Language matters.
The President is empowered by a Congress controlled by a narrow majority. Rather than the individual they have chosen, I am pissed at the Republican party. And disappointed in the American people. The guy? He was always that way and would have continued to be so at a safe distance from the levers of power without his enablers.
It is the American and especially Republican relationship with Canada that is important in this situation. Those are what endure, that person is only momentarily significant. So, where we can choose the narrative, I think that’s important to focus on.
Plus I suspect he likes the sound of his own name.
As an American, I am SO SORRY Canadian friends. We don’t deserve this.
You guys in canada should 100% support retaliatory tariffs. Fire them at us as hard as you can. Make us a pariah.
We fucked around. We should find out. We couldnt learn from round one of trump. We couldnt learn from watching the train wreck that was brexit. If you dont quid pro quo. If you capitulate. We will not learn our lesson.
Teach us and do not make our mistakes.
I think americans, or at least american conservatives, are too stupid to learn.
I was just reading about a conservative tax plan in Kansas ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_experiment ) that by pretty much all metrics failed. Yet somehow they aren’t run out of town.
Well thought out TARGETED tariffs. Tariffs generally hurt us all. Us being the 99%. Stupid general tariffs benefit the 1% who can buy up the mess made from tanking the economy. Also, TransplantedSconie makes some great points
Trade wars are good for no one.
We’re not starting it but we will fucking end it
Not true. As unhappy as i am to say it, the united states in a trade war only with china could actually have a net benefit. To add to that, a multilateral trade war against china could actually change economic advantages on a global scale that have a real positive impact.
However, a trade war from the usa against canada, mexico, china, taiwan, and whoever else our supreme leader trump decides, whilst taking his mid morning dump. Yeah, thats not going to help anyone.
Lets be clear. I dont hate china or their people. But the influence they have on an economic scale is impressive. And an authoritarian economy is not who any western country wants in control of global trade. Their advantage is gaming the system. When you can force your people to produce what you want, when you want, and prop up your economy artifically to make up the difference, you create a power dynamic that capitalistic powers cant legitimately deal with without extra measures. And those measures that prop up that economy are paid for in poverty and blood.
Tarriffs are a sword when a scalpel would be better warranted. But it can be effective if used properly.
On the long term. A trade war is a legitimate means to an end. If used properly. But in this case. Yeah. Its going to hurt everyone for no real gain but the pockets of oligarchs.
This time you are right. More suffering, more expenses. Thats how it goes now. No net benefit. So once again, make us pay. So that this doesnt happen again until our grandchildren have forgotten this lesson and need a reminder.
Man, cheeto is in a rush to speed run to the find out stage…
I demand puts retaliatory taxes to the US, let them suffer
Guys, American here.
Hit Tesla, Meta, Amazon, hard as fuck. He raised tariffs 25%? Raise theirs 70%. Nail us with 25% on oil and electricity or shit, just shut it the fuck off.
Nip this fuck face in the bud now or he will just keep keep going.
The best suggestion I’ve seen, personally, is just to stop respecting American copyright law’s bullshit.
Yarrrrrrr. I couldn’t agree more
Cory Doctorow thought that through: https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/15/beauty-eh/#its-the-only-war-the-yankees-lost-except-for-vietnam-and-also-the-alamo-and-the-bay-of-ham
Anything to hit the billionaire class and his supporters hard, I’m 100% on board.
I wish I could upvote this 1000x
Too late for that!
Isn’t Canada in an agreement with the US that trades “no tariffs” for “no infringing on copyright”?
If the US is imposing tariffs, Canada should now be free to copy any American product.
Or was I lied to?
This also means Canada should be free of its water transit treaties. Let’s divert water from flowing south over the border.
Kick Nestle completely out of the country, too – no more cheap access to our water.
Start right now on new local beef processing faciliities.
Nestle is European, but I’ll always support a witch hunt for those greedy psychopathic fuckers
Thanks for the clarification on Nestle!
But yeah… agreed, f them it would be wonderful it they got caught in the splash damage.
Don’t touch the water treaties. A fair bit of water comes north too and we don’t want them treating waterways as a dumping ground that just leaves their country.
They already are dumping grounds … specifically the Red River that feeds Lake Winnipeg. The phosphorous from American farm runoff creates massive, poisonous blue-green algae blooms every year in the lake, affecting fish stock and animals.
Perhaps. But as I understand it we have the most water of any nation in the world, so we should be more discriminating in what we let leave the border. Even if it’s just a bargaining chip during this tariff war.
The US hasn’t technically torn up any treaties, so we don’t have to either, let’s just “suspend” them. Seems they have no qualms doing so …
As a michigander, I’m going to support “don’t fuck with the water”. I’m really fucking sorry this fuckwit is in charge, but we share the great lakes. Those suckers hold 21% of earths surface fresh- water and we don’t want to give them an excuse to start throwing toxic waste in there especially out of spite.
Agreed. Fight fire with fire. The only way to get the people to react is to make them uncomfortable. We tried reasoning, that failed. Let the leopards loose.
More in this case, bullies and fascists only respond to force, that is all. There is no decorum, no societal norm, no mutually agreeable term that can be arrived at. Punch them in the face and keep doing it until the consequences are greater than the benefits of acting as such.
Power, through force is the ONLY thing they respect and understand.
copyright
just make content ludicrously expensive and force people to pirate it, then don’t follow up on people doing so
that’ll make some very powerful interest groups that basically only exist in the US absolutely frothy with rage
Dude America is the biggest exporter of culture in the world.
The biggest Canadian cultural influences made their mark in American media. Jim Carey. Ryan Gosling. Ryan Reynolds. Robin Williams. Raffi. Tommy Chong. The Rock. Seth Rogan. Will Arnett. William Shatner. Eugene Levy. Mike Myers. Rick Morannis.
To name a few.
(Also are there any famous Canadian Actresses?)
yeah: that’s what i’m saying… america is basically the place that the entire anglosphere and plenty beyond that get like 99% of our modern entertainment
it’s a huge industry that basically only the US has… so quit cooperating with copyright stuff… the world has bent over and taken copyright law from the US for far too long: their definition fucking blows, and is counter to the common good
so fuck em - tariff the shit out of it, and people will just pirate it… we learned in australia that if you don’t release content, or make it hard to access people don’t just not consume it… australia is one of the biggest pirates in the world because in the early internet days with region locking nothing was available here… we still watched it; we just didn’t pay for it
to this day (IANAL) piracy in australia is LEGAL: its legal to download, but not to share pirated content - torrents are out, but usenet is 100% fine
once the entertainment industry realizes that oh fuck their position globally is in jeopardy (if canada were to do this, it shows the rest of the world a next step) then they’ll be pretty pissed
That just makes their “culture” industry all the more a viable target. I’m sure everyone you’ve listed will be fine.
Even Raffi?
As a Franco Canadian it’s always funny to see Anglo Canadians realize that their culture is the US culture + The Tragically Hip while we punch above our weight in that domain.
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There’s a bit of a problem here though.
Say we put tariffs on services from Amazon for example. What should they apply to? Amazon the online store and Prime Video? Or should we also apply them on cloud services? Because a LOT of Canadian companies are using their cloud services.
Even if they switched to Google, wouldn’t we want to tariff them as well for supporting Trump also? Or even Microsoft? They all spent a million $ for his inauguration. And I’d bet they would bend to his demands if push comes to shove.
We always knew that we depended too much on these companies and it’s never been so obvious than now. When we’re suddenly at the mercy of a psychopath fascists dictator president at the controls of our biggest economic partner.
I don’t know how you could tariff Meta, but I’d love if it was crippled so the essential groups I’m in would move somewhere else. I only ever get served posts from 1 or 2 of my real acquaintances as needles in a haystack of irrelevant trash.
Oops. Sorry, Meta. We just passed a law that you now have to pay a 300% monthly tax to operate in our country and every 3rd Tuesday of the month, Zuck has to publicly address the nation that he “Is a ginormous doo-doo head who likes to smell farts and sucks at hockey.” Again. So sorry, buddy. -Canada.
“You need to pay local taxes on any profit made off Canadians, it’s your responsibility to report your numbers and prove that they’re true, if you can’t we’re blocking your platforms.”
The good solution is rather to invest in diversity of sources. For the oil side, the solution is to invest in renewables and electrification as to not depend on oligarchs anymore, just like China is massively doing by the way.
For the oil side, the solution is to invest in renewables
Nuclear. Canada has an amazing(currently growing) nuclear industry. We need to foster that even more.
Both ideally, considering the high complexity of nuclear, we can’t solely bet on it.
I’m planning on buying canadien goods when I’m driving through half of the country this summer. I need a decent winter coat, so I’ll pick up a Canada goose.
Kanuk coats are made in Montreal, Avalanche is another option made in Quebec as well.
I’ll check those out. Is there a Canadian store like Dick’s that sells all 3 brands?
Don’t believe so, Canada Goose doesn’t like the competition
I think Canada goose coats are made in Burlington now.
Their website says their core goose down products are all made in Canada.
This is incredibly stupid as an economic counter plan for a nation whose number one import and export (>50% respectively) is the US. Compare that to the US’s highly diversified trade portfolio. Trump would clap back with a 100% general tariff on Canada.
American trade can survive without Canada. But Canadian trade can’t survive without America.
The bulk of Canadian exports to the US are oil. We can certainly tariff US goods, but export tariffs on Canadian oil and hydro electricity to the US will probably be a big component of the Canadian response.
Even with a big increase on hydro power exports to the US, it’s still cheaper than most other sources of electricity, so they’ll still happily pay it.
As to oil, there are some refineries in the US that are set up to process Canadian bitumen. Canada’s long history of just exporting raw materials and re-importing finished goods give a pretty outsized room to manuever here. This refineries will probably just pony up and pay more.
Where the damage will come is in areas like the auto sector, where there are tightly coupled supply chains.
Paul Krugman points out in his article The End of North America that there is probably already damage done to the concept of North American manufacturing.
Trump is going to do a whole lot of damage, we’re going to take some of that damage, but my favourite quote on the topic:
no one wins trade wars, but the kid who never stands up for himself always loses and for a long time
Canada and Mexico account for about a third of US exports. US businesses may be able to survive without them, but they sure won’t make the shareholders happy.
And we all know that not making the shareholders happy makes America very very sad.
Only in an American hospital will you hear that we need to discharge patient’s faster and do everything we can to keep them from coming back because “we have a duty to our shareholders”
You have no idea what you’re talking about.
Start taxing the fuck out of u.s. automakers
American here.
Help.
Do what you can to crash the American economy, IDGAF. I don’t know, grasping at straws.
Adopt me?
Help turn the entire world against America? Whatever it takes.
Canada is not going to damage the American. 74.5% of Canadian exports and 56.2% of imports are with the US. On the other hand Canada makes up 14% of US imports and 15.8% of exports.
If any plan killed the American economy every one else is going down too.
Copypasta my other comment:
The bulk of Canadian exports to the US are oil. We can certainly tariff US goods, but export tariffs on Canadian oil and hydro electricity to the US will probably be a big component of the Canadian response.
Even with a big increase on hydro power exports to the US, it’s still cheaper than most other sources of electricity, so they’ll still happily pay it.
As to oil, there are some refineries in the US that are set up to process Canadian bitumen. Canada’s long history of just exporting raw materials and re-importing finished goods give a pretty outsized room to manuever here. This refineries will probably just pony up and pay more.
Where the damage will come is in areas like the auto sector, where there are tightly coupled supply chains.
Paul Krugman points out in his article The End of North America that there is probably already damage done to the concept of North American manufacturing.
Trump is going to do a whole lot of damage, we’re going to take some of that damage, but my favourite quote on the topic:
no one wins trade wars, but the kid who never stands up for himself always loses and for a long time
Of the 14% of Americas imports that are from Canada under half are in energy or transport fabrication. The energy hits are much quicker to fix by importing more fuel from other nations.
I agree that the US auto sector hit will be harder but as for energy high enough tariffs will lead to a complete rejection of Canadian energy imports for US companies. This will be a loss for the US. But it will hurt Canada more. Tariffs are a zero sum game. The only way to win is to get everyone to agree to not play.
https://oec.world/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/import/usa/can/show/2022
Hence my quote:
no one wins trade wars, but the kid who never stands up for himself always loses and for a long time
Mexico has repeatedly gotten us to back down with strategic economic retaliation. I guarantee you Canada can do the same.
Mexico is the US’ biggest trading partner.
Both Mexico and China have the advantage of selling cheap goods to the US due to low labor costs.
Canada can hurt the US but the approach has to be different. The US backed off on the 25% tarriff on oil because they know it would hurt a little too much. Canada should impose an export tax on oil so that Americans in Northern states feel the pain when gas is a dollar more per gallon.
Mexico didn’t do some blanket tariffs they didn’t need to throw their weight around that hard. They stopped an Obama admin policy by hitting like 6 major products and when Trump did his bullshit they got a NAFTA 2.0 (which was basically just an updated with slight shifts for the US on some fronts but basically is 95% the same as the old one) operating the same way. They don’t need blanket tariffs, they just need to hit a few particular spots, which Canada is more than capable of doing.
Again, desperate, maybe the world needs a reset?
I don’t know. I don’t want anyone to suffer or hurt, but at this point it seems inevitable.
So how do we mitigate the suffering and pain, but still create progress and block fascism?
How do we Luigi but not have it be a slippery slope?
Trump can never beat the WEF allegations then
I’m boycotting all American goods and services. No more Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Disney (Never did go to Walmart). Going to be looking elsewhere for these things now.
I saw this image being passed around online. As an American I can’t comment on the accuracy of it, but hopefully it or similar lists help in your search.
Thanks! Not sure of how accurate this is. I know there’s a Lay’s factory near me that makes chips. I guess the parent company is American. But that’s still a handy cheat sheet.
I’m hoping for 100% tariffs on US Teslas and removing the current tariffs on Chinese EVs.
Carefully thought out trade with China would completely undercut and undermine the US, especially if other countries join. I agree and hopefully it becomes a trend. America is a great country but it’s not more important than the world.
Markets gonna lose 10,000 points on open
I hope so. That would be a nice fucking wake-up call to the orange traitor shitcunt’s moron supporters.
Renegotiate so that these products go elsewhere for the next 4 years.
Dang it, I am here waiting for our crap prime minister to come out on stage to let the nation know if we are doing anything in response to this. Its like blue balling for national sovereignty.
Edit going to write down my thoughts as he talks: Oh here he is… comes out with a grin then remembers this is not a good time for that. And now is talking “if” the usa goes though with these “threats”. MY DEAR SHITHEALING IDIOT, THIS IS NOT A WHAT IF! Like is this guy even working in todays reality, and not last weeks?
“We stand at the ready to work together” so we are doing what? what does that mean?
Oh 155 items being tariffed back, so we are responding to a total tariff regime with a limited one. I guess better then nothing?
Ah yes the alternative who is literally backed by the American oligarchs would definitely make a much better statement against this BS. Give your head a shake.
The guy in the running for next liberal leader is backed by American oligarchs? That’s not good.
Your listening comprehension needs work. He didn’t say 155 products, he said 155 billion worth of products.
And he didn’t say if.
He did say if. it was right at the beginning of the speech. I will give you that the 155 was billion (I was typing as he spoke) and got that part wrong. Same thing however, as its a limited response to a total trade war.
edit: just rewatched the part, what was said is:
“a decision should they elect to proceed with, should take effect on tuesday feb 4th.”
That statement is the equivalent of “Are you sure you want to do this bud? It isn’t going to turn out like you imagined.”
Trump always has the option to stop. It still could not happen. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think he will, but he could. The language Trudeau used was weak, but correct.
It was weak and the whole speech came off as weak and lame. This was the time to show some back bone and I did not see it. At this point of time having the government prorogued and our leadership uncertain (just so the ruling party gets to have a nice leadership race) is very bad. We need to have an appropriate yet firm response and I think of all the various party leaders (and would be leaders) Trudeau is the least likely to be taken seriously.
In the end it doesn’t matter what anyone says. It only matters what people do. As long as JT holds to the tariffs, and increases them exponentially if possible, that’s the only point to judge him on.
Stop whining about how he sounds ffs.
Still watching our great leader talk (I guess this bothers people?) and I am sad to see the attempt to appeal to reason and compassion with the american government. When will we learn?
