trudeau had to deflect from ford's suggestion that the recent plant closures were due to carbon taxes, but there's no more logic in tying it to the tariffs - the cars were simply not selling well.

i am not a trade liberalization fundamentalist; i think there is a place for tariffs and quotas. my opposition to trump's threat to use tariffs was not ideological, but practical: i doubted that trump had the tactical understanding and cognitive ability to use tariffs intelligently. tariffs are hard. and, because the united states and canada have comparable labour standards, ricardo's arguments are applicable: reciprocity makes a lot of sense across the great lakes.

that said, tariffs against mexico and china are in both the american and the canadian national interest. so, as it was previously, the situation is essentially a mess.

but, we need to be realistic.

donald trump is not going to remove the tariffs.

do we have leverage in congress? it's not likely - the democrats tend to be more protectionist at the congressional level, and they're ultimately accountable to voters that are even less sophisticated than trump is.

these tariffs will probably be there for at least six more years, and trudeau standing there and promising he'll have them lifted is equivalent to a union boss standing over a closed factory and promising to bring the jobs back. it's delusional.

rather than resist change and fight to turn back the clocks, canada has to adapt to the new reality, which is going to require federal dollars to build canadian industry that is focused on domestic consumption first, and new markets second.

and, this is not terrible, as it will make us more competitive and our industries more secure, when the next president (or the president after that) eliminates the tariffs.

the prime minister should be looking forwards, not backwards. but, this is consistent with him, isn't it?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tariffs-canada-us-trudeau-trump-congress-1.4938329