{"id":1589,"date":"2026-08-28T10:00:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T14:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/potlatchga.com\/?p=1589"},"modified":"2026-08-28T10:00:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T14:00:46","slug":"a-canadian-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/potlatchga.com\/?p=1589","title":{"rendered":"A Canadian View"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enclosed is a recent article from the Ottawa Citizen<\/em> forwarded by Potlatch’s Canada correspondent. I will only add that the increased hostility by Canada is derived, in a large part, from its deep disappointment, disbelief, and hurt about how the United States during Trump’s presidency has treated them. It has become personal for Canadians, an emotional downer that threatens to permanently alter our historic brotherhood.<\/p>\n

THE END OF FREE TRADE IS HERE
\nIntegrating the two economies benefited both, but all Trump sees is a ‘ripoff’<\/p>\n

By Tasha Kheiriddin, Postmedia’s national politics columnist,
\nOttawa Citizen<\/strong><\/em>, August 27, 2026<\/p>\n

Welcome to Trade Wars, the reality show that pits the mighty United States of America against
\nthe mouse that roared, a.k.a. Canada. How’s everyone feeling today? \u201cKiss my ass!\u201d yells
\nOntario Premier Doug Ford. \u201cFlunky! I will rename Lake Ontario Lake America,\u201d claps back
\nU.S. President Donald Trump. Insert laugh track, cut to a commercial for a Ford F-150 pickup,
\nand check out the ratings \u2014 76 per cent of Canadians agree with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s
\ndecision to quit the talks. Everyone’s watching \u2014 what a hit.
\nBut this isn’t a triumph. And it isn’t fiction. It’s a real dispute, with real-life consequences for
\nmillions of people. It represents the sad demise of more than 60 years of economic integration,
\nstarting with the Canada-United States Automotive Products Agreement of 1965, through free-
\ntrade deals signed in 1988, 1992 and 2018, which have seen both countries prosper through
\nincreased trade and economic activity. All of which Trump calls a \u201cripoff,\u201d even though he was
\nat the table doing the last deal.
\nSo now, it’s elbows up \u2014 and out. Canada is seeking new trading partners, inking 20
\nagreements in the past year alone. Our trade with the U.S. has dropped from 76 to 68 per cent
\nof total trade since 2024, and will no doubt decline further with the imposition of matching
\ntariffs on $26 billion of U.S. imports, including steel, agricultural equipment and appliances.
\nWe’ve come full circle, back to the 1960s, when philosopher George Grant lamented that
\nCanada had become a \u201cbranch plant economy,\u201d of the United States. He blamed the Liberal
\nparty for surrendering to \u201ccontinentalism,\u201d whereby American companies were buying out
\nCanadian businesses or opening their own here, effectively making us a U.S. subsidiary.
\nGrant had witnessed the failure of populist Progressive Conservative prime minister John
\nDiefenbaker to diversify 15 per cent of Canada’s trade to Great Britain in 1957, followed by the<\/p>\n

Ottawa Citizen<\/em>, Thursday, August 27, 2026Diefenbaker to diversify 15 per cent of Canada’s trade to Great Britain in 1957, followed by the
\nsubsequent Liberal government of Lester B. Pearson signing the Auto Pact and embracing
\ncloser economic ties with the United States. The pendulum then swung back in the 1970s, when
\nLiberal prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau tried to trade more with Europe and created the
\nForeign Investment Review Agency, designed to prevent takeovers but criticized for stifling
\ninvestment.
\nDiefenbaker and Trudeau failed to drag Canada out of America’s orbit, in part because during
\nthe Cold War with the Soviet Union, Washington was our friend, not foe. Today, things are
\ndifferent, but Trump is, increasingly, an emperor who has no clothes.
\nFor the American president has a major weakness: underestimating his adversaries’ resilience.
\nThis is on full display in that murderous regime of Iran, where his war has now dragged into its
\nseventh month. And it is on display in erstwhile best buddy Canada, where rather than roll over
\nand accept unacceptable trade terms, we walked away and basically gave America the finger.
\nSome analysts say those terms \u2014 attacks on the French language, curbing our ability to trade
\nwith other nations, and continuing to tariff pickup trucks at a higher rate \u2014 may have been a
\ndeliberate poison pill, inserted at the 11th hour by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to
\nscupper the deal and make political trouble for Carney.
\nWhether true or not, the reality is that we were treated badly, and the prime minister was right
\nto say enough is enough. You don’t turn on an ally whose people have fought and died
\nalongside you, whose cheap oil has powered your industry for 100 years, and whose people
\nhave cultivated ties of friendship with you for generations.
\nAs the insults fly and the temperature mounts, Carney has emerged as the only reasonable actor
\nin this drama. It’s one that all the world is now watching \u2014 and could script their own sequels
\ndealing with America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Enclosed is a recent article from the Ottawa Citizen forwarded by Potlatch’s Canada correspondent. I will only add that the increased hostility by Canada is derived, in a large part, from its deep disappointment, disbelief, and hurt about how the United States during Trump’s presidency has treated them. It has become personal for Canadians, an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"\nA Canadian View - Potlatch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/potlatchga.com\/?p=1589\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Canadian View - Potlatch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Enclosed is a recent article from the Ottawa Citizen forwarded by Potlatch’s Canada correspondent. I will only add that the increased hostility by Canada is derived, in a large part, from its deep disappointment, disbelief, and hurt about how the United States during Trump’s presidency has treated them. 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