On Saturday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted that he and the Liberal party had failed in its negotiations to protect Canadians from 25 per cent tariffs, except that’s not how he framed the situation. Instead, he made it look like his government was powerless to address American concerns about securing our border from potential security threats posed by the crossing of illegal migrants and drugs from Canada into the U.S.
Trudeau spoke in platitudes, describing how Canadians brave the cold during long winter months. This was eaten up by commentators quick to assume that Donald Trump’s concerns were unwarranted in the first place, and that the Liberals had already done everything in their power to convince him otherwise, but to no avail. Turns out it is much more complicated than that.
What immediately struck me about the announcement was what was missing. This should have been the Liberal government reporting back to Canadians details about negotiations with the U.S. over threatened tariffs, including what both parties agreed upon, where they disagreed, what had been offered, whether there were any counter-offers, and who, exactly, negotiated what.
Instead, Trudeau left Canadians in the dark. Even reporters didn’t appear to be interested in the details.
Canadians should not continue to accept such a low level of information from our government. To add insult to injury, Trudeau started his press conference almost three-and-a-half hours late.
I can think of no better metaphor for the governance of the Trudeau Liberals than the image of that empty room, with its maple-leafed wooden podium and its four Canadian flags, our flags, standing there, unattended.
When Trudeau finally arrived, he made it clear to everyone watching, which likely included Trump — the one person he needed to convince that his government was taking these issues seriously — that he, in fact, did not.
Fresh off of failed negotiations, Trudeau told Canadians, “our shared border is already safe and secure,” choosing to downplay the illegal migrant crossings and fentanyl issues by suggesting that Canada’s part in both of these crises makes up less than one per cent of the U.S.’ overall problem.
Of course, using a percentage and not providing an actual number is the oldest trick in the book when it comes to diminishing an issue. As the saying goes, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” In reality, in the first ten months of 2024 alone, the U.S. border intercepted more than 21,000 migrants crossing illegally from Canada into the United States. And this, of course, includes only those who were intercepted. It’s possible the number is higher, given that our border is largely undefended. Either way, 21,000 illegal crossings in ten months is not insignificant.
The suggestion that Canada doesn’t have a fentanyl exporting problem, because less than one per cent of the fentanyl that has been intercepted crossing into the U.S. comes from Canada, must be put into context. Fentanyl is hard to detect, as it is odourless and tasteless. One hundred times more toxic than morphine, it only takes about two milligrams (about the size of four grains of salt) to kill the average adult. One kilogram, or 2.2 lbs of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people. Therefore, the interception of 43 lbs of fentanyl through our border is not insignificant. Even the RCMP agrees that Canada is now a significant producer of fentanyl. And we’re now a global exporter.
This isn’t to say that Trump’s threat of tariffs to address these concerns is appropriate, and reports have suggested that the Americans have not always been the easiest to negotiate with, but Trudeau trying to dismiss worries over drugs crossing the border doesn’t help.
Even top-level Democrats agree this is a shared problem. President Biden tasked then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken with building a “global coalition to target fentanyl traffickers and the money laundering and all the associated crimes that come with it.” In 2023, Blinken reached out to Port Coquitlam Mayor, Brad West, who had been speaking out on “transnational organized crime in B.C. and how it’s helping to drive illicit drug deaths in the province.” After meeting with Blinken, West was convinced that “Canada is a weak link,” making it attractive to drug traffickers.
If a Democratic President, a Secretary of State and a B.C. Mayor can all agree on this, then perhaps dismissing our shared border with the U.S, as “already safe and secure” and immediately launching counter-tariffs, wasn’t the best choice on the part of the Liberals. In contrast to Trudeau, who has been in office for nine years, Mexico’s newly elected President Claudia Sheinbaum chose to wait before announcing specific retaliation plans, and instead, picked up the phone to negotiate.
Trudeau did, eventually, make concessions on Monday, after already threatening counter-tariffs. Ultimately, he got on the phone like Sheinbaum, bolstered his original offer of a $1.3 billion border plan by adding a “fentanyl czar,” a “joint task force with the U.S. to address drug trafficking and money laundering,” and promised to beef up security. And for now at least, the crisis has been averted.
Trudeau’s speech on Saturday was clearly a rally-around-the-flag attempt. If tariffs were imposed by Trump, Liberal failures over the past nine years might be replaced with concerns about Trump. The Liberals might enjoy an increase in popularity from worried Canadians who have rushed to do their part in the fight against Trump and America by joining made-in-Canada Facebook groups, one of which currently has over 660 thousand members. A tariff-induced government response package for workers might make some Canadians feel politically indebted to them.
Liberal strategist Andrew Perez took to X to say: “The Trump tariff and resulting Canada-U.S. trade war might just be the black swan event that resuscitates federal Liberal fortunes allowing the party to hold Poilievre’s Conservatives to a minority gov’t this spring/next fall *or possibly even eek out a minority Liberal gov’t themselves* Many will call me crazy for merely expressing this thought, but these are truly unprecedented times and stranger things have happened in our history, no doubt. #cdnpoli #TrumpTariff”
Dark, I know. But these are dark and desperate political times for the Liberals.
Recall Parliament now.
National Post
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