Carney's tough-on-trade talk collapses
As 50% U.S. tariffs hammer $30 billion in Canadian goods, 'sweet guy' Carney's elbows are definitely at half-mast.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has suspended trade talks, vowing retaliation that will sting Canadian families harder than American tariffs, all while pivoting to China and leaving workers holding the bag.
Though Carney rode into office promising hockey-bro toughness with his “Elbows up” campaign slogan against Donald Trump, the global banker with the Rolodex who would stare down the “Orange Menace” and protect Canadian workers has failed miserably to do so.
As of midnight Friday, August 21, Carney's promises are in tatters as 50% tariffs are now slamming nearly $30 billion of Canadian goods.
Carney has suspended further talks, recalled negotiators to Ottawa, and declared Canada will match the tariffs “dollar for dollar.”
Those sound like brave words, after the fact. The “dollar-for-dollar” line comes across as fierce until one examines the numbers.
The Canadian dollar is already substantially weaker than the U.S. dollar, so when the loonie falls further under tariff pressure (which it already has and will continue to do), every imported American good becomes more expensive for Canadian families and businesses.
This is the quiet macroeconomic reality: the retaliation hits Canadians harder at home.
Not to mention, Canada is a far smaller economy and far more dependent on the U.S. market. Over 70% of our goods’ exports head south, and these factors mean that matching value-for-value does not inflict equal pain.
Earlier Canadian governments understood this asymmetry and preferred targeted measures that maximized American discomfort while trying to spare Canadian consumers. Carney’s pledges all along have simply been tough-sounding rhetoric that ignores how the imbalance actually works.
This is the same leader who presented himself as the one uniquely equipped to handle Trump. Yet leaked audio from a private fundraiser in Southampton, New York, captures U.S. Vice President JD Vance describing Carney as a “very sweet guy.”
That’s right — not fierce, not an elbows-up warrior, but ‘sweet.’
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been warning about this exact outcome for months: no deal, while concessions have already been handed over. Those include the digital tax that was scrapped last summer, Carney basically begging premiers to put American alcohol back on the shelves, and the controversially built Gordie-Howe International Bridge that will see revenues shared.
And yet, still no deal for Canadian industries.
Canadians should also remember Carney’s own words about pivoting the country toward a China-centric “new world order,” whether we like it or not.
The Liberals’ long-standing admiration for Beijing’s model of control is no secret; former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said so himself. They have shown their complete willingness to rupture democratic norms in pursuit of ideological goals, while ordinary Canadians are left in the dark about exactly where the talks cratered, about the bailout measures that already smell like COVID-era CERB 2.0, and about a Parliament that apparently does not need to be recalled to answer for any of it.
Canadian workers are left holding the bag. So is it really elbows up, or at half-mast?
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