Close Reading

I’m a 53 year old Canadian. I went to college on an athletic scholarship & lived there for 10 years after turned professional in my sport. Why, why, why - with all the problems going on in the world right now to tackle - why would you want to start a trade war with your closest trading partner & most loyal ally? Not to mention that your list of Allies is shrinking daily. This is not going to end well for either of us. \nI just arrived home from a trip to the grocery store - making sure nothing in my cart said “ made in the USA” on it due to the new tariffs that began today. \nThe irony is, many of the states where Trump won by the biggest margin, are the states that are going to get hit the hardest from Canadian retaliation tariffs ( Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Indiana, the Dakotas - just to name a few). A lot of farmers in those states are going to be hit extremely hard with the fertilizer tax. After Canada, the next 3 largest Potash producers are Russia, Belarus & China. So , good luck \nWhen the cost of fruit & vegetables skyrocket across the US. Maybe you’ll put a little more thought into your vote 4 years from now.

Americans take note. \nCanada has a small population. It is a trading nation. Canada does not pretend to other countries that it is a friend while behaving in treacherous ways. Your minions and hypocrites, Vice President James David Vance and Senator Lindsey Graham should also take note. \nCanada and the United States have been trading with each other for over 170 years. Circumstances and proximity made Canada rely on trading with its neighbour, the USA. In 2024, 75.9% of Canada's total exports went to the United States. \nWas it convenience or laziness that made it so, or Canadians’ trust in America being a fair partner? \nPresident Donald J Trump, you have insulted Canadians and the whole United States will harvest the consequences. \nYou had negotiated the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) calling USMCA the best deal, and recently you called your deal the worst deal. \nYou can be the Manchurian Candidate as much as you want. You seek to destroy Canada. Go ahead, do your worst. Keep being manipulated by the Putin and Musk of the world. \nThis is the last time you will use this closeness between Canada and the USA to hurt Canada this way. Does not matter how long it will take, Canada will diversify its trading practice to foolproof itself from future fools like you, elected to the oval office. \nNeighbours, Canadians will remain, there is no way of moving Canada to a different place on this planet’s map. Canada may remain an economic partner, but a close friend, you can forget it. \nThere is a motto on the licence plates of vehicles of Québec (in case you might not know Donald, it is a province of Canada, not part of your fantasy 51st state). Since 1978 the motto says: “Je me souviens”. In English it translates into “I remember”. Canadians will remember what America is doing to them.

Trump went against the trade deal that he made with Canada and Mexico when he renegotiated the existing deal during his first term. Trump called his deal with them beautiful and perfect. Trump does not keep the deals he makes to other countries or to the Americans who voted for him. \n\nTrump's final push in his campaign was to cut costs for Americans at the checkout, chuckling at the strange sound of the word 'groceries' to him. He has never worried about or dealt with buying groceries. The moment he got back into office, he said that lower prices wasn't happening and that the American people would suffer. \n\nThen he and Republicans began cuts in jobs and government services to Americans as well as others in the world, so that no one can trust Trump --- and in the case of others in the world, it reflects so bad on the U.S. and against any trust in the U.S. anymore. No president has ever done so much damage at home and abroad so quickly. \n\nTrump is the Deceiver and the Destroyer. Trump doesn't care if his voters figure it out. They are no longer needed.

I don't like Trudeau, but this speech was great. Intelligent when he needed to be, simple when addressing Trump. A strong start to this trade war which as he said, we don't want. I hope along with Ford we hit America where it hurts. Maybe when their groceries skyrocket in price and their trucks are gone they'll really see where their votes went.\n\nI personally can attest I'm no longer buying DOOM: The Dark Ages, or games on Steam for that matter. I cancelled an order I had from Amazon, and I used to buy Reaper Miniatures, which I will no longer be doing. I'm not going to A&W, or any fast-food chain, or restaurant owned by Americans.

I was very disappointed with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. While I have always been pressed by his superior leadership record and skills especially with his spectacular response to the impending tariffs by travelling to UK and Europe and talking about trading with Europe and East Asian countries.\nWhat a disappointment when he called Putin a murderous dictator. Justin, let’s look at the record of your friends in the West. USA has over decades bombed and killed millions of Muslims in Arab countries. Today the murders continue to go one without a peep from you or your western leader friends. In the last week the US has bypassed Congress to ship billions of dollars of bombs to Israel so Israel can with these US bombs cleanse Gaza. So Israel can steal the Palestinian lands so Trump can built a resort and hotels in these stolen Palestinian lands.\nSo what about Ukraine? Same story, different tactic. NATO with your consent poked the Russian bear for decades before Russia, whose warnings about NATO expansion went unheeded. Russia had no choice but to fight a proxy war with Ukraine as US kept on shipping dollars and weapons to Ukraine ‘to weaken Russia’. When you won the election, Justin, I thought that a younger Canadian whose father was one of the most independent thinking leader, that you would take a history lesson and realize that the US foreign policy over decades has been the cause for so much complicity in so many countries around the world. Listen to Jeffrey Sachs and get your thoughts sorted out.\nListen to Ilan Pappe to know how the country you hug and kiss has murdered and stole Palestinian lands for over 7 decades. I have not once heard from you that Israel should be called out.

THIS is how you address Trump and his administration, not only addressing the trade war but directly saying that Trump has sided with Putin and Russia. \nDiplomacy went out the window when Trump and Vance attacked Zelensky in the people’s house. Diplomacy went out the window when Trump blamed Zelensky for the war in Ukraine and called him a “dictator”

What the vast majority of people imagined was that the day the United States went to war, it would be with its worst enemies, Russia, Iran, North Korea. Almost no one imagined that the United States would declare war on friendly countries and trading partners. Of course, it is a trade war, but it could escalate into something much worse. Nothing should be ruled out, we have already seen that anything can be expected from Trump and his entourage.

Putin broke the peace agreement with Ukraine and went to war for territory, Trump broke the Trade agreement with Canada that he negotiated to try and as he has said, break us economically to become the 51st state. So proud of our Prime Ministers speech,so proud to be a Canadian.

Now I get it! Trudeau went to Mara Logo and hatched a plan with Trump so that tracking tech (the mark of the beast ) will be the solution for an unnecessary trade war etc.

Canada will be implementing 25% tariffs against $155 billion worth of American goods, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a press conference Tuesday. \n \nSpeaking from Ottawa, Trudeau said there was “absolutely no justification or need whatsoever” for the tariffs imposed by the US on Canada, which went into effect today. \n \nThe prime minister explained that $30 billion worth of US goods would see tariffs immediately, while the remaining $125 billion worth of goods would see tariffs in 21 days. \n \nTrudeau added that Canada will file claims at the World Trade Organization, but in the meantime, “our tariffs will remain in place until the US tariffs are withdrawn and not a moment sooner.” \n \nThe prime minister also again hit back against US assertions about Canada being unwilling to help in the fight against illegal fentanyl. \n \nHe said the legal pretext Trump presented for the justification of the tariffs —“that Canada is apparently unwilling to help in the fight against illegal fentanyl” — is “totally false.”

I’ve held my tongue on this long enough, but the writing’s on the wall — Canada is cooked.\n\nOur finance minister calls it a “vibecession”, as if we’re imagining the economy sputtering. But here’s the reality: GDP growth at 0.1%, per capita GDP down 0.5%, and youth unemployment at 13.5%.\n\nThere’s the recent bait-and-switch $250 stimulus cheque — an ill-disguised vote buying grift. It was scrapped when the government realized it would add $4.6 billion to an already projected $60 billion deficit. \n\nThrow in a two-month sales tax holiday announced without thinking about the logistics, leaving businesses scrambling. Some aren’t even participating because it’s not worth the headache.\n\nHousing starts are at a 10-year low, the housing accelerator fund has delivered zero new homes, housing prices have left wage growth in the dust, and immigration has blown past what our infrastructure can handle. \n\nMeanwhile, the CBSA isn’t bothering to track expired international student visas. After all, someone has to keep the for-profit diploma mills thriving and the service industry fully staffed.\n\nCanada Post is falling apart under strikes, crippling small businesses, and 47% of job growth in the last five years has come from the public sector while our capital markets and innovation stagnate. \n\nThe $CAD is currently plummeting against the $USD, as the Bank of Canada scrambles to firefight the government’s incompetence with two jumbo 0.5% interest rate cuts.\n\nAnd let’s not ignore the trade war brewing with our historical ally, the U.S.. Trump has made it clear he’ll punish our abysmal border policies, which have allowed fentanyl to flood into America unchecked, with a 25% tariff on Canadian exports.\n\nIf you’re trying to get ahead — building jobs, working for yourself, pooling capital to invest, why bother?— the proposed 66% capital gains inclusion rate over $250,000 punishes you for taking risks and succeeding.\n\nAsk yourself: are you happy with the state of Canada right now? Honestly. Because it doesn’t feel like the same country I grew up in, went to school in, worked in, served in, and built a business in.\n\nI’m done. For once in my life, I don’t want to be Canadian anymore.