Showing posts with label carney's appeasement of trump. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carney's appeasement of trump. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Prelude To Capitulation: Mr. Carney Blinks Again

 

It was not so long ago, during the election campaign, that I remember Mr. Carney's soaring rhetoric, his stout orders calling for  "Elbows Up, Canada!" and all that it implied in our 'battle' with the United States. We were told a new reality was upon us, and our former 'trusted partner' could no longer be depended upon. Lo, a total reordering of the trade world was drawing nigh, and we had to seek and support our real friends in the larger world, as well as respond to America's bullying with punishing counter-tariffs.

Well, that was enough for the Liberals to secure a strong minority, and truth to tell, I voted with some enthusiasm for Carney, arms akimbo, his opponents offering nothing credible. That said, I know that many, both online and offline, do not agree with my recent criticisms of the prime minister over how he dealt with the DST. The feeling seems to be to wait and see, and not to rush to judgement. Surely there is a strategy at work here.

Well, now comes another sign that my Carney carping was not out of line.

Prime Minister Mark Carney says he sees little evidence that it’s possible to strike a deal with President Donald Trump that removes all U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods.

This is the first time the Prime Minister has acknowledged that a pact to end the Canada-U.S. trade war would likely leave some of Mr. Trump’s protectionist tariffs in place.

“There is not much evidence at this moment of agreements, arrangements, or negotiations with the Americans for any country, any jurisdiction, to have a tariff-free deal,” Mr. Carney said.

Probably a realistic assessment, but what is the purpose of publically surrendering a vital negotiating position before those negotiations are complete?

The only reason I can think of is to prepare the public to start forgetting that bellicose campaign rhetoric. 

William Pellerin, a partner with McMillan LLP’s international trade group, said Mr. Carney may be lowering expectations for what Canadians and Canadian businesses can anticipate from a trade deal with Mr. Trump.

He said he and his clients must now prepare for the possibility that U.S. tariffs are here to stay for the long term and that any Canadian business which made a short-term decision to “eat the tariffs rather than passing them on” to U.S. buyers may have to rethink that.

Mr. Carney’s comments “could also be a trial balloon that he’s floating to Canadians and to the markets to see how people react,” Mr. Pellerin said.

My reaction is the same as it was when I voted for Carney. I expect Canada to put up a real fight, a fight he cultivated during the campaign. A fight that would include strong counter-tariffs. Our pride was at new levels, and it was predicated on a defiance of the American trade madness.

And I am not alone in disdain for Carney's pending capitulation. People remember his caving earlier on the Digital Service Tax:

... to those pushing for a more hawkish approach to Trump’s trade war, it was an unacceptable concession after Canada already repealed its digital services tax and ramped up its defence and border security spending in response to Trump’s concerns.

“We should call this what it is. It’s extortion by the United States,” said Unifor president Lana Payne, who said normalizing the idea of tariffs could result in Trump pushing things even further, and urged Canada to push back with every tool at its disposal.

“The challenge we have is that we’re dealing with someone who continues to change the goalposts,” Payne said. “Giving things away up front has not worked for us.

And while it pains me to say this, I find I have to agree with little P.P.'s acerbic assessment.

“The Prime Minister is now conceding that American tariffs on Canada will be part of an eventual deal,” Mr. Poilievre said in a post on X.

“Another unilateral concession from a man who said he would never back down to the U.S. President.”

Mr. Carney seems to have perfected the art of making good speeches. Sadly, backing up those speeches with real action is proving to be something else entirely.

 

Friday, July 11, 2025

Monday, July 7, 2025

Please Be Advised


Those who have a reflexive aversion to criticism of Prime Minister Mark Carney might wish to skip over to another blog, as this one contains yet more criticisms of his efforts to appease Trump. 

Opinion | Mark Carney, we expected more from you

Contributor Kean Birch points out the revenues gained by the owners of social media sites as they collect and sell data collected from their users. But this is only a fraction of the wealth to be generated by the many uses of artificial intelligence. It’s time we took seriously the need to use this wealth for the benefit of more than a few dozen oligarchs. Millions will lose their livelihoods as it becomes possible to do many kinds of work with AI. How can we prevent both the likely catastrophic drop in incomes and the loss of identity and sense of value that come from joblessness? The technology will provide the resources that could be used to avoid such harms — but we will have to be bold and creative enough to take strong measures to use them. If our leaders don’t have the guts to implement even such a small measure as a digital services tax, how can we make them do what’s going to be needed in the next few years?

Our new prime minister wants to transform our economy. Let’s hope he will do so in ways that benefit all of us, not just the few who own the technology.

Julie Beddoes, Toronto

Carney is not what a lot of Liberals hoped for

The ascension of Mark Carney to Prime Minister was probably based on enough voters thinking that years as a top-tier finance guy would provide the knowledge and smarts to right the Canadian economic ship in light of current threats. However, the disappointments are coming fast and furious. The cancellation of the digital services tax was a capitulation, pure and simple. The digital giants like Alphabet have grabbed all the advertising revenue and collect our data without contributing their fair share of taxes. This makes a mockery of Carney’s “elbows up” rhetoric. The middle-class tax cut looks like Carney putting on his best Doug Ford impersonation. Is this wise when our public services are crumbling, especially in Ontario? The cosying up to Alberta and the seeming openness to reinforcing Canada as a Petrostate is disturbing in light of alarming global heating happening here and now. The NATO spending commitment to five per cent of GDP is another head scratching move since not even the U.S.A. spends five per cent of their GDP on defence. The cancellation of the increase in the capital gains inclusion rate is another disappointment given that adjusting the capital gains regime is the low hanging fruit of tax fairness. At this point, we can say that Canada has a “Progressive Conservative” Liberal government. While this is better than the alternative of a snarly, fear mongering, Conservative government, it is not what a lot of Liberals and progressive voters hoped for.

Peter Bertollo, Brampton

PM gave up his best bargaining chip

It’s my opinion Prime Minister Mark Carney gave up his best bargaining chip with U.S. President Donald Trump. I feel Trump should have been told the federal government’s digital service tax was a concession, but only after Trump returned to the table and a mutually agreeable trade deal had been worked out between Canada and America.

Al Brackley, Oshawa

Grovelling only encourages abuse

Thank you Vinay Menon for pointing out the betrayal of some news media companies to appease the corrupt and greedy U.S. president. But even our own prime minister has shown his willingness to walk back his big words and promises and caved in to U.S. President Donald Trump. When are certain politicians, corporations and individuals going to understand that grovelling only encourages a bully to continue his abuse?

Raphael Vigod, Toronto 

To be fair, however, one reader's opinion differs from the above:

Let the prime minister do his job

Critics of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s policy on U.S. trade may not have their job, mortgage, and family finances on the line. Our prime minister is acutely aware of what it means for families to lose their jobs. The shear stress can cause mental illness and destroy one’s desire to keep trying. The desire to win has no place in negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump. It will only give Trump the desire to inflict greater pain on Canadians which will result in more unemployment, increased social costs, and less revenues in the government’s coffers. Who wants that? Let the prime minister do his job and give him the support he needs to get a deal done.

Ken Stock, Port Hope

 That's all for now from the peanut gallery.

Friday, July 4, 2025

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.

 

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Ashamed And Disgusted


Those two adjectives perhaps succinctly sum up the feeling of many people over Mark Carney's attempt to appease Trump by rescinding the Digital Services Tax. While some commentators are trying to put lipstick on a pig, twisting themselves beyond recognition to justify what the prime minister did, savvy readers of newspapers are having none of it.

Here are some letters from Globe and Mail readers:

Yes, Mr. Trump

Re “Ottawa says talks with U.S. back on after pulling digital services tax” (June 30): By rescinding the digital services tax within a weekend of Donald Trump’s withdrawal from tariff negotiations, Mark Carney has shown that he is no longer negotiating with Mr. Trump to protect Canadians. He is, in fact, continuing to bow down to threats from a bully who belies all reason when it comes to decision-making. Canada may vehemently refuse to become the 51st state, but it seems to have no problem capitulating to Mr. Trump’s demands without much of a fight.

From committing to a 5-per-cent increase in defence spending, at the expense of more pressing domestic priorities, to bulldozing a bill through Parliament that steps all over Indigenous rights and territories and now immediately backing out of a digital services tax more than a year in the making, this government is showing no signs of standing up to fight for Canada and Canadians.

Themrise Khan Ottawa

So Trump has a tantrum and we blink. Is this elbows up? Is this negotiation? Many other sovereign nations have implemented a digital services tax. But I guess the eventual 51st state should not. What’s next, supply management? It is protected by an Act of Parliament? But that law can also be rescinded when Mr. Trump pulls out again in a couple of days.

Sinclair Robinson Ottawa

Knuckling under to Mr. Trump’s blackmail on the digital services tax is a shameful betrayal. Not only is it a weak and pathetic response, it is also stupid. Giving in to blackmail only invites him to do it again and again and again – and he will.

Trevor Hancock Victoria

I used to tell my students that we are as Canadian as the U.S. lets us be. Sadly proven true yet again.

Kevin Byrne Sarnia, Ont.

So we implement a digital services tax, a questionable move on its own, and then we withdraw it because Mr. Trump has a public tantrum. Now we look foolish and weak. Mr. Trump’s bombast, disinformation and bullying represent one end of the negotiation tactic field. The Prime Minister has just identified the other end of that playing field.

Mark Knudsen Mississauga

One of the first rules of negotiation is to give to the other side only if you get something in return. Otherwise, it will encourage them to push for further concessions. Eliminating the digital services tax on U.S. tech giants is a step backward for Canada. We are chipping away at Canadian sovereignty by allowing the president of another country to set our tax policy.

Neil Tudiver Ottawa

And this one from The Star:

Carney cancelling the digital services tax a weak move

I am horrified to see that Prime Minister Mark Carney has given in to Trump and cancelled the digital services tax.

What makes Carney think Trump will now treat Canada fairly? Is he afraid of the big online companies, the oligarchs?

It’s past time to stand up to Trump and his gang, and make Canada self-sufficient.

Kate Chung, Toronto 

No one more than me would like to be proven wrong in condemning Carney for this move. I just don't see that happening, however.