National Review Online
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
It is a tradition for celebrities to threaten to move to
Canada if a Republican is elected president. Now, they may have to look farther
afield. In his latest escalation of his trade war with Canada, President Trump
has again referred to the possibility of bludgeoning the country into
incorporation into the United States.
It was inevitable that Trump would have to deal with
foreign crises when he was elected, but no one thought Canada would be among
them.
In response to Ontario Premier Doug Ford placing a 25
percent surcharge on electricity exports to Michigan, Minnesota, and New York,
Trump said he’d impose an additional 25 percent tariff on Canada’s exports on
steel and aluminum on top of the already planned 25 percent tariffs on steel
and aluminum from all foreign countries. For those doing the math, that would
be a 50 percent tariff.
Trump also threatened to keep automobiles manufactured in
Canada out of the U.S., and suggested Canada becoming our “cherished Fifty
First State” was the only solution to the contention between the two countries.
Of course, the ongoing drama with Canada is fundamentally
a Trump production. There was no reason to make a threat of enormous tariffs on
Canada a month or so ago, or to inflame Canadian public sentiment with
outlandish talk of a sovereign nation — a friendly one, no less — giving up its
independent existence rather than deal with the economic pain of U.S. tariffs.
This latest flare-up abated after Ford relented. The
weakened state of (blessedly) outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
creates the space for the freelancing of a figure like Ford. It is hard advice
for Canadians to hear or heed, but retaliatory tariffs and bombast of their own
probably don’t help their cause. Still, there is more where that came from.
Trump has ensured that there will be a premium on tough-on-U.S. rhetoric in the
impending election between Trudeau’s Liberal replacement, Mark Carney, and the
talented Conservative populist Pierre Poilievre.
Trump has had constantly shifting justifications for his
threats against Canada. First, it was fentanyl and migration, which aren’t
enormous problems on our northern border. Then, it was Canadian protection for
its dairy, lumber, and banking sectors, long-running issues that don’t justify
going to DEFCON 1 with Ottawa. On Tuesday, it was a Canadian having the
temerity to punch back against a U.S. threatening to dunk his country into a
steep recession.
Trump heightened the contradictions when, after exempting
the auto sector from his currently delayed, across-the-board 25 percent tariffs
on Canada and Mexico, he talked of making automakers collateral damage in his
tiff with the premier of Ontario.
None of this is good for U.S. business, which is getting
whipsawed back and forth almost every day by the president.
As for Canada as the 51st state, it now seems to be more
than trolling. If Trump is serious, it is unfathomable that we are threatening
the sovereignty of a fellow NATO country, a friend that has repeatedly fought
and bled alongside us. If we indulge the hypothetical and Trump somehow
impoverishes Canada into submission, it would create a restive, resentful
region of the United States where there presumably wouldn’t be a lot of Trump
voters.
It’s a journalistic cliché that the most boring headline
in the world is “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative.” For President Trump, a
worthwhile Canadian initiative would be to stop tormenting Ottawa and work out
any trade or border issues in a manner befitting friends and neighbors.
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