NO PAIN, NO GAIN: TIT-FOR-TAT TRADE WAR NOT TARIFF-IC FOR BFFS, ALLIES. IT’S ‘CRAZY’

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

Where to begin this week ….

Canada and the U.S. are at odds worse than groundhogs are over the start of spring.

A provincial election will come sooner than voters want. And Justin Trudeau will be gone before Donald Trump.

“This is crazy,” to quote the bogeyman Nov. 5.

Well it ain’t tariff-ic for BFFs and war allies.

With “friends” like Trump, who needs enemies?

Last night Trump said: “I love Canadians, but I disagree with their leadership. .., We can play this game.”

Sounds like a quote from his book The Art of the Deal.’

The trade war is reverberating across Canada and the United States, even making front page news here in Alabama. Photo Newseum

It’s enough to drive you to Canadian drink. And with Ontario, Quebec and B.C. the first to ban U.S. booze from their provincial stores, it will be easier. In Ontario, that’s worth $1 billion – a serious consequence with the LCBO the largest international buyer in Canada.

It’s all about the “fight” now everywhere from Mexico City to D.C., Ottawa and Ontario.

Fight club has political champs and chumps preaching more war than peace with American hawks preying on Canadian doves.

Whatever happened to globalism? A decade ago isolationism was four-letter(x3) word.

Trudeau, Chrystia Freeland, Mark Carney and provincial first ministers like Doug Ford may rail on about retribution and retaliatory plans of action.

But as pugilistic pug Mike Tyson reminded: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

Trump’s sucker punch was delivered in an executive order like a swift kick in an oil derrick.

No pain, no gain seems to the mantra.

See Canadian government list here of American products Trudeau will slap tariffs on.

Trudeau, a boxer and scrapper at heart, counter punched hitting back at a loonie with a toonie. Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum did asimiso. This morning she also won a month-long delay in U.S. tariffs.

The USMCA — an unholy ménage à trios partnership — appears no more an in-bedded trade threesome.

Within Muskoka while the manufacturing impact may be minimal, the impact of decades of consumer reliance on U.S. goods will be felt as soon as 25 per cent U.S. tariffs take effect here tomorrow.

We’re used to rising prices every day. Buying Canadian is the only choice. Good luck with that.

With breaking news this morning that Mexico may get a month-long reprieve. And even threats now against Europe, which one politician today called a “stupid stunt.”

Trudeau finally got to talk to Trump this morning after Mar Lago and a congratulatory call after his election over two months ago. Trudeau is to speak to Trump again this afternoon at 3 p.m.

So is Trump surrounded fighting on two fronts he can’t win?

He doesn’t care. Like NATO’s “all for one and one for all” protection pact, this unholy trinity no longer applies rightly to half his Americans.

If nothing, this week’s economics refresher reveals for us a winning poker hand.

Seventy-two per cent of Canada’s exports go to the U.S. totalling $594 billion ($377.2 billion US).

Tuesday $30 billion of American imports will be slapped with Canadian tariffs, followed by  $125 billion next month.

Trumps concerns about fentanyl, according to the latest Canadian government figures, are typically overblown.

Fentanyl seizures from Canada in the U.S. northern region were but a fraction of America’s total compared to Mexico.

And on immigration 23,721 people “not allowed in the U.S.” compared to 1.5 million entering from Mexico in America’s southern region.

One wonders whether Trudeau’s team has consulted Carney; though doubtfully Freeland.

A trade war is front page news in the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, giving Canada the most coverage and notice south of the border since we won the War of 1812.

So where does that leave voters and taxpayers? Another winter of discontent is just beginning.

There’s a lot more to this fast moving story. It’s as if AI was writing this script.

To be continued ….

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