— Feature, Musings —07.12.2025 03:25 PM
A new trade deal with Trump is a waste of time
The letter reads like it was dictated by a drunk at the end of the bar who won’t leave when it’s closing time.
Donald Trump’s letter to Mark Carney, that is. Run-on sentences, ungrammatical, improper punctuation, irregular capitalization, lousy syntax, you name it: the Mango Mussolini’s letter to our Prime Minister is guaranteed to give your favourite English teacher a stroke. It’s that bad.
But it’s consistent. It’s predictable, too.
“Starting August 1, 2025,” writes Trump, “we will charge Canada a Tariff of 35 per cent on Canadian products sent into the United States, separate from all Sectoral Tariffs…If for any reason you decide to raise your Tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise
them by, will be added onto the 35% that we charge.”
Here we go again.
In mob parlance, Trump’s letter is what is called a shakedown: pay the protection money, pay the pizzo, or else. You’ve got a nice little country, Mark-o. It’d be a shame if something bad happened to it, etc.
As objectionable as that is, it’s still a case of Trump being Trump. In fairness to the man, he doesn’t believe in free trade; he campaigned against free trade. But he’s certainly willing to use our desire for free trade to ruin us.
As some may recall, Trump pledged to gut free trade in his inauguration speech. Ten days later, he declared a fentanyl “national emergency” and his intention to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canada for everything we sell to the U.S.
Trump proclaimed his fraudulent “national emergency” for one reason and one reason only: to get himself out of the terms of the USMCA trade deal. You know, the deal that he himself signed, with his ubiquitous Sharpie.
And that’s how it’s been, for months. Whenever we think we have achieved a relative degree of sanity, whenever we think the worst is over, Trump threatens more tariffs. In the past seven months, it has happened many times. Supply management, our banking system, defence spending, and on and on: Trump will concoct just about any pretext to break the deal. And us.
But – still – it’s Trump being Trump. It’s what, and who, he is. What of Mark Carney?
[To read more, subscribe here]
Warren,
Trump is a barely walking demented non-sequitur.
It’s difficult to deal with a man who doesn’t honour free trade agreements.
Carney is managed by the Americans.
Elbows up tough guy?
Get serious
To believe anything the White House says (Carney Caved) is not only naive but downright stupid. Any bets Trump said “Hey Markie, remove the DST, I will play ball.” So we did. It was a set to make Carney look bad. Hey, the DST can always be reinstated. We are in a guerrilla war of terrorist trade tactics. It’s not about tariffs. Is about destabilizing our country.
Pete,
My contention is that whatever form the so-called FTA comes in, it will by necessity be politically unacceptable to any right-thinking federal government. In short, no deal will be infinitely better than a TRUMP deal. The latter will almost certainly be viewed as a political sellout. Hope I’m full of shit but don’t think I am.
Get the best deal possible and expand our trade network – it’s the best we can do – Trump will only be around for four years – weather the storm and hope the next president is a normal person.