Canada’s Gordie Howe Hat Trick
Canada says enough. No more bad deals, no more waiting on a partner that can’t be trusted.
An image of Sarnia at the Canada-U.S. border. A renewed sense of economic patriotism is taking hold as Canada looks to reduce its dependence on the United States and chart a more self-reliant path.
Finally, Canada has done what so many countries want and feel inclined to do but are staying quiet or going along out of fear of American reprisals. We are saying good riddance to the diktats of Donald Trump and his failing administration. Enough appeasement and enough trying to negotiate with a counterpart that has no more redeeming qualities.
Trump’s signature is worthless and as Prime Minister Carney alluded to, an agreement’s signature would have been written in pencil; a signature easily erased by his next late night Truth Social outrage. From trade, foreign policy, to defence, the word of this US administration is simply vacuous. We need to stop pretending and start learning how to be more self-sufficient. Yes, we might pay a little more for hockey sticks, but why on earth isn’t this great country making its own darn sticks? It is not for a shortage of wood, patriotism, or consumers. We simply need to not give Trump a chance to weaponize the interdependence of globalization that we all took for granted. Watch out. Canada is ready for its Gordie Howe hat trick.
Yes, our trade and economy are highly interdependent with the United States, but Canadians can and will be ready to find other partners and markets. Trying to restrict Canada from signing trade deals with other countries, as PM Carney revealed was on the Americans’ last-minute conditions that scuppered a deal, would have further deepened potential dependency and only made us more vulnerable to Trump’s next and predictable antic.
Yes, prices may go up and there are many Canadians already hurting financially but none of today’s economic pains have a solution in Washington. Answers can only come from our legislative capitals and in the ingenuity of our policy community. What’s more, Trump’s continued and repeated pronouncements of on and off again trade negotiations have ironically factored in considerable price changes in proposed items to be tariffed. We have all seen prices of goods and services go up, when very little had changed in terms of tariff rates; these were the prices adjusted for businesses’ fears of what was to come. Well, the moment is here and time for Canadian consumers to hold businesses to account.
There should be no tolerance for price gouging and like the patriotic Canadians who turned items upside down on shelves to indicate these were American products, let’s start a grassroots movement to name and shame businesses who are taking advantage of Canadian consumers. Our federal government needs to be more ruthless in calling out those bad market actors.
We have a corpus of anti-competitive laws to prevent monopolies, price fixing, and other firm behaviour that interrupt with a free market. Our media need to be an important part of telling that story. Canadians from all political stripes will have no tolerance for opportunists and we are all hungry for justice. May our journalists to keyboard warriors fight the good fight for our sovereignty.
The Americans do not have a monopoly on any item that Canadians cannot live without. That is the hard truth. We are a resource rich and still industrious country with no shortage of talent or grit. We are not landlocked, we are not an island, and we have no shortage of friends and allies. Actually, Canada is being applauded across the globe. Have no doubt, the world is cheering us on. Now more than ever, other countries will be ready to partner with one that has principles.
Bravo to our Prime Minister for recognizing that the current US administration is not a reliable partner and a separation is better than staying in a bad marriage. From Hungary, the UK, to Brazil, leaders that have cowed to Trump have not been left unscathed by their voting public. Walking away from a bad deal was a smart political move that will pay off for this government.
Trump’s tempestuous nature means this trade war will get ugly. Make no mistake that each volley of retaliations will be an unpredictable roller coaster of events, but we have survived these last 18 months of non-sense and we will come out of this just fine.
