Donald Trump gave us a 30-day reprieve from tariffs. That gave us time to think about who we are as Canadians. Time to reconsider our travel plans. Time to carefully consider our retail purchases.
About a day (maybe an hour?) after Trump announced his tariff threat, my wife had already begun investigating American products to avoid. I thought, this is serious. We just ran out of oranges!
Costco has made it much easier for us by clearly labeling where their produce comes from. So far, I can’t find a substitute for American navel oranges, but for most everything else we now support our friends in Europe, Mexico, Central and South America. And if the tariffs go up, I promise you, I’ll even give up my favourite American fruit.
I realize Trump is inherently unpredictable and that Canada has more to lose in a trade war, but I wonder if Trump has overplayed his hand. He didn’t get much out of the first round of talks other than an anti-American backlash at the supermarket. Mexico promised to send troops to the border, as they did under Joe Biden, and Canada recommitted the same money to the border. Oh yeah, and we anointed (perhaps with oil) a fentanyl czar. Whatever. We have fentanyl problems, too, many of them originating in the U.S.
But perhaps the biggest obstacle for Trump is that this could sink his economic ship before it even sets sail. A first-year economics student could tell you that a tariff war will cause prices to escalate and economies to suffer on both sides of the border. One would think that after a month of egg prices going through the roof, he may not wish to inflict even more pain on consumers. In case you don’t think egg prices matter, they were one of the most cited products when Americans were asked about issues that mattered during the last election. It’s the little things that really bother people.
Never mind that their president is acting like a monarch, turning the world order upside down by siding with the world's most despised dictators.
It’s disheartening to see the so-called leader of the free world no longer respecting nations’ sovereignty or the rule of law. The last thing we need after emerging from covid lockdowns, wars in Europe and the Middle East, and runaway inflation is another unstable superpower.
I’m afraid we’ve reached the apex of American arrogance. The worst math student is in charge of class, claiming that two plus two equals five and all the other students are nodding their heads in agreement. Even the once staunch defender of Ukraine Marco Rubio is glad-handing Russians under the shadow of his MAGA cap. How quickly they abandon all sense of right and wrong to toe the line.
How quickly they forget the pitfalls of unbridled colonialism. Forget Iraq and Afghanistan, this is Gaza! The Middle East is easy. Conquest is suddenly back in vogue all because men are feeling emasculated in the United States of America. The white man has clearly been discriminated against, or at least that’s the vibe I’m getting from Republicans and Joe Rogan.
If we’ve learned anything in the last few years, it’s the risk of autocracy with one man (never a woman) controlling all the levers of power. American institutions were created to combat this, and within a very short time frame, we’ll see if they actually can.
In the meantime, try to buy Canadian.
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