Well cox you and Trudeau are in hot water now, Trump ain't happy. Trump claims you are not pulling your own weight and he is sick and tired of carrying a rabid little monkey on his back. Face the facts and show some gratitude, Canada would not exist without Big Brother to the south.
Trump hits Canada with tariffs; PM to speak tonight on country's response
Multiple media reports say Canada was informed earlier today that the U.S. will impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports Tuesday
Stephanie Taylor
Published Feb 01, 2025 • Last updated 9 minutes ago • 6 minute read
Prior to today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said Canada is ready to respond with counter-tariffs against the U.S. should Donald Trump follow through on a threat of tariffs on Canadian imports. Jim Wells/Postmedia
Article contentOTTAWA — U.S. President Donald Trump is imposing a 25-per-cent tariff on Canadian imports and a 10-per-cent levy on Canadian energy, taking effect Tuesday, the White House announced Saturday.
In a series of posts on X, the White House said Trump is implementing the tariffs “until Canada cooperates with the U.S. against drug traffickers and on border security.” It cited the flow of fentanyl into the U.S.
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Canadian officials say less than one per cent of the fentanyl entering the U.S. comes from Canada, the same figure applies to migrants.
In the announcement on Saturday, Trump said he was also imposing general tariffs of 25 per cent on Mexico and adding 10 per cent to tariffs already imposed on China. They, along with Canada, are the largest trading partners of the U.S.
“Today’s tariff announcement is necessary to hold China, Mexico, and Canada accountable for their promises to halt the flood of poisonous drugs into the United States,” the White House said. “Additionally, illegal border crossings from Canada reached historic new highs every year for the last four fiscal years.”
Bloomberg is reporting that White House officials who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, said Trump signed the orders for the tariffs on Saturday to retaliate against American tariffs “dollar for dollar.”
Trump wrote on social media that he was implementing the tariffs through the International Emergency and Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) “because of the major threat of illegal aliens and deadly drugs killing our citizens, including fentanyl.”
Trudeau, who was notified of the tariffs earlier in the day, met with his cabinet and premiers Saturday afternoon ahead of the official announcement from Washington. “We did not want this, but Canada is prepared. I’ll be addressing Canadians later this evening,” he wrote on X today.
The prime minister is expected to speak about the tariffs on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET., when it’s expected he will reveal how Canada plans to retaliate.
B.C. Premier David Eby announced he ordered the province’s liquor stores to immediately stop stocking alcohol from “red states” that support Trump’s Republicans and asked government departments and agencies to buy Canadian first.
Doug Ford, who is campaigning for re-election as Ontario’s premier, appeared on CNN to call what Trump did “illegal,” saying it violates the free trade agreement Canada has with the U.S. and Mexico.
“It’s disappointing. Canada and Canadians love the U.S. I love the U.S. I love the American people. We’re your closest ally and trading partner, your largest export destination in the entire world,” Ford said.
“This is going to hurt Americans. It’s going to hurt Canadians. We’re going to see inflation happen down in the U.S. and in Canada and it’s unjustified.”
Ford had previously said he would order Ontario’s liquor board to remove U.S. alcohol from its shelves should the U.S. move ahead with tariffs. On Saturday, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston announced he would be doing the same effective Tuesday, and also planned to limit access to provincial procurement opportunities for U.S. companies and seek to cancel existing contracts.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith also expressed disappointment in Trump’s decision, but claimed a minor victory over the fact the levy on Canadian energy was only 10 per cent, not 25 per cent.
“We note the reduced 10 per cent tariff for Canadian energy which is partially a recognition of the advocacy undertaken by our Government and industry to the U.S. Administration pointing out the substantial wealth created in the U.S. by American companies and tens of thousands of American workers that upgrade and refine approximately $100 billion of Canadian crude into $300 billion of product sold all over the world by those same U.S. companies,” Smith said.
Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also condemned Trump’s action as “unjust.” In a statement on social media Saturday, he said Trudeau must respond with “dollar-for-dollar tariffs carefully aimed at maximizing impact on American companies while minimizing impact on Canadian consumers.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called on Canadians to come together in the face of what he called “Donald Trump’s economic attack.”
Trade Minister Mary Ng posted on social media Saturday, saying “our message is clear: while we value our partnership with the United States, Canada is ready to respond firmly to any U.S. tariffs.”
Trump has been threatening to impose 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports since shortly after his re-election in November.
Government officials have consistently said Canada is responsible for less than one per cent of each making their way into the U.S., but they have sought to reassure the Trump administration that the Canada-U.S. border is secure, dispatching new patrol helicopters this week and announcing a six-year, $1.3-billion border security plan.
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, Immigration Minister Marc Miller and Public Safety Minister David McGuinty were the latest cabinet ministers who travelled to Washington this past week to sell the new border plan to Trump officials and Republican lawmakers.
Trump told reporters on the day of his inauguration last month that 25 per cent tariffs would be imposed on Canada and Mexico starting Feb. 1. Speaking from the Oval Office on Friday, the president confirmed that remained the case, saying he was not looking for a concession from Canada.
“You see the power of the tariff,“ Trump told reporters Friday. ”Nobody can compete with us because we have by far the biggest piggy bank.”
The president travelled to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida Friday night and went to a golf course in West Palm Beach Saturday morning.
Trudeau has not yet publicly released plans for retaliatory tariffs, but promised on Friday that Canada would react with a “purposeful, forceful” but also “reasonable” and “immediate” response.
The tariffs will have immediate and direct consequences on Canadian and American livelihoods, said Canadian Chamber of Commerce President Candace Laing.
“This decision makes no sense when the majority of Americans oppose tariffs, when it harms businesses and workers on both sides of the border, and when the U.S. stock market is signalling that there’s no appetite for disruption,” Laing said in a statement Saturday.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said the tariffs are “deeply disappointing and will hit small businesses hard on both sides of the border.”
The CFIB said in a statement that just over half of Canada’s small businesses are involved in importing or exporting directly to the United States.
“President Trump’s profoundly disturbing decision to impose tariffs will have immediate and direct consequences on Canadian and American livelihoods,” Canadian Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Candace Lang said in a statement.
“Right now, job number one for Canada is providing security to the Canadian families, communities and businesses that are rightly scared by the consequences of President Trump’s self-defeating measures.”
Tim McMillan, a former head of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, warned that Ottawa should avoid the temptation to retaliate by cutting off oil supplies from Alberta, which make up half of U.S. oil imports, saying it “would be a huge mistake.”
“A more rational response would be to put tariffs on oil we import from the U.S… Corresponding tariffs are the clear corollary,” said McMillan, now a partner at Garrison Strategy. “Penalizing Western Canada, beyond what the U.S. is doing, would be extremely divisive.”
McMillan said that Trudeau should consider declaring a “Canadian national energy emergency” to quickly build more export infrastructure that would make the country less dependent on America as its sole customer for its oil.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also issued a statement to oppose its country’s tariffs.
“The President is right to focus on major problems like our broken border and the scourge of fentanyl, but the imposition of tariffs under IEEPA is unprecedented, won’t solve these problems, and will only raise prices for American families and upend supply chains,” said the Chamber’s Senior Vice President and Head of International John Murphy.
Murphy said the Chamber will be consulting with its members across the country to determine next steps “to prevent economic harm to Americans.”
More to come.
National Post, with files from The Canadian Press and Bloomberg
staylor@postmedia.com
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