Democrat Chris Coons, of Delaware.
‘Artificially drawn line’: The border and Trump’s plan for Canada"Would you agree that Canada is a sovereign state and should not even jokingly be referred to as the 51st state?" Coons asked Hoekstra.
Coons raised his fingers to make air quotes around the words "negotiation tactics," a reference to the dominant view in Washington that Trump's talk is some sort of bargaining ploy.
Hoekstra concurred on Canada being independent. And he professed to be unaware of what the president is doing when he talks about making Canada a state.
He appeared to suggest it might have been intended to needle Canada's outgoing prime minister, Justin Trudeau, but said he wasn't sure.
"Canada is a sovereign state — yes," replied Hoekstra, a former congressman from Michigan, a former U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands and a Trump campaign organizer.
"The president and the relationship between the former prime minister in Canada, and the characteristics and nature of that relationship, I don't know, OK, [whether] it's humour," he said.
The notion that Trump was simply needling Trudeau is undermined by the fact that the U.S. president has kept making that comment. Even Thursday, Trump said Canada would be a great additional state: "Maybe our greatest state."
But at the hearing, Democrats called for the president to cut it out.
Coons said the annexation talk has to stop, as do the reported threats about kicking Canada out of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance. With a new incoming prime minister in Canada, Coons said, there's an opportunity for a reset and he hoped Trump takes it.
A couple of Democrats also ridiculed the president's initial justification for imposing tariffs: trade in fentanyl.
Sen.
Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., speaks during a committee hearing on the U.S.
ambassadors to Mexico, Japan and Canada on Thursday in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/The Associated Press)
They referred to the relatively paltry flow of fentanyl from Canada into the U.S., with one, Jeanne Shaheen, noting that more drugs flow the other way.
She also challenged the notion of Canada as an unfair trader, arguing it has among the lowest tariffs in the world — dairy protectionism aside.
Democrat doesn't blame Canadians for being angry
Shaheen said she understands why Canadians are furious. The New Hampshire senator said businesses in her state are already suffering from this trade war. But the damage, she said, goes beyond international trade.
"I don't blame 'em. I've gotta be honest," Shaheen said of the Canadian fury.
"The U.S.-Canada bilateral relationship is at a historic low point.… I find it very troubling to see our national anthem booed at ice hockey games."
She asked Hoekstra how he planned to turn it around.
Senate foreign relations committee chair Sen. James Risch, left, speaks with Hoekstra after Thursday's committee hearing. (Jacquelyn Martin/The Associated Press)
Hoekstra acknowledged that the tensions have been on his mind.
"Great question. I've obviously been spending a lot of time thinking about that myself," Hoekstra said. "[About] having to go there and being kind of the tip of the spear myself."
He said the U.S. has a great national security alliance with Canada, but that Canada should increase its defence spending.
His goal, he said, is even more co-operation — with freer trade and fewer barriers, extending the countries' long-standing ties.
"We have co-operated with Canada on so many things," he said, listing the Great Lakes, trade, national security and intelligence.
"We have a great history of working together. And we know how to make this work.… Now let's do it and apply our experience to the priorities that the president has outlined: freer, fairer trade. So that we can actually grow the business relationship."
He noted that his parents came from the part of Holland liberated by Canadian soldiers during the Second World War, while mentioning his own personal history.
He also revealed that he had a good phone call with Joe Biden's ambassador to Canada, David Cohen, who pledged his help with the transition, should Hoekstra be confirmed by the Senate.
Elbows Up!: People in Ottawa rally against Trump tariffs, annexation threatsHoekstra's confirmation hearing took place Thursday on Capitol Hill in a meeting with two other witnesses: Trump's nominees for ambassadors to Mexico and Japan.
Sen. Tim Kaine called it a rare event — a hearing involving three major allies. The Virginia Democrat said the U.S. is better off when it recognizes who its friends are.
He said they'll always have disagreements, but should be handled respectfully.
"I'm troubled by [Trump's] actions in the first couple of months. Some of which may be negotiation tactics," he said.
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Ford talks to Carney, premiers ahead of trade meeting in Washington
Premiers hope meeting with U.S. Secretary of Commerce will reduce trade tensions
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and federal Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc suggested Wednesday they want to come out of a meeting with a top U.S. official with a "coherent plan" for the tariff road ahead.
The pair, along with Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador to the United States, are set to meet Thursday in Washington, D.C., with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who invited Ford on Tuesday amid a major ratcheting up — then down — of the trade war between the two countries.
The Canadian politicians said they hope for a cordial meeting that will take the temperature down, though it will come after Lutnick and U.S. President Donald Trump made comments referring to Ford as "some guy in Ontario" and his "little threat" to put a surcharge on electricity exports to the U.S.
"I said, 'This will be won in one hour,' and (we) announced what we were going to do and they withdrew their little threat," Trump said Wednesday.
The U.S. has imposed tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and aluminum imports effective Wednesday and the Canadian government announced tariffs on U.S. goods worth nearly $30 billion in retaliation.
President Donald Trump attends the annual St. Patrick's Day luncheon at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (J. Scott Applewhite/The Associated Press)
Trump had threatened Tuesday to set the steel and aluminum tariff at 50 per cent in response to Ontario placing a surcharge on electricity it exports to three U.S. states, but both sides agreed to back off those moves after Lutnick offered the meeting.
'It's about building the relationship,' Ford says
Ford said he expects to talk about the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement with Lutnick and hopes to move up a review of the USMCA set for next year.
"I want to make sure everyone understands the expectation is to go down there, build that relationship, talk about the USMCA," he said Wednesday outside his office.
"We aren't walking away with the USMCA, but for years being in business, it's all about building the relationship, understanding what they require, what our needs are, and move forward."
Ford also said he wants an end to the frenetic tariff back-and-forth.
"I want to find out where their bar is set," he said. "Rather than keep moving the goalpost, I want to find out how quickly you want to move forward and see what their requirements are."
Federal
Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc looks on
as Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks to reporters following their
meeting at the provincial legislature in Toronto on Jan. 14, 2025. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)
Meeting about 'lowering the temperature,' LeBlanc says
LeBlanc, however, said he does not see Thursday's meeting as one about the USMCA. He hopes to talk about the tariffs that are in place now and others that are set to come into effect April 2.
"The conversation tomorrow will be around lowering the temperature and focusing on the process that President Trump set up where Secretary Lutnick has up to April 2 to determine a series of global tariff decisions," he said.
But if one of the three parties to the USMCA wants to begin a review earlier than 2026, Canada is ready, LeBlanc said.
"We've always said the best approach is a coherent conversation that looks at all of these issues, where the three economies are part of the conversation, and where we can arrive at the best agreement for North America," he said.
"That's been the success of previous conversations, but for the moment, it's difficult to get there, because day over day, week over week, you have these decisions. So if we can sort of clear the underbrush and get to a position where we can get to April 2 with a coherent plan, I certainly think that would be the objective of the conversation tomorrow."
Prime
minister-designate Mark Carney, left, leaves after he tours the
ArcelorMittal Dofasco steel plant in Hamilton, Ont., on March 12, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)
Lutnick told Fox Business he expects to have a "nice conversation" with Ford to "lower the temperature" and will save the details for when Canada has a new prime minister after a possibly looming election.
"I think it's just to level-set things, make sure we know each other," Lutnick said. "And then we are going to negotiate with all of Canada, so obviously we are going to wait for there to be a new prime minister and then we're going to talk."
Those comments come after others Lutnick made the previous day to CBS, describing Trump's threat to increase the steel and aluminum tariffs to 50 per cent as a tactic to "break some guy in Ontario" who put a surcharge on energy.
Ford met Carney Wednesday morning to talk trade
Ford brushed aside those remarks, saying the U.S. can call the end result a win if they want.
"Whatever," he said. "They're playing politics. (It's neither) here nor there."
The premier met Wednesday morning with prime minister-designate Mark Carney to discuss tariffs and free trade. The two had a productive discussion, agreeing on the need to stand firm in the face of Trump's tariffs, Ford said.
Having Carney as the prime minister could help turn a page in the Canada-U.S. relationship, Ford predicted.
"It's going to be a better relationship than with Prime Minister (Justin) Trudeau and no disrespect to Prime Minister Trudeau, I can tell you one thing, Mark Carney (has an) extremely astute business mind," he said.
"He understands numbers, and so does President Trump and Secretary Lutnick. I think they're going to get along very well. They both come from the same financial sectors."
Ford, who is head of the group of
Canada's 13 premiers, also had a call Wednesday morning with the other
provincial leaders. He said he would get advice from his counterparts
ahead of the discussion.
Canada hits U.S. with tariffs on $29.8B worth of goods after Trump slaps levy on metals
Trump put a 25% tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum earlier this morning
The federal government announced a plan on Wednesday to slap tariffs on $29.8 billion worth of American goods to hit back against U.S. President Donald Trump after he imposed punishing tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum early this morning.
Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, the government's point person on Canada-U.S. relations, said Trump's attack on Canadian industry is "unjustified and unjustifiable" and the government must retaliate as the U.S. inserts "disruption and disorder" into what was once one of the most successful trading relationships in the world.
"We will not stand idly by while our iconic steel and aluminum industries are being unfairly targeted," he said.
LeBlanc said the American products being hit with these tariffs include U.S.-made steel and aluminum, computers, sports equipment and certain cast iron products, among others.
Canada announces $29.8 billion in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goodsTrump's tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, which took effect just after midnight, are separate from the other tariffs Trump levied on Canada last week — and later partially dialled back — to supposedly pressure the country to do more at the border on drugs and migrants.
Canada immediately levied tariffs on $30 billion worth of American goods in response to those initial tariffs — and didn't take them off even after Trump rejigged his tariff regime.
All told, Canada is applying a 25 per cent tariff to some $60 billion worth of American goods as payback for both Trump's border- and metals-related tariffs.
The government is also holding back tariffs on another roughly $100 billion worth of American goods that will be imposed if Trump goes ahead with a third round of what he's calling "reciprocal" tariffs on goods from around the world on April 2.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Trump has claimed he needs to impose tariffs now because Canadian steel and aluminum imports pose a "national security threat" — something she called a bogus and insulting justification.
"The excuse for these tariffs shift every day. The only constant seems to be President Trump's talks of annexing our country through economic coercion. We will not back down and we will not give in to this coercion," she said. "We need to fight back against this nonsense."
Joly urges Americans to 'send a message' to White House to end tariffsTrump deployed harsh rhetoric against Canada on Tuesday, threatening to ruin the country economically and reiterating his desire to see the country become the 51st state.
The U.S. president upped the ante on his annexation taunts, saying the only way for Canada to avoid his attempts to torpedo the economy is for the country to "become our cherished Fifty-First State."
Trump said the border between Canada and the U.S., which was first set centuries ago after the American Revolutionary War and reaffirmed by a series of treaties in the years to follow, is "an artificial line of separation" that he wants to see disappear.
Joly said Canada is not just in a fight to get Trump to back off tariffs but also to save the country from a possible takeover.
"It's not just a threat to Canadian jobs, Canadian families. It is an existential threat to our country," she said. "This is not only a fight about the economy, it is about the future of our country."
Canada leading supplier of steel, aluminum
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Trump's tariffs will push up the price of virtually everything U.S. factories produce, given just how dependent they are on Canadian metals. The U.S., for example, produces only 16 per cent of the aluminum it needs, while 60 per cent of its supply comes from Quebec alone.
But these tariffs also pose a major concern for Canada, given the last time Trump imposed similar tariffs on those metals there was a huge drop in Canadian exports, threatening jobs and businesses.
According to Statistics Canada data, aluminum exports dropped by roughly half in 2019 as a result of Trump's trade action in his first term.
Matt Walker, the president of the Canada Metal Processing Group, which produce steel products, said his company has had to lay off workers in Ontario and Quebec "due to the constant threat of United States tariffs."
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the G7 foreign ministers' meeting is not going to be about a takeover of Canada. (Saul Loeb/Reuters)
"This tariff will not only harm Canadian businesses and workers but will hurt the many American businesses, workers and consumers that rely on high-quality Canadian steel, which the U.S. does not supply or produce sufficiently itself," Walker said.
Andrew DiCapua, principal economist at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said the metals tariffs are dealing the Canadian economy "another large hit."
A spokesperson for the American Automotive Policy Council, which represents Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, said Trump's tariffs on Canada "will add significant costs for automakers, suppliers and consumers."
Champagne said Trump's relentless trade attacks likely aren't going away anytime soon and Canada needs an attitude shift to become more independent and resilient.
Champagne says Trump's tariffs weakening North American economy, national securityCanadian officials, including LeBlanc and Ontario Premier Doug Ford, will meet with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Trump's tariff czar, and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Washington on Thursday.
LeBlanc said those talks will be about trying to get the Americans to drop all their existing tariffs and convince the administration to spare Canada when it pushes ahead with more tariffs on April 2.
"We will continue to maintain our countermeasures and increase them on April 2 if we can't get to a position where their initial measures are all lifted from Canadian businesses," LeBlanc said.
Thursday's meeting is also a chance to "lower the temperature" given the heated rhetoric coming from Trump in recent days, LeBlanc said.
- CBC Radio's Just Asking wants to know: Which claims about the trade war do you want fact-checked? Fill out the details on this form and send us your questions ahead of our show this Saturday, March 15, 2025.
LeBlanc said Trump has made some "outrageous comments" about Canadian sovereignty and they need to be addressed with his officials face-to-face.
Joly added Canada will continue to exert "maximum pressure" on the Americans through countermeasures while also being open to offering "off-ramps" to Trump to bring this trade war to a satisfying close for both sides.
Joly said she will also be holding talks about the tariffs with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio when she hosts a G7 foreign ministers' meeting at Charlevoix, Que., on Thursday and Friday in advance of a leaders' summit in Alberta in June.
Prime minister-designate Mark Carney visited a steel mill in Hamilton on Thursday. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters)
Speaking to reporters ahead of his trip to Quebec, Rubio said this is "not a meeting about how we're going to take over Canada."
Pressed to say if he agrees with Trump's assertion that Canada should become the 51st state, Rubio demurred. "That's not what we're going to be discussing in our trip here," he said.
As for what Canadian officials will say if the 51st state taunts are raised, Joly said that talk is offensive and will be dismissed outright.
"When it comes to Canadian sovereignty, it's very simple: it's not even on the table," she said.
Prime minister-designate Mark Carney, who is expected to take the reins of power after being sworn in sometime later this week, said he's ready to sit down with Trump soon to discuss a resolution. But he said those talks can only happen "under a position where there's respect for Canadian sovereignty."
"We're all going to be better off when the greatest economic and security partnership in the world is renewed and is relaunched," Carney said
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Nervous Googling: Searches for 'recession' and 'tariff' surge as U.S. mood sours
Americans rarely pay much attention to trade. They are now
Evidence of Americans' souring mood is everywhere you look. Even in the place you look for evidence: Google.
An unprecedented number of Americans are now googling the word "tariff," an issue of minimal interest to them during last year's presidential election.
There's an even scarier word they're now Googling: "recession," a search trend line that often, but not always, coincides with an economic contraction.
Signs are mounting of U.S. unease with President Donald Trump's North American trade war and it's surfacing in various places: from economic data, to grumbling businesses, to media coverage, and in tense exchanges at the White House.
On Tuesday, the daily White House briefing was dominated by questions about a trade war that has helped eliminate all stock-market gains since the Nov. 5 election.
The chief economist at Moody's is among those who see a surging likelihood of a U.S. recession — Mark Zandi puts it at 35 per cent, and some put it even higher.
It all depends, Zandi told CBC News, on whether Trump's tariff policies remain in place; whether they spread to other countries; and what the retaliation looks like.
"It's all negative. It's just a question of how negative," Zandi said of the current trade uncertainty. But if this continues, he said, "it would result in a full-out, knock-out, drag-out trade war that would result in a global recession."
And that's the context for why Trump has achieved a seemingly impossible feat: making mainstream American media care about trade.
It's unclear if the average Canadian fully grasps how little interest there usually is in trade news here, in part because the U.S. economy is less trade-dependent in general, and less reliant, specifically, on Canada as an export market.
But now everywhere in the news it's tariff, tariff, tariff.
Networks have correspondents in Canada chronicling the cross-border rage. CNN segments are featuring an unhappy beer-maker in North Carolina, fretting about aluminum tariffs eroding his slim profit margins; others show worried Washington State apple exporters, and Jack Daniel's talking about being yanked from Canadian store shelves.
Trump responds to Ford's move to suspend electricity surchargeLatest U.S. celebrity? Doug Ford
Doug Ford is now omnipresent on American TV.
The Ontario premier is — atypically for a sub-national foreign leader — morphing into a household name here, with his high-voltage sabre-rattling and language that is also atypically blunt for a Canadian politician.
Of course, that attention carries downside risk. His short-lived taxing of electricity exports drew a counterthreat from Trump of even more tariffs. The White House even warned of grave consequences for Canada if it cut off electricity.
While they both dialled it back, the U.S. is still adding 25 per cent steel and aluminum tariffs Wednesday, with untold consequences for numerous industries.
That uncertainty rippled through a meeting of international auto-parts makers, gathered at a conference in Washington.
"This stuff causes panic and paralysis," said Flavio Volpe, head of Canada's main auto-parts lobby group.
"Here it appears [Trump] doesn't care. And he's trying to shake the markets. To what end? Nobody knows."
It's the subject of a lively debate among conservatives: whether Trump is in over his head and creating an avoidable mess, or whether he's got a viable plan in some 3D chess move.
Theories about the latter include the obvious — that Trump wants companies to abandon foreign production and build factories in the U.S., which several major companies have already done.
But there's a less obvious theory that his supporters are peddling — that he actually wants to slow the economy, force lower interest rates, resulting in lower bond and U.S. debt payments.
Trump hasn't yet spoken to Carney, but his phone is 'always open,' White House rep saysTrying to decipher Trump's endgame
Reflecting that split in the party, the right-leaning New York Post offered an unflattering front page showing a plummeting stock market, but a more flattering column on Trump's approach.
The conservative National Review, meanwhile, published an unequivocally scathing column titled, "Does Trump Know Why He Was Elected?"
It said: "President Trump is at risk of blowing his second term before it has hit the two-month mark. Go on. Shout at me for saying that. I don't care.
"The people who voted Donald Trump back into office wanted him to bring back 2019. They did not sign up for a trade war with Canada, the resurrection of [tariff-imposing former president] William McKinley, or an endless game of red light/green light that tanks [retirement plans]."
The White House is aggressively pushing back.
During a trade-dominated daily press briefing Tuesday, Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt cited new manufacturing jobs, and reports of several companies reshoring, from pharma giant Merck to Apple.
The official White House line: Forget the reaction on Wall Street, which is temporary. Watch Main Street, and the long-term effect on U.S. jobs.
It led to an unusually personal exchange.
An Associated Press reporter referred to tariffs as a tax hike on Americans. Leavitt insisted it's paid by the foreigner. Strictly speaking, the reporter was right, although foreign companies do sometimes wind up paying to avoid losing their U.S. customers.
But the reporter challenged her, asking: "I'm sorry — have you ever paid a tariff? Because I have." Leavitt expressed regret for letting the AP ask a question: "I think it's insulting that you're trying to test my knowledge of economics."
Here's what's hard to dispute: The economic data is souring.
Business uncertainty is at historic highs. Consumer confidence has dropped. The S&P 500 has lost 10 per cent from its previous high, officially entering correction territory. Other indicators say a recession is a growing possibility.
There are two issues, says economist and trade analyst Marcus Noland, a vice-president at the pro-trade Peterson Institute for International Economics.
One is the tariffs themselves. He said economists can estimate the impact. In fact, the Peterson Institute has, calculating that Trump's first batch of tariffs would shave a percentage point or two off the economies of Canada and Mexico, and a fraction of a point off the U.S. economy. Auto companies, in particular, will face devastating cost increases, he said.
Then there's the uncertainty — "The chaotic way it's being rolled out," said Noland. Trump's tariffs are the on-again, off-again, then slightly reduced kind. That's harder to model for.
Regular people are starting to notice, he said. In his own life, he saw a sudden price jump for granola from a nut-free factory in Canada that he gets because of an allergy in the family. And there's no telling where it ends.
"The American economy is slowing," he said. "In the last week, people have started to become concerned that we could experience a recession."
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Trump placing 25% tariff on steel, aluminum after backing off 50% threat
Ottawa is promising to hit back if new tariffs go ahead
The White House said Tuesday U.S. President Donald Trump will go ahead with a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum just after midnight, capping off yet another chaotic day of trade threats and 51st state taunts.
Trump said earlier in the day he would hike the tariff rate on those metals to 50 per cent because Ontario Premier Doug Ford slapped a tax on all electricity the province sends to the U.S., pushing up energy prices for 1.5 million American households and businesses.
After speaking with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Trump's tariff czar, Ford agreed to pause the tax until he has trade discussions with the administration in Washington on Thursday.
In a joint statement after the call, Ford and Lutnick said they had a "productive conversation about the economic relationship between the United States and Canada."
The two, along with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, will meet in Washington to "discuss a renewed USMCA ahead of the April 2 reciprocal tariff deadline," Ford and Lutnick said, referring to the trilateral free trade deal known as CUSMA in Canada.
Ford said Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, the federal government's point-person on the Canada-U.S. relationship, and "hopefully" Canada's ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, will also be at Thursday's meeting.
Trump told reporters Tuesday that Ford is "a very strong man" who he respects. He said the premier was a "gentleman" when he spoke with Lutnick.
But Trump doesn't respect Canada enough to drop the tariffs entirely.
"Pursuant to his previous executive orders, a 25 per cent tariff on steel and aluminum with no exceptions or exemptions will go into effect for Canada and all of our other trading partners at midnight, March 12," White House spokesperson Kush Desai told CBC News.
These tariffs are separate from the other tariffs Trump levied on Canada last week — and later partially dialled back — to supposedly pressure the country to do more at the border on drugs and migrants.
Canada immediately levied tariffs on $30 billion worth of American goods in response to those border-related tariffs — and didn't take them off even after Trump rejigged his tariff regime.
Ottawa prepares response
A spokesperson for LeBlanc said if Trump moves forward with steel and aluminum tariffs on Wednesday, Ottawa will hit back.
"We will be ready to respond firmly and proportionately. We will never relent in standing up for Canadian jobs, industries and workers," the spokesperson said in a media statement.
A spokesperson for Ford said he will not put the levy back on, even though Trump is going ahead with the tariffs on metals.
Tariff war: Does Trump actually know what he's doing? | About That"Lutnick offered an olive branch to sit down and talk about the USMCA and how we can get to certainty. Ahead of that conversation, the premier agreed to suspend the surcharge for now," the spokesperson said.
Trump's decision to press ahead with targeted tariffs on steel and aluminum poses a major concern for Canada, given the last time Trump imposed similar tariffs on those metals there was a huge drop in Canadian exports, threatening jobs and businesses.
According to Statistics Canada data, aluminum exports dropped by roughly half in 2019 as a result of Trump's trade action in his first term.
More talk of annexation
Ford's electricity levy grabbed Trump's attention and renewed his Canadian takeover threats.
Trump deployed harsh rhetoric against Canada Tuesday, threatening to ruin the country economically and reiterating his desire to see the country become the 51st state.
In a series of social media posts this morning, Trump said he will make Canada pay "a financial price for this so big that it will be read about in History Books for many years to come."
Ford’s tax plan for U.S.-bound electricity, explainedTrump upped the ante on his annexation taunts saying the only way for Canada to avoid his attempts to torpedo the economy is for the country to "become our cherished Fifty-First State."
"This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear," he claimed.
He falsely claimed Canada is "ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD."
Until Trump launched his trade war, most Canada-U.S. trade was entirely tariff-free under a deal the president himself negotiated and signed in his first term.
Trump said the border between Canada and the U.S., which was first set centuries ago after the American Revolutionary War and reaffirmed by a series of treaties in the years to follow, is "an artificial line of separation" that he wants to see disappear.
"We will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the world," Trump said.
Trump's claim about Canada becoming safer under American rule is a dubious one at best. The U.S. homicide rate, for example, is nearly four times higher per capita, according to recent U.S. and Canadian data.
Outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods, which were first floated as a way to supposedly spur a crackdown on drugs and migrants at the border, are designed to prompt "a total collapse of the Canadian economy" so that it's "easier to annex us."
Costs on both sides of the border
Ford said Trump's promised higher tariffs on steel and aluminum will hurt Americans most because U.S. manufacturers are reliant on the supply from Canada.
"The U.S. only has the capacity to produce 16 per cent of the aluminum they need," Ford said, noting 60 per cent of the other supply comes from Quebec alone.
"Costs are going up. U.S. assembly plants will shut down because they won't have the aluminum they need or they will be paying three times as much. This is absolute chaos created by one person and that's Donald Trump," he said.
It's a message that was echoed by Candace Laing, the president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, who said Trump is stirring up "economic chaos" that will end badly for him given just how dependent the U.S. is on Canadian metals.
Tariffs on steel produced in Ontario would have a major impact on both the Canadian and U.S. economies. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
"Canadian steel and aluminum aren't a nice-to-have for the U.S., they're a need-to-have — literally," Laing said.
"These two Canadian metals are the infrastructure that holds up and holds together American defence, homes, cars, energy and countless other symbols of security and strength," she said.
Lawrence Summers, a former U.S. Treasury secretary, said Trump's tariffs on metals is "inconceivably bad policy" because it pushes up the price of virtually everything else the U.S. manufactures.
"This is making us less competitive in huge industries," Summers said in an interview with CBC News.
"This is bad for American working people, bad for American consumers, terrible for American national security and it's creating huge uncertainty in the markets. It is completely irrational and dangerous policy."
Trump's tariff rampage sent the U.S. stock market into a tailspin yet again.
The S&P 500, which tracks the 500 largest publicly traded American companies, is down eight per cent in the last month alone. The technology-heavy Nasdaq is off 10 per cent.
Trump metals tariffs 'inconceivably bad policy,' says former U.S. treasury secretary Trump's erratic approach to trade and the economy has sent stock traders into a panic, prompting a rush to sell equities given there is so much uncertainty with Canada, the U.S.'s largest customer.
Trump also threatened Tuesday to substantially raise tariffs on cars coming into the U.S. from Canada on April 2 to try and shut down that key industry on this side of the border.
"Those cars can easily be made in the USA!" he said.
Prime minister-designate Mark Carney, who is expected to take the reins of power after being sworn in sometime later this week, made it clear where he stands on Trump in his victory speech Sunday night, saying his government will "keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect."
He added in a social media post Tuesday that those retaliatory tariffs will remain in place until the Americans "make credible, reliable commitments to free and fair trade."
Carney has said he supports dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs and big investments in the Canadian economy to offset the expected damage from Trump ruining the bilateral trading relationship.
Carney's also been calling for freer internal trade across Canada and has promised a plan to make the country an energy "superpower."
"The Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country," Carney said after winning the leadership in a landslide.
"If they succeed, they will destroy our way of life. America is not Canada. And Canada never, ever, will be part of America in any way, shape or form," he said.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre strongly condemned Trump's latest tariffs, saying his actions "cannot in any way be justified and are yet another betrayal by the president of the long friendship between Canada and the United States.
"Do not mistake our kindness for weakness, we are a strong, proud and sovereign country and we will fight back against these attacks against our economy and our workers," Poilievre said.
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Ontario suspending 25% surcharge on provincially generated electricity purchased by U.S. states
After threats from Trump, Ford says U.S. secretary of commerce has extended 'olive branch'
Ontario is suspending its promise to add a 25 per cent surcharge on exports of electricity to some U.S. states, Premier Doug Ford said Tuesday afternoon.
The move comes after Ford and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick had a "productive conversation about the economic relationship between the United States and Canada," Ford said in a joint statement posted on social media.
Speaking to reporters at Queen's Park Tuesday, Ford said Lutnick had "sent out an olive branch" for provincial and federal Canadian officials to meet in Washington to "discuss the future" in the wake of repeated tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump. They are set to meet on Thursday, Ford said — and in return, Ontario agreed to suspend its 25 per cent surcharge on exports of electricity to Michigan, New York and Minnesota.
"With any negotiation that we have, there's a point that both parties are heated, and the temperature needs to come down," Ford said.
"They understand how serious we are about the electricity and the tariffs, and rather than going back and forth and having threats to each other, we have both agreed that cooler heads prevail. We need to sit down and move this forward."
Doug Ford pauses surcharge on U.S.-bound electricityFord previously announced on Monday plans to have the province impose a 25 per cent surcharge on Ontario-generated electricity purchased by American states in response to a series of tariff threats from Trump. Ontario provides power to roughly 1.5 million U.S.-based customers.
The premier also said Tuesday that the energy surcharge is still a tool the province could use in the future, should talks break down.
Trump says he respects decision to suspend surcharge
Trump, meanwhile, told reporters about Ford's decision on Tuesday not to apply the surcharge on electricity to some U.S. states.
"As you know, there's a very strong man in Canada who said he was going to charge a surcharge or tariff on electricity coming into our country. He has called and said he's not going to do that. And it would have been a very bad thing if he did. And he's not going to do that. So I respect that," Trump said.
"We've been treated very unfairly by Canada. We've been treated very unfairly by Mexico," he added.
Asked if he will drop tariffs on Canada following Ford's decision to drop the surcharge, Trump said: "Probably so, yeah. He was a gentleman."
Following that question, when asked specifically if the U.S. will still impose 50 per cent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum products entering the U.S. on Wednesday, Trump said: "I'll let you know about it, but I appreciated his call. I thought it was nice."
The White House confirmed later Tuesday those tariffs would be scaled back to 25 per cent.
Earlier, on Tuesday morning, Trump issued numerous threats aimed at Ontario and Canada after the province initially imposed the surcharge.
In a series of meandering posts to his Truth Social platform, Trump said Ontario "will pay a financial price for this so big that it will be read about in History Books for many years to come!"
He went on to accuse Canada of "stooping so low as to use ELECTRICITY, that so affects the life of innocent people, as a bargaining chip and threat" in the trade war his administration started.
Tariff questions remain
Those comments came shortly after an earlier post in which Trump said he'll double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum starting Wednesday in response to Ontario's electricity levy.
"Based on Ontario, Canada, placing a 25% Tariff on 'Electricity' coming into the United States, I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA," Trump wrote.
Trump hasn't yet spoken to Carney, but his phone is 'always open,' White House rep saysHe also said he would declare a "National Emergency on Electricity" within the American regions impacted by Ontario's electricity levy, presumably referring to New York, Michigan and Minnesota.
Trump then launched into a lengthy rant about the U.S. annexing Canada to make it "our cherished Fifty First State."
He also threatened to "substantially increase" tariffs on auto imports on April 2, which Trump predicted would "permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada."
When asked Tuesday afternoon if he believes the U.S. will back off on Trump's latest threats in light of this week's meeting, Ford said Lutnick "has to bounce it off the president, but I'm pretty confident he will pull back" — though Ford also was quick to caution he could not speak for American officials.
Volleys in trade war continue
Bill Slater, president of United Steelworkers Local 2724 in Sault Ste. Marie, told CBC News that the uncertainty around Trump's demands is leading to a demoralized workforce.
"It's the blue-collar workers now at the bottom that will be looking at both sides of the border to see where their next meal may come from," he said. "People like Mr. Trump, their portfolio might get a little bit smaller, but I'm pretty sure he's going to eat the same things for supper."
Trump initiated a trade war against Canada shortly after taking office, despite a longstanding economic, cultural and military alliance between the neighbouring nations. His administration has said it will impose 25 per cent tariffs on most Canadian goods and 10 per cent on energy, while offering shifting justifications for doing so.
Amid intensely negative stock market reaction, Trump temporarily paused implementation of the tariffs on Canadian exports "compliant" with the terms of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) until April 2.
The Trump administration's policy targeting Canadian goods comes despite CUSMA being a free trade agreement that Trump himself spearheaded and, a few years ago, called "the best and most important trade deal ever made by the USA."
Both Ontario and the federal government have said they will move ahead with retaliatory measures until the tariffs are entirely off the table.
In addition to the surcharge, Ontario has taken American booze off LCBO shelves and banned U.S. companies from government procurement contracts, while the federal government has imposed an initial round of retaliatory tariffs on $30 billion worth of U.S. goods.
Ford has also urged other provinces — in particular Alberta, which sends more than four million barrels of oil per day south of the border, and Saskatchewan, which provides potash critical to U.S. agriculture — to look at imposing export taxes on those commodities.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe have thus far refused to consider the move.
With files from The Canadian Press
Ontario slaps 25% levy on U.S.-bound electricity in latest trade war volley
Surcharge will generate up to $400K per day to be used for worker, business supports: province
Ontario is imposing a 25 per cent surcharge on all U.S.-bound electricity as part of its retaliatory measures against U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods.
The new levy took effect Monday and will add about $10 per megawatt-hour to the cost of power heading south, the province says. It will generate an estimated $300,000 to $400,000 per day, money that will be used to support workers and businesses hit by U.S. tariffs.
"Believe me when I say I do not want to do this," Ontario Premier Doug Ford said at a news conference Monday.
"I feel terrible for the American people, because it's not the American people who started this trade war. It's one person who's responsible, that's President Trump," he said.
Ontario provides electricity to roughly 1.5 million customers in the northern border states of New York, Michigan and Minnesota. Ford said the surcharge will cost the average household or business in these states an additional $100 per month on their power bills.
He added the magnitude of the levy could be increased if the Trump administration continues to escalate its trade war against Canada.
"Until these tariffs are off the table, until these tariffs are gone for good, Ontario will not relent. We will not back down," Ford said alongside Ontario Energy Minister Stephen Lecce.
The province has also taken American booze off LCBO shelves and banned U.S. companies from government procurement contracts, in addition to the federal government's initial round of retaliatory tariffs on $30 billion worth of U.S. goods.
The electricity surcharge is being imposed by a directive from Lecce to the province's electricity system operator, which will require any generator selling electricity to the U.S. to add what's being called a Tariff Response Charge.
The system operator will then collect the money generated by the surcharge on behalf of the government on a monthly basis.
Last week, Trump temporarily paused implementation of 25 per cent tariffs on Canadians exports "compliant" with the terms of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) until April 2. But both Ford and Ottawa have said retaliatory measures will move ahead until the tariffs are lifted.
"Pausing some tariffs, making last-minute exemptions — it will not cut it. We need to end the chaos once and for all," Ford said Monday.
He also reiterated his previous threat to stop flows of electricity from Ontario to the U.S. altogether if the trade war lingers on.
Asked about a specific threshold that may compel him to take that step, Ford declined to be specific.
"If necessary, if the United States escalates, I will not hesitate to cut the electricity off completely," Ford said. "Let's just see how this rolls out. [Trump] changes his mind almost every single day."
Ford’s tax plan for U.S.-bound electricity, explainedFord urged other provinces — in particular Alberta, which sends more than four million barrels of oil per day south of the border — to look at similar moves.
"A message to Premier (Danielle) Smith: one day, I think you might have to use that trump card and give approval for an export tax," he said.
"You want to talk about a trump card? That will instantly change the game, instantly, when the Americans — and I know the Americans — all of a sudden their gas prices go up 90 (cents) to $1 a gallon, they will lose their minds. So we need to at least put that in the window."
Smith has said Alberta needs to take action, but she won't curtail or impose counter-tariffs on oil and gas shipments. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, who leads a province that exports vital uranium and potash to the U.S., has similarly expressed a reluctance to impose export tariffs.
Ontario won't need to buy U.S. electricity this summer: Lecce
During the news conference, Lecce noted that most of the year, Ontario sells many times more electricity from the U.S. than it purchases.
Depending on energy demands in New York, Michigan and Minnesota, those states will sometimes then re-sell surplus electricity that originated in Ontario to other states, particularly along the I-95 corridor down the eastern seaboard.
When Ontario does buy U.S.-generated electricity, it is most often in the peak summer months.
Asked if Ontario could face reciprocal surcharges come the warmer season, Lecce said the province's electricity system operator is "fully confident in its ability to keep the lights on" with power generated in Ontario and Quebec.
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With files from The Canadian Press
Stocks close out volatile day as investors say market is ‘sick and tired’ of Trump’s tariff chaos
US markets seesawed Tuesday amid another tariff roller coaster ride.
All three major indexes dropped after President Donald Trump doubled down early Tuesday on his threat to levy a new round of hefty tariffs on Canada. Yet by the afternoon, markets had pared some losses as officials from both the US and Canada said they would meet this week to deescalate tensions and renegotiate trade policy.
The Dow closed lower by 478 points, or 1.14%, after tumbling more than 700 points earlier. The broader S&P 500 fell 0.76% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.18%.
The S&P 500 flirted with correction territory and closed down 9.3% from its record high in February, nearing a correction. The Nasdaq, which has been in correction territory, closed down 13.6% from its record high in December.
Trump did not appear to be concerned by the market’s decline.
“Markets are going to go up and they’re going to go down but, you know what, we have to rebuild our country,” he told reporters at the White House.
“This market is just blatantly sick and tired of the back and forth on trade policy,” Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management, told CNN’s Matt Egan.
“It feels as though the administration continues to move the goal posts. With that much uncertainty, it’s impossible for investors to have any confidence,” Hogan said.
Wall Street’s fear gauge, the Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, fell after climbing earlier Tuesday. The index on Monday had an intraday surge of 19% and closed at its highest level since December.
The decline in the three major indexes extends a market rout that has rattled Wall Street and raised concerns about when the bleeding will stop.
Trump has cautioned that tariffs could cause “a little disturbance,” and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said last week that “the fact that the stock market goes down half a percent or percent, it goes up half a percent or percent, that is not the driving force of our outcomes.”
“There’s a tolerance for pain that maybe some investors hadn’t priced in,” said Ross Mayfield, an investment strategist at Baird.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in a press briefing Tuesday reiterated comments by Trump that the US is in “a period of economic transition.” Asked about the declines in the market, Leavitt said they are a “snapshot of a moment in time.”
“The president will look out for Wall Street and for Main Street just like he did in his first term, and people on Wall Street and Main Street should bet on this president. He’s doing what’s right for this country,” Leavitt said.
“The American people gave the president a tremendous opportunity to restore American greatness and restore our manufacturing dominance, and he’s intent on doing just that,” she added.
Wall Street’s volatility comes on the heels of a steep selloff on Monday that saw the Dow tumble 890 points and the S&P 500 shed 2.7%.
Trump in an interview with Fox News on Sunday had declined to rule out the possibility of a recession, contributing to investor anxiety. Trump told reporters Tuesday that the market selloff does not “concern” him and that he “doesn’t see” a recession.
Among the stocks dragging markets lower on Monday were airlines. Delta Airlines (DAL) slid 7.25% after the company on Monday slashed its earnings forecast for the year. American Airlines (AAL) fell 8.3% and United Airlines (UAL) fell 2%.
Elsewhere, Ford (F), one of the most actively traded stocks Tuesday, slid 2.7%.
“Extreme fear” has been the sentiment driving investors for the past two weeks, according to CNN’s Fear and Greed Index, stoked by the uncertainty caused by Trump’s back-and-forth tariff announcements.
European stocks slumped as the anxiety around Trump’s tariffs spread to global markets. The pan-European STOXX Europe 600 index fell 1.7%. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC indexes were each 1.3% lower on the day, while London’s FTSE 100 was down 1.2%.
CNN’s Matt Egan and Sam Waldenberg contributed reporting.
Trump makes flurry of posts as global markets fall amid fears of US recession
President shares more than 100 Truth Social posts as stock markets react shakily to his refusal to rule out recession
Tue 11 Mar 2025 15.41 GMT
Last modified on Tue 11 Mar 2025 15.51 GMTDonald Trump posted to social media more than 100 times on Monday in a frenzy of self-aggrandizing messages even as the global stock market fell sharply amid fears that his economic policies could produce a US recession.
Far from rushing to calm troubled waters after markets reacted shakily to his refusal to rule out a recession, the US president instead shared a blizzard of links on Truth Social, the platform he owns, starting at 11.44am ET with a link to a Fox News article about Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, raising defense spending before visiting Washington last month.
Dozens of other messages followed in rapid succession, most of them sharing articles praising Trump’s policies, economic and otherwise.
At 1.05pm – shortly after the FTSE in London had closed down 1.4% and as media analysts were already floating the idea of a US recession or a “Trumpcession” – the president posted not about the economy but about Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist and legal US resident whose arrest by immigration authorities on Saturday night stoked huge protest.
After a break of a few hours, another string of unadorned links appeared on Trump’s account, covering policies and obsessions including a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize by a Republican in Congress, then embedded tweets of Republican support for him.
After US markets closed – with the S&P down 2.7%, the Dow Jones down 2%, the Nasdaq down 4%, and shares in Elon Musk’s Tesla seeing their worst day since late 2020, falling 15 points – Trump’s account was posting ads for The Apprentice, the 2000s reality show that rescued him from financial oblivion and set him out on the road to political power.
He later accused Canada of being “a Tariff abuser” and said “Elon Musk is ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!” while accusing leftists of “illegally and collusively” trying to boycott Tesla.
As usual White House officials had been speaking anonymously to media outlets, seeking to explain what the president really meant and to attempt to calm growing worries over economic chaos.
Speaking to CNBC, one official said: “We’re seeing a strong divergence between animal spirits of the stock market and what we’re actually seeing unfold from businesses and business leaders. The latter is obviously more meaningful than the former on what’s in store for the economy in the medium to long term.”
Michael Wolff, the author of four books on Trump, has described how many of the posts on his account are not made by the president but by Natalie Harp, a devoted aide whose closeness to the president has confused, angered and worried family members, according to Wolff.
Sarah Matthews, a White House communications aide in Trump’s first administration, has said in congressional testimony that it is “painfully obvious” when a tweet or social post is written by Trump himself because of “the phrasing of it, the capitalization of letters”. She added that messages sent by aides “seemed a little bit more grammatically correct”.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/12/politics/trump-musk-tesla-white-house-stock-market/index.html
As stock slumps drain America’s 401(k)s, Trump props up his billionaire sidekick
CNN —
As Wall Street reeled for a second straight day on Tuesday, President Donald Trump chose not to appear with worried working people but to prop up the share prices and wealth of the world’s richest man – Elon Musk – with a bizarre sales pitch for Tesla on the White House South Lawn.
The optics of Trump responding on camera in this way to a stock exchange rout that has wiped billions from Americans’ retirement accounts amid anxiety over his trade wars and erratic leadership were striking. That was especially the case given public anxiety caused by sell-offs that have sent the S&P 500 down nearly 10% from its highs and Trump’s yet to be fulfilled vows as a candidate to quickly cut the prices of groceries.
In the 2024 campaign, Trump donned an apron and worked a McDonald’s fries station and clambered aboard a garbage truck in a fluorescent vest in effective photo-ops that stressed his kinship with regular Americans and the Democrats’ failure to connect.
Trump
works behind the counter making french fries during a visit to
McDonald's restaurant on October 20, 2024, in Feasterville-Trevose,
Pennsylvania.
But with mounting fears of a recession – a possibility Trump twice refused to rule out on Sunday, stunning markets – the president seemed most concerned about a fellow billionaire at the White House. Top aides meanwhile downplayed investor panic as a mere symptom of a “period of economic transition.”
Trump stood with Musk next to a gleaming line-up of the electric vehicle mogul’s pioneering models and condemned protests and threats targeting Tesla dealerships as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency shreds the bureaucracy and slashes government spending.
The president condemned Musk’s critics for treating him “unfairly,” adding, “You can’t be penalized for being a patriot.”
But the event raised questions over whether the president is becoming disconnected with the economic suffering in the country – one of the trends that led to his election victory last year.
A new CNN/SSRS poll Wednesday showed 56% of Americans now disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy – his worst rating on his issue of his entire White House career. The story is reversed on immigration with 51% saying they back the president’s approach.
Tesla shares rebound as the Dow crumbles
Musk, the most powerful private citizen inside a presidential administration in modern times, is facing product boycotts and protests as he takes a chainsaw to the federal government. Most demonstrations have been peaceful, but police are investigating widespread reports of vandalism in some locations. The market value of Musk’s firms has also plummeted since he took on his polarizing new role in politics.
But thanks to Trump’s endorsement – and promise to buy a Tesla Model S – Tesla shares climbed 3.8% on Tuesday, heading in the opposite direction of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which dipped 478 points (1.4%).
Trump,
with Musk, delivers remarks next to a Tesla Model Y, a Cyber Truck and a
Model S on the South Lawn of the White House on March 11, 2025 in
Washington, DC.
Asked whether his event for Tesla would boost the company’s sales and share prices, the president said, “I hope it does.”
At times, as Trump and Musk talked up the Teslas, they looked more like salesmen on a dealership forecourt than the world’s most powerful man and its wealthiest. Trump held a paper listing the prices of various models pictured by a Getty Images photographer that noted that a basic model can be leased for $299 a month.
“Who else but this guy would design this and everybody on the road is looking at it,” the president marveled in front of a Cybertruck. Musk replied: “We want the future to look like the future.”
On a sunny March day in Washington, the president was in a good mood, and he cracked jokes as he bantered with a press pool and staff. In a more normal administration, the photo op might be passed off as simply a president highlighting a great American company. In 2021, for instance, then-President Joe Biden took a hybrid electric Jeep on a ride through the White House grounds.
But it’s a mark of how Trump and Musk have shattered the normal ethical conventions surrounding the presidency that the event took place at all. It represented a staggering conflict of interest for a president to conduct a sales pitch for a product owned by a member of his administration who is in a position to shape government policy and regulations to benefit his own firms. One reporter asked the DOGE chief whether he’d continue as Tesla CEO while in government. He replied that he would, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
But there are new signs that Musk’s prominent role is backfiring with the public. In the CNN poll, only 35% of Americans had a positive view of the tech mogul, with 53% having a negative view. Roughly 6 in 10 Americans say he has neither the right experience nor judgment to change the way the government works.
Trump’s uncertainty is weighing on markets, expert says
Trump’s Tesla event came on another day of head-spinning exchanges with Canada that typified the volatility spooking markets. The president had threatened to slap a 50% tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum imports after Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, broached a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to Michigan, Minnesota and New York. The escalation was defused after a telephone call between Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Ford, a Trump-style populist. The president praised the premier as “strong” as each side claimed the other had backed down.
The spat was the latest in an extraordinary series of disputes between the Trump administration and Canada, one of America’s closest allies, that has shattered the idea that the two nations, as well as Mexico, could form a trade bloc to compete with the European Union and China. Indeed, Trump again insisted Tuesday that Canada should become the 51st state. The prospect of an all-out trade war, and the president’s other disruptive policies as he’s sided with enemies such as Russia and rebuked allies across the Atlantic, has conjured a febrile atmosphere that has rattled investors. Trump’s failure to rule out a recession this year in an interview with Fox News on Sunday was the last straw for the markets. His unpredictable policy moves are rocking economic sentiment at exactly the wrong moment, as hiring slows and consumer confidence ebbs.
Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG US, compared the situation to drivers pulled up at a broken stoplight, unwilling to cross a busy intersection because they fear getting into a crash. “That’s what we are seeing in real time right now. We are seeing uncertainty weigh on the economy,” Swonk told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “We are seeing it have a direct toll, we are seeing it on all the earnings calls … where people say, ‘We can’t give you any guidance about where we are going because we don’t know what is going to happen with tariffs, we don’t know what is going to happen with borders.’”
But alongside Musk, Trump blamed stock market losses on his watch on Biden, whom he falsely said “gave us a horrible economy.” Trump added: “I think the market was going to go very, very bad” despite predicting last year stocks would soar when he took office.
There is no public sign that Trump is thinking about changing course, despite the painful market losses that are not only leaving many citizens scared for their future retirement funds but also making life uncomfortable for those who are already retired and have to live on their diminishing 401(k)s.
This prompts the question of whether Trump is serious about his desire to transform the world trading system and the US economy whatever the cost.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt argued on Tuesday that the current short-term pain would be a distant memory when Trump’s policies come to fruition.
“What the president envisions for this country is for the United States of America to be a manufacturing superpower, where there are American factories and businesses owned by Americans producing goods that we are exporting to the rest of the world,” Leavitt told reporters. “Those revenues will stay here. It will increase wages for people here in our great country. It will ensure our national security and it will boost the morale of the American people to have thriving industries again.”
The goal of bringing jobs back to the US from low-wage economies abroad is commendable, and Trump’s plan to remodel the economy is a response to the hollowing-out of industrialized areas and the uneven benefits of globalization. These themes have helped him twice win election to the White House, and there is no doubt he’s responding to the aspirations of his voters.
Yet such a fundamental reshaping of the economy could take decades, and there’s no certainty that big business will take costly decisions to relocate in the less than four years Trump has left in the White House. In the meantime, tariffs, which result in higher prices for consumers, could cause huge economic damage. And trying to recreate a 20th century economy in a new era dominated by the implications of an artificial intelligence revolution might be a retrograde bet in any case.
After his uncharacteristic lack of bombast over the economy on Sunday, Trump is back to invoking a golden age. Asked about the possibility of a recession, he replied, “I don’t see it at all.” He added, “I think this country is going to boom.”
But the doubt created by the president’s weekend equivocation on the issue will take time to dispel. And he did a better job cheerleading for his friend’s car company Tuesday than convincing his doubters he’s got a plan to make the economy great again.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
Lawrence on Wharton's worst student: Trump is mentally incapable of doing the job he was elected to
MSNBC 
royal
smart & tough as they come 
Trump's tariffs roil U.S. markets. And that's the reaction that matters
Canada's retaliation is a rounding error compared to the value of the U.S. market dip
Canada can huff, and puff, but if anything's going to blow down Donald Trump's house of tariffs, it's going to be the reaction within the United States.
And there are signs of pushback.
The stock market is turning, economic sentiment is nosediving, the U.S. president's approval is receding, and American lawyers are preparing lawsuits.
Those factors will likely pack more punch in Washington than the $155 billion in counter-tariffs threatened by Canada. To put this number in perspective, it's a fraction of what American stock markets have lost this week.
The president caused an instant swoon with several simple words: "The tariffs — they're all set," Trump said on Monday, confirming a 25 per cent duty on most products was coming today, and that there was nothing Canada and Mexico could say to dissuade him.
Markets replied by quickly wiping out their entire gains for 2025, with the S&P 500 losing 1.76 per cent on the day, triggering hundreds of billions in losses in what Bloomberg's evening newsletter called, "the Trump sell-off."
The drop continued Tuesday morning, with stocks further declining after the opening bell.
Trump says tariffs on Canada, Mexico will take effect TuesdayAfter Trump spoke, the index turned negative for the year. Minutes later, the host on Trump's favourite network, Fox News's Martha MacCallum said the market was "freaking out a bit." But that modest single-day decline of nearly two percentage points, and five-point drop month-to-month, is by no means the only grey cloud on the economic horizon.
U.S. consumer confidence has had its sharpest monthly drop since the pandemic in February. Spending is down. The Atlanta Federal Reserve's forecast for this quarter has collapsed into negative territory, raising the heretofore unthinkable possibility of a GDP contraction.
Ripples continued emanating Tuesday in public comments from major American companies. Retail giant Target said it expected to raise prices within days, specifically mentioning Mexican strawberries, bananas and avocados in an interview with CNBC. Electronics retailer Best Buy saw its stock nosedive more than 13 per cent, after warning the tariffs could darken its revenue projections.
In an effort to quell the storm, Trump administration officials acknowledged there could be some short-term pain from these and other incoming tariffs, but promised long-term gain in the reassuring of American manufacturing jobs.
Meanwhile, his own political honeymoon is in doubt. Trump had enjoyed some of the best approval numbers of his career, but they are ticking down and sliding underwater, meaning the point where they're below his disapproval level.
"You're getting a negative vibe," said Gary Hufbauer, a longtime trade-watcher at the pro-market Peterson Institute for International Economics.
The premier of Canada's most populous province was doing everything in his power Monday to fan the flames of economic fear in the U.S.
Production at General Motors CAMI Automotive facility in Ingersoll, Ontario. (Dave Chidley/The Canadian Press)
Ontario's Doug Ford was on NBC threatening to shut off electricity exports to the U.S., and minerals for manufacturing, and provincial contracts for U.S. companies — prompting the host to ask whether he's been discussing this with the prime minister.
Ford said he had.
"I will shut down manufacturing," he said. "I'm going after absolutely everything.… The market is going to go downhill faster than the American bobsled team.… It will be an absolute disaster — and it's all due to one person."
That one person, Trump, has all but rubbished the continental trade agreement he signed, an agreement that's supposed to set predictable rules for mostly open trade.
Trump is now going to ask Canada and Mexico to renegotiate portions of that Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). The deal must, by law, be reviewed starting in 2026, and the administration says it's going to start public consultations.
But American trade lawyers won't just have their eyes on the CUSMA review. They'll also be busy handling lawsuits.
Ontario premier threatens to cut U.S. energy 'with a smile.' How's Alberta reacting? | Hanomansing TonightThis will be the first time a U.S. president has used the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs.
The law requires the president to declare a national emergency — which Trump has, in fact, done with the border, dubbing fentanyl and migration that emergency.
Expect lawsuits challenging his use of the law, claiming that he's abused it, and his power, with a trumped-up crisis involving Canada.
After all, several Trump aides have saluted Canada's actions at the border. They even put out press releases declaring a win. They're also celebrating a spectacular plunge in irregular border-crossings.
There could be a "strong argument" that Trump's claims about the border are a pretext for the tariffs, said Dan Ujczo, senior counsel at Ohio-based Thompson Hine.
Ujczo notes that both the White House and the Department of Homeland Security repeatedly said in February that the border was at its most secure in history. "It is challenging to say that Mexico and Canada have not taken efforts to secure the border," he said.
Don't count on the courts stopping him. American presidents' trade actions tend not to get overturned by judges.
But litigants will try.
One auto industry official says it's absurd to put tariffs on his sector to alleviate a supposed fentanyl crisis.
"A Chevy Silverado built in Oshawa with steel from Pennsylvania and plastic resins from Texas is not a threat to national security within the principle of that legislation," said Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, Canada's auto-parts lobby group.
"[Trump] continues to publicly conflate a series of opinions and gripes while justifying punitive economic measures on us. Surely in a neutral court environment, that will be seen as bad faith manoeuvring."
So now we watch the Americans. American investors, and the courts. For all the talk about how Canada might fight tariffs, the decisive battle is south of the border.
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Team Canada mates no more: How tariff threat put Ford and Smith on divergent tracks
They firmly disagree on how to handle Trump. To understand why, consider their backgrounds and backyard
As Albertans will testify after experiencing the Tory dynasty and the last couple of UCP premiers, conservatives are not all built the same.
Jason Kenney took Alberta in directions past Progressive Conservative leaders never dared to, while Danielle Smith rose to leadership by repudiating Kenney's COVID management — and he did his share of rebuking her Sovereignty Act idea.
The current Alberta premier, a former talk-show host and lobbyist, similarly never seemed to have much in common with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, a business owner from a sort of political dynasty family. But both have often worn the "populist" tag; Ford and Smith gave direct payments to residents to ease the affordability crunch.
Until this week, there was generally chumminess and accord between the pair of conservative premiers from Canada's oil province and from its manufacturing heartland. They'd even been the twin Canadian regulars on Fox Business and Fox News, both pitching to the U.S. conservative networks the ills of tariffs and the benefits of Canadian trade.
Then came this week, and their sharply different approaches and positions around the threat of Donald Trump's tariffs and Canada's own potential retaliations. That may owe partly to his and her own personalities and backgrounds, but it's also rooted in their own backyards.
Smith defiantly kept her own signature off the joint statement the prime minister and all other premiers inked about the response to the U.S. president-elect's proposed import tax of up to 25 per cent on all Canadian goods. She was the lone premier to do so, arguing she couldn't tolerate Canada continuing to entertain or threaten using export taxes or other sanctions on oil as a pressure point in a trade war.
"We will take whatever actions are needed to protect the livelihoods of Albertans from such destructive federal policies," Smith said.
By pinning it on the federal Liberals, Smith slips by the fact that, with their statements and comments, these policies are now endorsed (at least in theory or principle) by all her counterparts.
Ford had helped co-ordinate the position statement to which Justin Trudeau and 12 provincial and territorial leaders of various political stripes had agreed.
At the end of Wednesday's meeting of those leaders, Ford said he understood Smith's impulse to defend her province's energy industry.
He added pointedly: "I have a different theory, that [you] protect your jurisdiction but country comes first."
U.S.
president-elect Donald Trump is seen at an election night watch party
at the Palm Beach Convention Center on Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach,
Fla. (Evan Vucci/The Associated Press)
The Ontario premier has talked much about retaliation in the weeks since Trump first launched his tariff threats, saying in December his province's hydro agency could cut off the U.S.'s electricity supply.
"You can't let someone hit you over the head with a sledgehammer without hitting them back twice as hard, in my opinion," Ford had said before the premiers' one-day summit. And, to the idea of taking oil export taxes off the table, gave the cagey gambler's remark: "If you have some aces, you hold on to your aces."
Smith, by contrast, wants Alberta's ace industry sheltered.
She has consistently denounced the idea of throttling her region's energy exports to make Americans wince in a trade war. Nor does she even want to talk about what retaliations to use or threaten, saying in a briefing with reporters on Monday she doesn't "think it's helpful to negotiate that in public."
This week's most indelible iconography from these leaders couldn't be more different, either. She was pictured at Mar-a-Lago meeting Trump himself, alongside Kevin O'Leary, the Canadian businessman who has proposed fusing the two countries together with a common currency, regulations and more.
Smith,
left, and Trump were joined at Mar-a-Lago by celebrity investor Kevin
O'Leary, right, who has courted controversy recently by expressing
support for the idea of an economic union between Canada and the U.S. (Danielle Smith/X)
Ford? He sported a baseball cap stating "Canada is not for sale."
Outside of Alberta, there's been condemnation to the distance Smith has created from the Team Canada approach. "Nothing should be taken off the table before negotiations even start," international affairs expert and former Trudeau advisor Roland Paris said on social media.
"Trump has found his weak link in Canada. He didn't need to look far. She delivered herself to him."
But within her province, there's more understanding of her pleas for the province's sector to be shielded from both Trump's measures and Canada's response.
All leaders are employing a negotiate-first, retaliate-second position, said Gary Mar, CEO of the Calgary-based Canada West Foundation.
"But the form of that retaliation will differ. Yeah. Depending on what part of the country you're from, that shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody," said Mar, an Alberta representative in Washington during the George W. Bush administration.
Mar reasons that threatening to constrain or tax oil shipments would greatly hurt the energy sector and create gluts because so much of Canada's oil goes south, and that Washington could blunt the price blow of any oil taxes by opening up the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve.
Ford puts spotlight on Ottawa company with 'Canada is not for sale' hat What Smith and Ford are variously warning and threatening may also have much to do with their own provincial economies. When the Ontario premier muses about throttling power exports, he's talking about sacrificing a significant but not defining source of government revenue and jobs in his province — for the sake of guarding against tariffs on automobile manufacturing, Ontario's most lucrative sector.
But if Alberta's energy sector became a bargaining chip, this would sacrifice the province's lifeblood industry — and for the sake of what? To fend off threats to less important sectors in Alberta and the crown-jewel sectors of other parts of the country.
Mar also sees merit in the former businessman Ford's tactics, which he says are right from Trump's own playbook — literally, his Art of the Deal.
"You always try and put the person you're negotiating with on their back foot," Mar said. "[Trump] weaponizes uncertainty, and he's done it time and time again."
But trying to span the duelling approaches, Mar adds: "I understand the need to say everything's on the table, but we're going to have to be careful to understand what the impacts are going to be."
Smith is also from a long line of Alberta leaders who routinely battle with Ottawa, which is less of a tradition in the province where Ottawa is located. Neither jurisdiction has much history warring with the United States, Canada's historic ally and dominant export customer.
Alberta premier urges Canada to prepare for Trump tariffsThe differing identities in Western Canada and Central Canada may be at play too. An Environics Institute study last year found that there are far more Albertans who primarily identify with their province — and Smith has made "Alberta first" a rallying cry for that base — compared to Ontario, where people are the least likely in Canada to primarily cling to their provincial belonging.
While Ford and Smith are arguably the most powerful conservatives in government in Canada, they're likely to get overtaken by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre if he wins an upcoming election.
It's near impossible to predict where U.S.-Canada relations will be after an expected spring federal election. But given Smith's tensions with Ford and other premiers, the Alberta leader's rocky relationship with her Confederation partners may not end if Poilievre replaces Trudeau.
The federal Conservative leader has recently had praise for Smith — calling her a "fantastic leader" on Jordan Peterson's podcast — and appears to have a testier relationship with Ford. But Poilievre has not come down on either side of this question about keeping a retaliatory export tax on oil as an option, or on Smith's opt-out of the Team Canada approach.
It's unclear if he'll stay mum on Smith's strategy in the meantime. He repeatedly dodged the question during a media conference on Thursday by instead blaming the federal Liberals for dividing Canadians, and not building more pipelines and gas-export terminals for non-U.S. shipments.He said that rather than a unified response, there are "10 different foreign affairs ministers, running things separately."
Ford may not see it that way. He would see nine of Canada's provincial leaders standing together, and Smith on her own.
Trudeau takes aim at Alberta premier not supporting Canada’s tariff response planABOUT THE AUTHOR
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