We kick off with breaking news about the impending trade war between Canada and the US, potentially starting as early as midnight eastern time with reciprocal tariffs. As we take a live look at Washington, we are hearing from US president Donald Trump that he has spoken with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this morning about the issue, and they plan to talk again later on today at 3:00 p.m.
According to the Prime Minister, these are the first calls between the two leaders since Trump took office. As we await more information on these high-stakes communications, we’ll provide you with comprehensive coverage on how this unfolds. We’ll also try to answer your questions about what it could mean for you. We may have some pain, and people understand that, but long-term, virtually every country in the world has ripped off the United States. That’s Donald Trump answering questions from reporters last night.
As he makes his way back to the White House, he reiterates a series of grievances to justify his punitive tariffs. He cites the crossing of legal migrants and fentanyl across the Canadian border, trade deficits with Canada, and what he perceives as Canadian barriers that prevent US goods and services from entering the country. For further insight into our coverage today, we welcome Janice McGregor from the CBC.
Trudeau, Trump expected to speak again this afternoon on eve of trade war
What is the current situation on both sides?
those still hoping there might be some way back from this uh Brink I it is better to be talking than not to be talking,, and I guess we continue to monitor this situation as the day rolls along otherwise this is very much a day to take stock of how the first volleys in each Direction have landed and also to keep an eye on the other front in this war,, which will be at this hour kind of opening up on the southern border as Mexico’s president steps forward with her list of retaliation against the Americans how that changes the calculus
In terms of political pressure on the US, individuals are using various economic levers to garner attention from key American voices. We know that Trade Minister Mary Ng spoke with her Mexican counterpart late yesterday, presumably to share intelligence and understand each other’s actions, even though they aren’t necessarily working together on this issue.
For now, the initial list of $30 billion worth of American imports that the Canadian government released yesterday was very interesting. When they were briefing reporters, Canadian government officials said they couldn’t share any kind of projected impact of what these early waves of retaliation might mean for the economy. Finance Minister Dominic Leland did meet with the Bank of Canada and the top financial institutions in this country yesterday. We know from what some of the banks.
will speak again this afternoon on eve of trade war
For instance, their economists have publicly stated over the weekend that there is a significant impact in store, indicating that it will hurt, and that it will intensify the fight against inflation, a problem we’re only now beginning to manage in this country. This initial list, however, may not be primarily focused on the economic impact, but rather on attracting political attention.
noisy, noisy, noisy senators and representatives, um, in them, um, for example, economist Trevor Tomb ransomed napkin math and found that Ohio, the home state of Vice President JD Vance, has more than any other in terms of actual dollar value, um, been targeted, uh, in for its exports, uh, to Canada. Um, but I want to just note some caution here because I ran kind of one of the totals that came out at the briefing by an industry, uh, that was sort of crunching its own numbers, seeing if they could match the government’s computations, and they’re
not sure that this list really adds up to the totals that the government says it does, so we watch that, uh, but we also don’t know how much revenue is going to come in from these tariffs for a couple of reasons. First, companies can apply to the Canadian government to be exempt from having to pay them. We’ll watch to see what the uptake is on that, and also they don’t know how consumers are going to change their behavior. Will a bye Canadian movement really kind of, um, take hold across the land? Um, if they don’t
Trump, Trudeau speak as trade war between Canada
know how many billions they might make in tariff revenue in Ottawa that will make it difficult to budget for the assist package that they say is coming for affected workers and specific sectors that are at risk of shedding jobs and being seriously damaged by this trade war. Yesterday, Pierre Poilievre said that conservatives are going to be keeping a close eye on this angle. Tariffs should not be used as a tax grab. None of the money from the tariffs should stay in government coffers.
or be spent on unrelated government priorities. All of it should go back to the workers and businesses that are affected, and most of it should go back in the form of a massive tax cut. And now, Janice, that was Pierre’s POV speaking yesterday, but he actually has a new video out this morning unveiling a proposal of his own to improve Canada’s economic competitiveness in the face of, of course, these new tariffs. So what did we hear from him today? Yeah, one of these packaged kind of video rants launched on his social media channels. The topic
of this one is what a conservative government would do about frankly a perennial issue, um, the problem of interprovincial trade barriers, uh, basically making it harder, uh, for Canadians to do business with each other, um. The things that they are proposing to do should they win the next election, um, are things like standardizing trucking regulations from coast to coast. Uh, PV is proposing what he called a blue seal professional, uh, licensing standard to make it easier for people to take a job in another province. I will say, Nita.
will speak again this afternoon on eve of trade war
Anand, the current minister in charge of this file, did convene provincial voices last Friday. They are working on these fronts; in some cases, already some of these things are controversial, not popular with provinces, but Pauline, in his video, says a conservative government would reward provinces that agree to remove barriers that could boost Canada’s GDP growth with an equivalent tax transfer that a province could then use to improve things like schools and hospitals. However, he did not elaborate on how this plan would ensure fairness.
issue that might emerge should it be enacted at some point, um, is that if you look at the Western uh Canadian provinces, they’ve already proactively actually lowered a lot of barriers. They have a partnership, for example, uh, between them, um, they’ve been a lot more active on this file than some of the more protectionist jurisdictions in Eastern Canada. This proposal would essentially be flowing more money, rewarding the more protectionist jurisdictions, uh, in the eastern half of the country. They could stand to
gain more um than the ones in the west who have been maybe better Boy Scouts to this point, so that is one question that may arise as this goes along. Uh, we are also watching um for any fallout from what we understood was a fascinating meeting between the opposition leaders and Justin Trudeau late yesterday, one we only know about because Elizabeth may talk about it on our social media channels, one where they all agreed that the problem here is not fentanyl,
