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Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said the United States has been "a laughingstock for years and years"
As much as it's a national pastime to take shots at the good ol' Yanks, I don't think they've been a laughingstock. Unless he means years and years in a painfully literal sense and those years are specifically 2016-2020.
This has been the playbook from day oneβTrump throws out an outrageous statement, his lackeys rush to βclarifyβ, 'negotiate' or downplay it, and then, surprise, he meant exactly what he said.
The real problem is the constant gaslighting: pretending heβs just posturing when, in reality, heβs dead set on pushing his reckless, authoritarian agenda. At this point, anyone still treating him like a rational actor is either delusional or complicit. No rational actor would casually equate ethnic cleansing to a real estate transaction, or try and take over a sovereign state as though it was a ruthless corporate takeover.
There is no future in negotiating with the US - the only way out of this mess is to do what we should've been doing for the past 30 years - diversify our supply chains, build resilient trading relationships and establish the infrastructure to insulate ourselves from the whims of volatile US policymakers - even if that means cozying up to global partners with historical animosity.
Okay now we fight like hell.
Gloves are off.
He said Canada has allowed fentanyl to flood into the U.S. despite data that shows the claim is false.
Lie number... 40,000? 50,000?
What are we up to with this clown?
Because the lie counter was at over 30,000 back in 2021!
There will be those exploiting this tragedy for their own personal gain.
Be wary of American owned media pretending to be Canadian, infiltrating Canadian culture and politics.
Fuck Trump. Fuck MAGA.
Just so I'm clear, if/when Trump imposes tariffs on Canadian goods entering the US, Canada plans reciprocate with equal Teriffs on US goods entering Canada?
I/we know and understand that teriffs are basically an import tax, paid to the government by the companies which are bringing the product in, and generally that cost is passed down to consumers in the form of a higher price tag on goods.
Is the end goal here is to bolster our own economy by making US goods prohibitively expensive for Canadian citizens to buy, in turn making Canadians more likely to purchase Canadian goods (which is what we are trying to do anyway)?
What is stopping this from hurting out economy the same way it will likely hurt the US economy?
I feel like I need a stronger understanding of the situation.
There are other options than tariffs! Export taxes. Changes in regulation. Contract cancelations.
Canada has many options. We could, for instance, withdraw from bilateral copyright agreements. Or limit the amount of electricity that's permitted to be exported.
Cory Doctorow suggests that we could establish Canadian app stores with a 5% cut and mandate that all phones sold in Canada be configured to use them. Lots of ideas, on a scale from good to bad, but there's options.
What is stopping this from hurting out economy the same way it will likely hurt the US economy?
The main factor is that our tarrifs are likely to be more targeted, because we have a reasonably functional government
Just put 100% tariffs on Teslas and either the tariffs will be gone tomorrow or we'll get invaded.
Is the end goal here is to bolster our own economy by making US goods prohibitively expensive for Canadian citizens to buy, in turn making Canadians more likely to purchase Canadian goods (which is what we are trying to do anyway)?
The end goal of retaliatory tariffs are to make US businesses lobby their government to have our tariffs removed so that they can resume sales.
We should put export tariffs on energy and other critical goods that US needs in order to raise US inflation without cost to Canadian consumers, and with a boost to Canada revenues. It is the US consumer impact that would affect popular opinion against the tariffs.
FFS, we should make sure China buys our agriculture instead of US agriculture.
Canadian tariffs are targeted in a number of ways. One of the ways is targeting American goods that have Canadian alternatives. So the goal is to make American products less attractive by making them more expensive, damaging the US economy while bolstering our own.
There aren't really winners in trade wars but the goal is to minimize our pain while maximizing theirs.
Canadian tariffs are targeted in a number of ways. One of the ways is targeting American goods that have Canadian alternatives. So the goal is to make American products less attractive by making them more expensive, damaging the US economy while bolstering our own.
I feel like it's often missed that it isn't a binary Buy US/Buy Canada dilemma. Most goods have substitutes - there are other countries that can produce most consumer goods. It's only when you start getting into high-value-added goods like turbines, flash memory, missiles and planes that there's difficulties in import substitution. A 25% retaliatory tariff doesn't mean your canned tomatoes are definitely going up by 25%, but you'll likely start seeing Mexican, Peruvian, etc. canned tomatoes on Canadian shelves that weren't there before.
And while patriotism is great and all, buying goods from other countries that we don't have strong established trading ties with is a good way to make the case for closer bilateral cooperation and even future free trade agreements that exceed most-favoured nation benefits conferred by the WTO. When countries start building export-driven industries that give dignity and economic self-sufficiency for their citizens, that's a future tiger worthy of negotiating a free trade agreement with.
One beneficial side effect of the informal US products boycott in grocery stores is that many stores have already started trying to source other products. It's tough to change on short notice, and businesses often aren't veryβ¦future focused. The boycott has already started to push grocery stores in my area. There were Moroccan oranges advertised for sale last week. That means there's already a Moroccan exporter/importer already set up to clear customs, who is probably already increasing capacity.
The other thing to consider is where in the production chain the tariff is applied. Canada is unlikely to tariff the inputs into Canadian producers, just finished products with Canadian or friendly alternatives.
Thank you for the response! I haven't seen a lot of specifics about the Canadian tariffs, but maybe I just haven't been looking in the right places. It makes a lot of sense to target particular items which have Canadian alternatives, and to put pressure on Red states as u/IslandLife mentioned below.
Edit: I was wondering why the word "Teriff" didn't look right. Apparently my phone decided that was the proper way to spell Tariff.
Fantastic, thanks again! Looks like I've got some reading to do.
yea, Tariffs suck for everyone, especially when applied unilaterally... however its the best weapon we have, a tit for tat.
I hope to see some SHARP tariffs, 100% of starlink and Teslas.
Unfortunately I think a tariff on starlink could hurt Canadians more with the number of rural areas with poor Internet. I could totally get behind a tesla tariff though, there's plenty of other options there
Agreed. But most of the measure were actually targeted, like removing alcohol from red states. I think Canada should also straight up ban X/Twitter and have a roadmap to ban everything Meta, too. Yes, people could still access them via VPN, but Meta not doing business here would prevent them from getting ad revenue. Also, the target most prone to falling for fake news (boomer and dumb people) probably can't get a VPN to work, so we kill 2 birds with one stone.
Yes, people could still access them via VPN,
Have you met people? Most people use the default wifi password on their router.
Country-wide censorship is not the answer.
They have been talking about tariffs on oranges, Harley Davidson, Jack Daniel's. Tariffs like this specifically target red states putting pressure on the people who voted for Trump. Ontario alone accounts for 45% of all American liquor exports.
Thanks for your reply! That makes a lot of sense to me.
Astounding that Ontario buys that much US liquor, and reducing that market will certainly have an impact on the US economy!
As an aside, other than oranges I won't miss any of those items, and I know there are alternative options for oranges!
The lcbo is one of the largest liquor purchasers on the planet, brings in $2.5 billion as of last year to the Ontario government.
The CBC has published a website to explain things, you may find it useful.
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/features/2025/tariff-explainer/#intro
Oh that does look very useful, thank you!
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who just won a landslide majority government last week on an election promise to take on Trump and his tariffs, said the premiers are waiting to see what happens over the next 24 hours.
ffs my other side of country neighbors I trusted you guys to get rid of this useless fuck
The majority of Ontarians wanted another party. In the long run, the only viable solution is proportional representation: [email protected]
I tried.
We had just 49% turnout.
Less than half of all eligible voters decided to show up. They must love the idea of FORD robbing Ontario blind.
What is a czar in the USA? In the United States, the informal term "czar" (or, less often, "tsar") is employed in media and popular usage to refer to high-level executive-branch officials who oversee a particular policy field. Until 2025, there had never been any U.S. government offices with the formal title "czar".
Definitions from Oxford Languages Β· Learn more tsar /zΓ€r,tsΓ€r/ noun noun: czar 1. an emperor of Russia before 1917. "the assassination of the tsar and his family"
-->>> Weird that the United States of America would choose a very Russian term to describe a position.
While it hasn't been used formally until 2025, it has been used unofficially / informally since at least the time of FDR.
It's not an uncommon title.
Tzar actually comes for Caesar.
German kaiser as well.
Nice to see Ford is still planning a great blackout. That confirms it wasn't just for votes.