If we know anything about U.S. President Donald Trump, it’s that he values strength. Yet at his press conference on Tuesday announcing Canada’s response to U.S. tariffs, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau couldn’t help coming across like a child complaining to his teacher about the schoolyard bully.
Unlike most of Trudeau’s news conferences, this one garnered significant attention on both sides of the border, yet he showed up 40 minutes late and then proceeded to lecture the handful of Americans who hadn’t switched the channel on how terrible their newly elected administration is.
“We don’t want to see you hurt … but your government has chosen to do this to you,” said Trudeau.
Although Trudeau came out swinging, saying, “We will not back down from a fight, not when our country and the well-being of everyone in it are at stake,” his retaliatory measures, all of which had previously been announced, are akin to fighting a gun battle with a pocket knife: 25 per cent tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods, which are now in effect, and levies on an additional $125 billion worth of U.S. products coming into place in 21 days.
Compare that to Trump’s across-the-board tariffs of 10 per cent on Canadian energy and 25 per cent on everything else. Last year, Canada’s exports to the United States were valued at $591.5 billion, including over $170 billion worth of energy products. In comparison, Trudeau’s retaliatory tariffs are a drop in the bucket.
Not that Canadians should be in favour of imposing high tariffs on our closest neighbour. In 2024, nearly two-thirds of our imports came from the United States, ensuring that any dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs would significantly increase the cost of living for all Canadians.
There’s a good case to be made that Canada should drop all its trade barriers and invite the world to do business with us. But at the same time, you don’t stand up to a bully by acting like a wuss — which is exactly what Trudeau is doing.
What we need is the Justin Trudeau who invoked the Emergencies Act to deal with some protesters who didn’t like him; the Justin Trudeau who imposed serious sanctions on Russia and sent lethal armaments to Ukraine; and the Justin Trudeau who had no problem getting in a ring and beating up on a senator to show he was more than just a pretty face.
What we got was the prime minister who cried when Gord Downie died and had trouble holding back his tears when he announced his resignation.
To be fair, it’s become abundantly clear that no one has any idea what it would take to convince Trump to halt his trade war. The official justification for the tariffs is our supposed lack of action on preventing illegal drugs, such as fentanyl, and immigrants from crossing the border. But this was always a BS excuse.
As Trudeau pointed out, “Our border is already safe and secure. Less than one per cent of fentanyl flows and less than one per cent of illegal crossings come from Canada.”
According to the U.S. government’s own data, a mere 0.2 per cent, or 43 pounds, of the 20,000 pounds of fentanyl that was seized in the United States last year came from Canada. And even that number is too high, as it was found to include drugs that were seized in the northern U.S. but originated from Mexico.
In terms of figuring out what his American counterpart wants, Trudeau seems just as confused as the rest of us. “I think in terms of what he wants … I heard he talked about banking again this morning in a tweet, which doesn’t make any sense,” Trudeau said in response to a reporter’s question.
“It’s an example of not really being able to see what it is that he wants because even the excuse that he’s giving for these tariffs today of fentanyl is completely bogus.”
But there is a playbook for dealing with Trump and it involves stroking his fragile ego and giving him something — anything — that he can hold up as a win. This was followed by Trudeau a month ago when he convinced Trump to hold off on implementing tariffs for 30 days by basically promising border measures that had already been announced in December.
Yet this time around, despite saying that “Our entire focus has been on preventing these tariffs from coming in” — to the detriment, apparently, of preparing a coherent response to trade measures that have been threatened for months — it doesn’t sound like a whole lot of negotiating has been taking place behind the scenes.
“I have offered to speak to Donald over the past number of days and I expect to speak with him in the days to come,” Trudeau said, basically admitting that the president isn’t taking his calls.
This is a pattern that the Trudeau Liberals have fallen into time and again. Eight years ago, in the face of trade threats during Trump’s first term, Canadians were having similar conversations about diversifying our exports and capitalizing on our vast energy resources. Yet virtually nothing was done.
A month ago, our government knew it had 30 days to convince Trump not to follow through on his tariff threats and to come up with a plan for what to do if that failed. Again, virtually nothing appears to have been done.
At his news conference, Trudeau spoke of “several non-tariff measures” that could be used to fight back. But when pressed on specifics, he didn’t have any, only saying that he would discuss various ideas with the premiers.
It’s hard to imagine that Trump took anything away from Trudeau’s performance on Tuesday other than concluding that he’s dealing with a weak and ineffective leader who he can continue to walk all over.
What Canada needs are strong leaders and concrete plans, not only for dealing with Trump, but for diversifying our exports, attracting foreign investment and making our country more competitive.
What we have is a shuttered Parliament, a Liberal leadership race full of candidates disingenuously turning their backs on their own government’s track record and a lame-duck prime minister who, after eight years, still has no idea how to deal with Donald Trump.
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