Rattled by Trump's tariff threat, Canada's leaders point fingers at each other

Canadian political leaders can't control the fact that Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. Neither can they stop him from threatening to take illogical steps that could hurt American businesses and consumers almost as much as they would hurt Canadians.

But Canadian political leaders can control how they respond to those threats and actions. And Canadians can judge how serious those responses are.

Trump is vowing to impose a 25 per cent tariff on all goods entering the United States from Canada and Mexico unless both countries stop what he calls an "invasion" of drugs, "in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens" into the United States.

While the number of migrants crossing America's northern border has increased in the past year, the human and drug traffic moving from Canada to the United States is still a tiny fraction of what's moving across America's southern border with Mexico.

Regardless, stopping unwanted people and things from entering the United States is primarily the responsibility of the United States — just as it was primarily Canada's problem to solve when thousands of people started crossing from the United States into Canada at Roxham Road.

And while the imposition of new tariffs undoubtedly would cause major problems for Canadian businesses and pose a serious threat to the national economy, it also would cause problems for American companies and raise prices for American consumers — particularly if the U.S. tariffs invite retaliation from Canada and Mexico.

"The fact is, we need them and they also need us," Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Tuesday. "We sell them oil. We sell them electricity. We sell them critical minerals and metals."

Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers'​ Association, appealed for calm in a social media post on Monday night.

"We've got to learn how to deal with these tactics," he wrote. "Patience."

Volpe represents an industry that has much at stake and his counsel might be wise — not least because Trump's threat might be merely the opening gambit in a larger negotiation.

But the political cycle does not allow for patience.

"The federal government needs to take the situation at our border seriously," Ontario Premier Doug Ford tweeted less than an hour and a half after Trump issued his threat on Monday night.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning, Ford said it was "unfair" and even "insulting" for Trump to speak of Canada and Mexico in the same sentence. But he still seemed to concede that the president-elect had a point.

"We need to do better on our borders," the premier said.