On Canada Day, Washington declined to renew the USMCA trade deal that governs the bulk of Canada's economic relationship with its largest trading partner. It will now proceed through annual reviews — meaning no long-term certainty, no ability to plan, and no end to the tariff drama in sight.

Sheila Gunn Reid, Tamara Lich, and Cory Morgan reacted this week on a special Thursday edition of the Buffalo Roundtable.

"Businesses want stability," Morgan said. "They've got to be able to plan. They've got to be able to look long-term. And anybody who's doing international business can't do that right now."

He offered Carney a thin sliver of credit, given negotiating with Trump would be the worst job in the world, before adding that spending a year insulting the American president and painting him as a boogeyman made whatever was already hard even harder. "He salted the fields," Morgan said, "so nothing could grow after the fact."

Sheila pointed to the strategic incoherence of the past year. While the world was lining up for Canadian liquefied natural gas, oil, and fossil fuel exports, Carney was pivoting to Europe, pitching Canada as a middle power in an increasingly marginal club. "That was an evangelism for mediocrity," she said. "And here we are with no deal with the Americans."

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Tamara called the European pivot bizarre. "Canada is now attaching itself to Communist China, Qatar, and the European Union when we have our biggest trading partner right to the south," she said.

The panel also reacted to a separate development: China has imposed a nearly 75% anti-dumping tariff on Canadian pea starch following a 10-month investigation.

Sheila noted that pulses — including peas — are a highly portable, shelf-stable, cheap protein exported in enormous volumes to the developing world. Canada's canola exports have already been hammered by Chinese tariffs imposed in retaliation for the Liberals' protections on electric vehicles. "To protect Doug Ford's heavily subsidized electric vehicle industry," Sheila said. "To protect the cars nobody wants to buy."

Morgan drew the broader picture. "The canola industry is substantially larger than the steel industry," he said, "but think about the effort that was put into protecting steel while the canola industry was absolutely hammered."

He added that Carney's predecessor managed to pick a fight with India that hurt lentil farmers too — and that all anyone hears about is automotive and manufactured goods while the resource sector absorbs blow after blow. "As usual," he said, "Western industries get to pay the price for bad eastern policies."

The Buffalo Roundtable regularly airs Wednesdays at 11 a.m. MT / 1 p.m. ET.