February 4th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Trump bluffed and then he blinked after his bluff was called. Hardly the lame duck everyone thought he’d be, Justin Trudeau played his cards well in Mr. Trump’s game of chicken. Our PM brought all interests in the country together despite Trump’s intention to tear us apart by a lower tariff rate (10%) given to primarily the oil producing provinces.
Alberta and Saskatchewan premiers had argued that Canada should just lie down and take it. But Trudeau stood firm and showed Mr. Trump that we can return tough love back. In the end the PM was right – standing up for Canada was the right thing to do. Though he’ll be history as PM in a matter of weeks, history will likely record this as Trudeau’s finest moment.
It wasn’t just him though. Ontario’s Ford forcefully clamoured for a strong retaliation, as indeed did most of the other premiers. The normally boisterous Mr. Poilievre, on the other hand, was unusually silent, particularly in the earlier days. He presumably had not wanted to contradict his Alberta ally, so was waiting to see the outcome of Trudeau’s gambit.
Poilievre stands apart as having been endorsed by Trump’s main man Elon Musk. This was happening even as Trump and his entire entourage, including Musk, were bad mouthing and trash talking Trudeau and Canada.
In the end, Mr. Trump delayed the tariffs for both Mexico and Canada by a month. The betting is that ‘The Donald’ has seen the light and will eventually drop his tariff plan entirely. His vision of returning to the anachronistic and protectionist America First, which he idolizes, would come with a huge price tag for the American consumer.
Still, Trump is nothing but inconsistent and volatile, so we’ll see how he feels about his would-be 51st state in thirty days. Now that his drug and migrant arguments have been exposed as the falsehoods they are, he has turned his sights to Canada’s banking system.
In the meantime his actions have already had consequences – for Mexico, Colombia and Canada at the least. He has given us here in Canada pause to appreciate what we have in this geographically diverse nation of 41 million people and to realize that we don’t want to lose it.
So we say to Mr. Trump, thanks but no thanks. We’re not interested in being your 51st state – especially if you would be our president and Mr. Musk would be pulling the strings.
Ray Rivers, a Gazette Contributing Editor, writes regularly applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was once a candidate for provincial office in Burlington. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Ray has a post graduate degree in economics that he earned at the University of Ottawa. Tweet @rayzrivers
Background links:
Blinks – Tariffs Poilievre Won’t Back Retaliation – Poilievre is Vague – Is Poilievre Musk’s Puppet –

If you consider Trump a villain as a result of the threat of tariffs, then I must conclude you support Mexican cartels and other international criminal syndicates setting up fentanyl labs in Canada, laundering money, producing enough fentanyl to kill every Canadian 2 times over while exporting this poison to other countries (and this is only what we know of).
Up until now our federal government has been willfully blind to this tragedy of epic proportions.
Editor’s note: That is a very sketchy conclusion.
Editor – This is not a “sketchy conclusion” but rather an absurd conclusion to illustrate a point. The point being the true villains are the cartels and our federal government who have failed to protect Canadians, while we point the finger at an international leader who delivers a message we don’t like to hear (like him or not).
Editor’s note: It would have been nice if you had said so.
Wilful Blindness, by Sam Cooper, the link below from the CBC is a very short outline of this 2021 investigative book, there are also several videos on YouTube with Sam Cooper about his discoveries into Canada’s underbelly of drugs and corruption. (remember fishermen only count what they catch.) https://www.cbc.ca/books/wilful-blindness-1.6136088
I thought Trudeau’s response was terrible and may have set us up for more nonsense from Trump.
First, never calling out Trump for breaking his very own USMCA agreement…..negotiation 101 for dummies….no, instead he’s first to Mara-Logo to beg, which from my perspective was more likely motivated to take attention from his other problems. His government has been escaping one scandal with the next!
He particularly, being the leader of our team in the USMCA, should have put Trump’s lack of honor in his face and told him that Canada doesn’t intend to negotiate with people that don’t honor their agreements.
Particularly since what Trump was proposing would do far more harm to the US than to Canada. Where’s the brilliant economist Carney when needed? None of these guys could figure out that 25% tariffs on both of the US’s main and closest suppliers and another 10% on China was going to do more harm to the US than Canada??? They’re almost at full employment and Trump is expelling a lot of the potential work force….who is going to replace Canada’s and Mexico’s production, when and for how much?
We should have called the fool’s bluff, and let angry Americans tell the blockhead the error’s of his ways when their costs increase exponentially!
No we celebrate getting a reprieve from whatever stupidity Trump will throw our way in another 30 days by offering $1.5 billion in spending….from a government that is closed for business!! Closed under the auspices of allowing the Liberals to get a new leader but in reality to also cover for the fact that the house would have remained closed anyway pending the refusal of the Liberal government to provide documents that could refute suspicions of ministerial self-dealing and corruption on Green Funds….remember that scandal.
The best thing this government could do is appoint their man Carney, without the contorted charade of a leadership campaign, and call an election right now. I will vote for Poilievre as he seems to be the only honest one in the crowd
Like it or not, and failing something unforeseen, Trump will be around for the next 1,444 days. We will all have to learn to deal with it. The question then becomes: what prospective Canadian leader is best-positioned to deal with the Republican leadership, and mollify the President’s excesses?
Not Trudeau as he is on his way out. Freeland? Not likely as Trump has already said he despises her. Carney? Again, probably not as he is too abstract and theoretical, and doesn’t speak Trump’s language. Gould? Sorry, but most of us in Burlington view her as a lightweight so it’s highly likely Trump will too.
Trump’s behaviour is a bargaining tactic. In order to effectively negotiate with a bully you need a leader who is focused and deliberate, who can cut through the rhetoric, acknowledge Trump’s perspective, and most importantly, speak to his needs and interests without conceding our national identity, values and interests. It’s a delicate balance. And the answer to the question is clearly Poilievre.
It’s informative that Canada was only granted a 30-day reprieve on a second call with Trudeau, after Mexico received this reprieve by agreeing to send 10,000 military troupes to the border. Trudeau need not take a bouquet, nor Poilievre a brick. It should be obvious that the rationale (drugs & “aliens” flooding into the US, unchecked) for a 25% tariff on Canada is 100% unfounded, but used under an obscure emergency act to allow an Executive order to proceed. A trade war (i.e. the real motivation) with Canada would require the support of the (albeit supine) Congress. The beat goes on.
It’s interesting that we watch the same news and come to a totally different conclusion.
Justin Trudeau is a lame duck Prime Minister. Donald Trump has been ignoring him since his inauguration. Justin’s calls went unanswered.
It was only at the last minute did Donald Trump decide to accept his call.
I would have to suggest that the reason Canada had to have 2 phone calls is because Justin didn’t have a plan in place to secure the border and he had to go back to “his people” to come up with more money for security before Donald Trump decided to agree to a reprieve of 30 days.
Justin didn’t play a game of chicken, Canada was being held over a barrel and in the end Donald Trump got what he wanted. There is very little or anything that will “record this as Trudeau’s finest hour”.
Justin Trudeau has nothing to lose. He is on his way out and will not have to deal with the consequences of what is to come.
Editor’s note: I didn’t know Ms Hersh was in the room.
My understanding, repeated by many media comments, and personal recollection, was that Trudeau was already talking about this sort of plan and $1.5 billion, back in December last year. What I recall, was that he was almost ready to announce something, but was waiting for Trump to make his first move, so in fact he had it ready.
This plan has has been brought up as a past fact much in the last few days. This statement has been accompanied by the statements that Trump was fooled by apparently not knowing this. Similarly, the 2 phone calls were also announced as scheduled before the day even started.
The second call was to allow Trudeau to assess the first call, and to make any appropriate revisions to the plan. Anyways, Trump treats Canada with disrespect, as he has a hate on since his first term when Trudeau angered him with a threat of payback.
I wasn’t in the room either, just paying close attention as this issue was emerging in a lot of media.