Vincent Geloso of the Montreal Economic Institute committed heresy in a report released Wednesday: If we believe all tariffs are bad, as we say we do then, he argued, we should be “removing all import taxes and other barriers to foreign producers and investors, without any expectation of reciprocity.”
Don’t drop tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers as part of a deal with the White House, in other words. Just drop them, and let companies and consumers enjoy lower input prices.
“Simulations of Canadian economic activity with unilateral liberalization suggest that GDP would increase by 1.67 per cent and that the price level would fall by 1.51 per cent,” Geloso writes, citinga 2016 report from the Business Council of Canada.
Not going to happen, obviously. There may not be a single elected politician in Canada who agrees with this approach personally, never mind would be willing to argue for it as Canadian government policy. What we want to see in Canadian politicians right now, or what Canadian politicians think we want to see, is a willingness to fight, fight, fight for the motherland. Whether we win, lose or draw is to be sorted out later.
Geloso’s vision makes for a nice daydream, though, because it would come from a place of confidence and strength, whereas many of our other reactions, justified or not, come with at least a faint whiff of petulance. Prime example: I get the logic of not selling American liquor in government stores, but it just reminds us we live under superannuated government liquor monopolies, and it’s Canadian whisky-drinkers who suffer the most.
“We’ll just have to drink a little more B.C. wine and Alberta craft beer and spirits, which is OK with us,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said on Wednesday, apparently speaking for the entire province.
For that matter, not visiting Florida or New Orleans or Vermont this year denies us the pleasure of visiting Florida or New Orleans or Vermont this year. A fair few of us seem to be willing to do that. Advertising firms have even been cashing in on this: Flair Airlines has launched a pun-tastic campaign (nothing “trumps” these “tariffic flight deals”!) offering discounts to any non-American destination.
If Tariff Man can be dissuaded from his current course of action, I suspect it will be American voices who make it happen, not Canadian ones
Fill your boots, I say. I’m not going to suggest that I know the best way to deal with Trump. If Tariff Man can be dissuaded from his current course of action — if something so erratic can be called a “course” — I suspect it will be American voices who make it happen, not Canadian ones. But Canadian actions could help amplify some of those voices. So, by all means avoid, boycott, spurn and blacklist any American goods or services you see fit.
But let’s keep our eyes on the long game here. Donald Trump won’t be president in four years; the vast majority of Americans like Canada, and Canadians; and a lot of Canadians — more, I suspect, than polls currently suggest — like America and Americans in return. Canada needs to learn many long-term lessons from this whole shemozzle, but being less friendly to Americans — real Americans, I mean, not lawmakers — should not be one of them.
An Abacus Data poll conducted last month, while Canadians were waiting to see if Trump’s tariffs would come good on Feb. 1, found 67 per cent of Americans had a positive view of Canada, while just seven per cent had a negative view. Just 18 per cent and 13 per cent of Americans had positive views of Saudi Arabia and Russia, with 56 per cent holding negative views of the latter. Even among Trump voters, only 12 per cent expressed negative views of Canada.
A YouGov poll conducted around the same time found 76 per cent of Americans had a favourable view of Canadians. That sounds more impressive when you notice that only 78 per cent of Americans said they had a favourable view of Americans!
Canadians are not nearly so enthusiastic about America and Americans. In 2024, the Angus Reid Institute found 55 per cent of Canadians had a favourable view of the United States — up from just 41 per cent in 2021, but down from 80 per cent in the mid-1980s. The YouGov poll found just 37 per cent of Canadians had a favourable opinion of Americans.
That’s understandable: As Justin Trudeau recently said aloud, for a lot of Canadians, not being American forms a significant part of their patriotism. It’s an often embarrassing part, if you ask me. It’s why that insufferable “I Am Canadian” beer ad guy is back, 25 years later. I’m half waiting to see Rick Mercer reprise his sniggering, sneering “Talking to Americans” bit from CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes — essentially a riff on Americans’ friendly good nature, which isn’t very funny.
The biggest misunderstanding, I think, may be this: Americans, Republicans and Democrats alike, tend to see Trump’s “51st state” nonsense as a joke. They might not think it’s funny; indeed, they might think it’s appalling. But they don’t think Trump’s serious about it, whereas many Canadians do. And since Canada isn’t often on most Americans’ minds, they don’t spend any time thinking about how the suggestion is landing north of the border.
We can’t ameliorate that situation by reducing social, business and cultural contacts between Canadians and Americans. When Trump’s circus finally folds its tent, we should hope to emerge more united in pursuit of our shared future prosperity rather than less.
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