Originally published by The Globe and Mail, 2025-03-12
Donald Trump’s “dumb” trade war is on, and is looking dumber by the minute. By picking fights with some of the United States’ biggest trading partners, he is in the process of vandalizing an economy that was in excellent shape when he took office, and by targeting some of America’s best friends, he has trashed its reputation, undermined trust, squandered decades’ worth of goodwill, and reduced its soft power to zero.
It is tempting to look for method in Mr. Trump’s madness. Look in vain. Either he doesn’t know what he is doing or he just likes bullying. Likely both.
So far, Canadian leaders have handled the crisis well. Our messaging has been firm and clear. But Mr. Trump remains unchecked. Tactical retreats notwithstanding, he continues to hold tariffs over our head like a sword of Damocles, vowing to increase them when we respond with our own.
To tame Mr. Trump, Canada cannot rely on its traditional ways of managing relations with the United States – working the American system from within by cultivating friends and allies in Congress, statehouses, boardrooms, and chambers of commerce – because Mr. Trump listens only to people who tell him what he wants to hear and is largely shielded from functional checks and balances by a Congress that has caved to the MAGA cult, and a Supreme Court stacked with enablers.
No. We must target Mr. Trump directly.
There are several ways to do this, all of them complementary.
First, we must help turn Mr. Trump’s base against him. His own policies will do much of the heavy lifting. When inflation skyrockets; when Midwest farmers can’t sell their grain; when Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security payments are late or don’t show up at all; when people’s kids can’t get into colleges or universities because they have shut down programs; when it becomes impossible or unaffordable to get avocados, insulin, or Wegovy – even Trump supporters will rise in fury.
Canada can help fuel their outrage by upping the ante when necessary. Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s now-paused 25-per-cent surcharge on electricity exports is a good example. Adding oil, natural gas, potash, and even toilet paper to the mix would surely help. The sooner Americans feel the pinch at the pumps, on their electricity bills, and in the checkout line, the sooner the uprising will begin. Trump voters are particularly sensitive to such things.
Second, Canada should throw the doors open to U.S. doctors, nurses, scientists, and entrepreneurs. Lower the barriers to entry and they will come. American voters will notice and fret.
Third, Canada should target the only other group that Mr. Trump cares about: billionaires. As captains of industry hate nothing more than missed opportunities, Canada should invite a number of other countries in Mr. Trump’s crosshairs to participate in a three-month total tariff and quota holiday. Let goods flow unimpeded between Canada, Mexico, and the EU, for example, forcing American exporters to watch from the sidelines in frustration. Three months is not long enough to cause wholesale structural disruption, say, to Canada’s supply management system, but it is long enough to make a point.
Fourth, Canada should also target symbolically potent U.S. national champions. Suspend orders and options for Boeing aircraft; cancel our purchase of F-35s, giving the contract to Sweden; redirect Canada’s rearmament spending to non-American suppliers.
Finally, Canada and what remains of the free world should demonstrate that the United States is not, in fact, the indispensable country that it thinks it is. Ottawa should call for the creation of a new group of wealthy, high-functioning, committed liberal democracies with economies big enough to have an impact to begin mapping a collective strategy for resisting the global turn toward socially regressive authoritarianism and salvaging what can be rescued of the liberal international order.
With Freedom House scores of 85 or better, GDPs of at least US$300-billion, and GDPs per capita of at least US$30,000, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Taiwan represent almost a third of the global economy. This bloc would embolden genuinely liberal-democratic and progressive Americans – who themselves represent a significant portion of the U.S. population and economy – to amp up their resistance. It would give them hope. And it would embarrass them. With a Freedom House score of only 84 and dropping fast, the United States wouldn’t even qualify.
Canada has natural allies aplenty both in America and abroad. Let’s do what we can to strengthen their hand in our common vital cause: taming Mr. Trump.