More Discontent Over Appeasement Efforts

Continuing with a theme, the discontent over Mark Carney's appeasement efforts continues. One prominent Canadian who is especially displeased is Lloyd Axworthy, who knows a thing or two about politics.

Former Liberal foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy is accusing Prime Minister Mark Carney of taking a "bootlicking" approach to U.S. President Donald Trump at the expense of Canadian values.

"You have to be principled, you have to be tactical, you have to be pragmatic. But you also have to be tough and know what you stand for," Axworthy said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"Flattery is always part of the game, but you can take it to the point where you actually become unctuous."

Writing primarily about his disappointment in the recent NATO summit, Axworthy also turned his sights on Carney's DST capitulation. 

...his concerns have been further bolstered by Carney's decision to rescind the digital services tax that targeted American tech giants, as the prime minister and Trump undertake what he calls "secret" trade negotiations with no parliamentary scrutiny.

"When do we stop pretending it's all part of some clever negotiating strategy that justifies bootlicking in hopes of tariff concessions?" he wrote in the blog post.

"We find ourselves in a situation where our values are being tested by attacks on democracy and freedoms -- attacks that we must resist," Carney said in his Canada Day remarks.

Meanwhile, letters continue to pour into The Globe and Mail.

Whither the DST?

Re “What is behind Carney walking back the DST?” (Report on Business, July 1): Like Taylor C. Noakes, I am sorely disappointed in Mark Carney for cancelling the digital services tax. In fact, I’m kind of in a rage.

All I can think of to do is to “tax” those big American companies myself, by boycotting them. I’m cancelling my Amazon membership, forgoing Prime, using local taxi companies instead of Uber. I urge all Canadians to consider hitting back at those American transnationals that won’t even pay a paltry 3 per cent in taxes to the Canadians who pay them billions.

Carney may have caved, but the rest of us don’t have to.

Audrey Samson Halifax

Prime Minister Mark Carney has shown regrettable weakness in cancelling the digital services tax – and he may be disappointed if he thinks that concession will be enough to get trade talks back on track. As Taylor C. Noakes argues, there is a perfectly good policy basis for taxing the enormous profits that American tech giants make in Canada. Now what will happen when President Donald Trump goes after our dairy and poultry supply management system, about which he has quite legitimate grounds for complaint, given its protectionist and market-distorting nature? Will that become the hill the Prime Minister chooses to die on?

Peter Maitland Lindsay, Ont.

A show of elbows, please

Re “Carney ‘caved’ on DST, according to U.S.” (July 1): It pains me to find myself in agreement with both the White House and Pierre Poilievre that the Carney Liberals “caved” on the digital services tax.

We’ve just watched the spectacle of tech oligarch Jeff Bezos essentially buying Venice for his multimillion-dollar wedding extravaganza, but we don’t have the stomach to insist that he pay a 3-per-cent tax on the business he does in Canada? Those tax dollars are needed to finance all kinds of public infrastructure and services that support Amazon’s success. Bezos and his tech bros need to pay their fair share.

What happened to the promise of “elbows up” – standing our ground and defending our values?

Susan Watson Guelph, Ont.

And these two from The Star:

I am a strong supporter of Prime Minister Mark Carney and believe he is doing the best possible job given the circumstances he is facing with that irrational, impulsive U.S. President Donald Trump. However, Carney made a mistake by not insisting the tax on the internet companies of America be paid. Probably they would have not paid the tax, choosing a legal battle instead. But his step back from a tariff war with Trump looks like appeasement.

Know thy enemy. Trump is determined to assimilate Canada and Carney must, despite his best instincts to reach a compromise, bite the bullet and against all odds, like Britain in World War II, take him on and refuse to make any more concessions.

If the Canada Day celebrations are any indication, Canadians are ready for the battle and the sacrifices that we are going to suffer. It is difficult to appreciate the hardships we are going to face, combined with the internal dissension from Alberta, to survive as a nation but for loyal Canadians there is no other answer.

David Gladstone, Toronto

If the situation were reversed, Trump would be demanding more

It’s bad enough that U.S. President Donald Trump trash talks all the time, but officials of his administration should know better. I hope Prime Minister Mark Carney will walk back our position to scrap the tax on tech. U.S. tech companies are making millions in Canada; a small per cent of tax is nothing to them. If the situation were the reverse, Trump would be demanding more. 

“It’s very simple. Prime Minister Carney and Canada caved to President Trump and the United States of America,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday afternoon. The quote from the article in the Star is beneath contempt. We should double the price of aluminum right now.

It is time Trump learned what it is to have co-operative trading partner.

Tom McElroy, Toronto 

As I wrote earlier, I find it hard to see how Mark Carney's appeasement of Trump will result in anything good.  Clearly, I am not alone in that sentiment.