In my more fantasy-laden moments, I imagine a response from Canada to Trump's tariff threats that would really get through to the Americans. Since appeasement never works, how about meeting their tactics with some of our own?
Canada needs to review trading relationships
A quick fix to bring Donald Trump’s bullying tactics to heel would be an equivalent export tax on all energy resources and raw materials exported to the United States. [Empahsis mine] Canada is America’s largest energy source and number two supplier of nonenergy mineral resources after China. Canada should not cringe in fear of Trump’s tactics of bullying and misinformation or cave in to his demands. We need to use whatever tools we have available to work out a reasonable fair-trade deal that benefits both partners. Without that, it is no longer a trade deal but exploitation and no partnership. Trump will try a workaround to existing agreements and we must be prepared to act in kind.
We also need to review our trading relationships. Expanding our trading relationships with other partners would make us far less susceptible to Trump’s tactics. We must also expand our military capacity. National service and our own military supply chain and sources could create thousands of new jobs across Canada in manufacturing. If we love our country, is it not worth defending it economically and militarily?
Robert Holden, Keswick, ON
Apply Trump’s logic to our illegal gun problem
Countries have been fighting drugs for a very long time. The Opium War was in the 1840s. No one has figured out how to solve the drug problem, including Donald Trump in his first term in office. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should tell Donald Trump he is putting a 25 per cent tariff on U.S. products until he stops the thousands of guns entering Canada through the United States bringing higher levels of violent crime. Last time I checked, countries are responsible for securing their own borders. This is not something you outsource to another country.
Michael Yaffe, Toronto
Of course, the above scenarios will never come to pass, but I can dream, can't I?
