Welcome back to This Week in Canada, where the weekend collapse of trade talks with the U.S. leaves us asking: What the hell happened? And what did we win and lose when Prime Minister Carney told Canada’s negotiators to walk away from the table? Let’s get to it.
For more than a year, it looked like Canada was close to doing what nearly every other major American trading partner had done: making a deal with President Donald Trump. Last Wednesday, Trump announced what he called “a very good deal for both parties,” subject only to “the finalization of documents.” Prime Minister Mark Carney said that the draft agreement would reinforce Canada’s competitive advantage.
But on Saturday at 11:45 p.m. ET, Carney announced that Canada was abandoning the talks and would retaliate with “dollar-for-dollar tariffs.” Trump allowed new 50 percent tariffs on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods to take effect under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which had never before been used to impose tariffs—not even on China.
Canada’s national mood was perhaps best captured by a meme of a moose in a Mountie hat guarding the border beneath a sign that says: “Strait of Our Moose is closed. No entry. Unfair tariffs.” On Monday, another meme noted that exactly 212 years ago, British troops from what is now Canada set the White House ablaze.
“He can kiss my ass,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford added. “Stay tuned” was Ford’s response when asked if he wanted to bring back last fall’s anti-tariff ad featuring clips from a 1987 speech by Ronald Reagan.
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