Trump, Touting Tariffs, Toys With a Tottering Trudeau
The president-elect’s threats create new peril for the prime minister.
By Michael Taube, WSJ
Dec. 19, 2024 1:49 pm ET
Donald Trump doesn’t think much of Justin Trudeau. The president-elect has been needling the Canadian prime minister for weeks, amusingly calling him “governor” of the “Great State of Canada.” During the June 2018 Group of Seven summit in La Malbaie, Quebec, the president called Mr. Trudeau “meek and mild” as well as “very dishonest and weak.”
With Mr. Trump’s help, Mr. Trudeau, who has flirted with political disaster for years, came close to hitting rock bottom on Monday. This was because of the stunning resignation of Chrystia Freeland as deputy prime minister and finance minister. Often dubbed the “minister of everything” because of her influence in the Liberal government, Ms. Freeland expressed her anger and frustration with the ineffectiveness of Mr. Trudeau’s response to Mr. Trump’s threat of 25% tariffs on all Canadian goods.
“We need to take that threat extremely seriously,” she wrote in her resignation letter. “That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war. That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment.”
The “gimmicks” she had in mind were likely a two-month sales-tax holiday on alcohol, junk food and other items and checks for 250 Canadian dollars (around US$175) that will go to people who earned less than C$150,000 (US$105,000) in 2023. Parliament enacted the former measure last week.
Ms. Freeland argued that Canada should be “pushing back against ‘America First’ economic nationalism” and building a “true Team Canada response” to negotiate with Mr. Trump. “I know Canadians would recognize and respect such an approach. They know when we are working for them, and they equally know when we are focused on ourselves.”
Mr. Trump issued the 25% tariff threat against Canada and Mexico on Truth Social Nov. 25. “This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!” he wrote. Mr. Trudeau might have responded by offering to improve security on the U.S.-Canadian border. Instead, he reportedly pleaded with the president-elect during their Nov. 29 dinner meeting at Mar-a-Lago that the tariffs would “kill the Canadian economy completely.”
Since Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals are behind in the polls against Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives, he knows the tariffs would kill his political career too. Mr. Trump seized on Mr. Trudeau’s weakness: “So, your country can’t survive unless it’s ripping off the U.S. to the tune of $100 billion?” he replied, according to news reports.
At an Equal Voice Foundation event in Canada last week, Mr. Trudeau admonished Americans for having “voted for a second time to not elect its first woman president” and said, “I am, and always will be, a proud feminist.”
If Mr. Trudeau hopes to win a war of taunts with Mr. Trump, my money is on the president-elect.
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