Canada’s Carney Is Picking A Fight He Won’t Win, For All The Wrong Reasons
“Going from the frying pan into the fire” is an expression that describes when someone goes from a bad situation to a worse one. Canada appears to have just made that leap. After years of tolerating liberal ridiculousness under Justin Trudeau, they have now elected an even more extreme leftist by choosing Mark “Carnival” Carney as their next Prime Minister.
While it’s not unusual for newly elected leaders to do some chest-thumping, it didn’t take long for Carney to throw down a gauntlet that he will never win. During his acceptance speech at the Liberal Party convention, Carney promised to defeat President Trump and the United States in the upcoming trade war. He noted that a sense of national pride has swept across Canada as the people unite in their disdain for everything associated with Trump and everything American associated with his administration.
Really? I guess we’ll see.
What the “Carnival” needs to be reminded of, is why are we even talking about tariffs? Trump wanted a firm commitment of increased border security. Illegal aliens and drugs entering into the states through the U.S.-Canadian border had increased and Trump was looking for assistance. Trudeau gave the problem plenty of lip service but instead of actually doing something about it, he focused on a remark that Trump made about Canada becoming the 51st state. That comment was nothing more than Trump trolling Trudeau, but it struck a nerve and bruised Trudeau’s delicate effeminate sensibilities and short-circuited progress from that point.
When progress stalls, it allows those involved to do more digging, and in Trump’s case that’s precisely what he did. He learned of some unfair tariffs that were already in place. The tariff structure is complicated, too complicated to get into here. Suffice it to say that both countries have a zero tariff maximum. They show that the dairy tariff levels were the same each year for imports above the zero-tariff maximums – 298.5 percent for above-maximum butter and 245.5 percent for above-maximum cheddar cheese.
The tariff rates are quite astonishing and act as substantial trade barriers beyond the maximum zero-tariff quotas. However, the International Dairy Foods Association, which represents the American dairy manufacturing and marketing industry, noted on Friday that the United States does not reach Canada’s zero-tariff maximum in any category.
Becky Rasdall Vargas, the senior vice president of trade and workforce policy at the organization, stated in an interview that Canada is responsible for the US’s inability to reach its maximum trade quotas. She argued that Canada is unfairly imposing obstacles that make it increasingly difficult for the US to sell its products in the Canadian market. While she acknowledged that “we don’t love the tariffs,” she emphasized that the main issue is that “we can never even fill the quota to begin with” due to Canada’s use of administrative tactics that deny the US the market access it is entitled to under the USMCA.
Hopefully, rational heads will prevail. If this situation continues to escalate, Trump will not hesitate to increase pressure on our northern neighbors. Actions that could be considered include implementing larger tariffs through tariff reciprocity, imposing financial sanctions, restricting Canadian investment in the USA, revoking visa-free border crossings, enforcing divestiture of American asset holdings by Canadians (banking reciprocity), and potentially instituting a complete embargo on all goods and travel from Canada.
If it ever reached that level, Carney has pledged to respond to Trump by imposing similar restrictions, blocking all U.S. products, services, and citizens from entering Canada. At that point, relations between the two nations could be irrevocably damaged.
Carney is exaggerating the current situation. By inflating the significance of the crisis, he is creating an opportunity for himself to feel like a legend in his own mind. This behavior is often characteristic of radical leftists, and it comes at the expense of those around them. For example, he referred to the tariffs as an “economic and sovereign crisis.”
Carney ran for the top position by calling himself as a disaster manager, claiming that he is the right person to confront Trump.
“The Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country. Think about it. If they succeed, they will destroy our way of life.”
He ran against former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who apparently is almost as delusional as Carney. She stated that how Canada deals with the president “will define us for a generation, and perhaps longer.”
Nobody wants a tariff war. It will hurt citizens in both countries for whatever length of time they are imposed. That said, “Carnival Carney’s” radical views of what is right and wrong will not dictate American border law and the sooner he touches down on earth again and approaches Trump as the President of the United States the sooner an agreement can be reached.
