Our President, Donald J. Trump, has certain obsessions. Windmills. His name affixed to things. The 2020 election. Weaponizing the Justice Department. Blaming Joe Biden. (Now i’ve saved you the time you would have spent watching any of his speeches – you’re welcome!). And there’s one more – Canada. I don’t believe that the US has had a President that has discussed Canada as much as President Trump in the last 200 years (essentially since the War of 1812 – maybe that’s when the President believes that America was last great?).

And there is good reason why Canada hasn’t been a topic of discussion for Presidents – our relationship has to have been the most boring one per mile of border in modern history. We are separate nations with distinct cultures but a common language and a well controlled and managed border. We are each other’s largest export partner, with the US relying on Canadian natural resources for large chunks of our lumber, potash (for fertilizer and specialty manufacturing), aluminum, and natural gas. But even with this long-standing interdependence, we stand proud separately.

The President has spoken disrespectfully about Canada since shortly after his election in 2024. He has spoken about Canada as weak and dependent on us and about his desire to annex Canada as the 51st state (not quite realizing that the Republican party would no longer win elections if this happened – but maybe he was more interested in making them like Puerto Rico). This bullying intensified within the first month of the Administration, with broad tariffs applied to imports from Canada (resulting in reciprocal tariffs from Canada on US exports). The provinces of Canada took umbrage as well, restricting purchases they controlled (like liquor in state liquor stores), and Canadians expressed their own disfavor by choosing to cut back on travel to the US (by 25%, equal to about $3.3B less in 2025 than pre-Trump). Not a particularly good outcome for America.

The purported objective of Trump’s gamesmanship (that is the most generous term I can find for his behavior) is to favor American business and American production over Canadian. Mind you there is not a material trade imbalance with Canada – on a per capita adjusted basis, the US has a massive trade surplus with our northern neighbor (unless we expect a country with less than 10% of our GDP to have a trade deficit relative to us – in which case, our government is simply stupid). The tariffs and bullying has actually resulted in less trade between the two countries. And US manufacturing employment has actually fallen 75,000 jobs since the President has ‘liberated’ the US from our cooperative trade regime. US aluminum production is down, steel production employment is flat, liquor production is down, and housing starts (using that lumber we need) are flat to down. No bright spots for the policy there.

But this week, the Trump Administration chose to place 50% tariffs on about $20B of Canadian goods (or about 6% of total Canadian imports). On top of this is the 10 – 12.5% tariffs placed this week on 60 countries (including Canada), on the supposition that they don’t do enough to restrict trade on goods made from slave labor. Let us all remember that the tariff is paid by the importer – an American business – that will then choose whether to pass that cost on to consumers. The goods impacted can be aluminum (which is already subject to 15-50% tariffs), car parts, softwood lumber (used to build homes in America), as well as consumer products like maple syrup and Canadian whiskey. Those tariffs are taxes that Americans pay for – could be today or could be down the line when the business gets sick of covering the cost for something they can’t control. And American-made prices are impacted too – because when prices rise, that gives them permission to raise their prices too. They don’t have to try as hard to compete – the free market doesn’t provide us with the best prices from the most efficient companies anymore. Finally, the tariff instability sends a signal to foreign investors that investing in the US is not the secure and stable bargain that it used to be. The next government might change the calculus again – or the current administration may simply change its mind and change the tariffs. No upside for Americans.

Canada is clearly an obsession for this President. He didn’t want to allow a new bridge to the US to make trade more efficient (paid for by Canada) to open. He wanted to stop Canadians from easily going to a library that straddled the US-Vermont border. The President even brought up his ‘51st state‘ rhetoric again. But the Canadians overcome, forging new trade partnerships and never getting too excited – the Canadian way. They continue to harken back to their national anthem – ‘Oh, Canada we stand on guard for thee’.

And the national disgrace continues…