Author Topic: Canada's Prime Minister speaks on tariffs  (Read 728 times)

buckworks

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Canada's Prime Minister speaks on tariffs
« on: February 02, 2025, 10:39:11 AM »
13 minutes of your time - Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, speaking about tariffs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiaACQpFUfE&t=768s

Pass it around if you can. I bet this won't get much coverage on American media.


Brad

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Re: Canada's Prime Minister speaks on tariffs
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2025, 12:40:54 PM »
Done Buckworks.  I posted to: Micro.blog, Tumblr, Bluesky, Mastodon and XTwitter.

That was a good speech.

rcjordan

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Re: Canada's Prime Minister speaks on tariffs
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2025, 03:03:16 PM »
CA version of The Onion:

“I’m a pretty savvy shopper,” explains Howard Rusnick, of Mobile, Alabama. “But just to check, there’s no way that lumber, gasoline, electricity, AND cars are all made in Canada, and will immediately cost me thousands of dollars more per year. Right?”

Rusnick added, “Also, there’s no chance that potash is made in Canada, and that America gets 50% of our potash from there, and also what is potash?”

The Canadian government has insisted that information on domestic goods is readily available to all trading partners, even including nations that recently elected a felony-convicted game show host to be their head of state. Instead, the United States has decided to employ a rarely-chosen trade tactic that international economists refer to as the “fuck around and find out” model.


Americans choose most expensive way possible to discover what goods made in Canada - The Beaverton
https://www.thebeaverton.com/2025/02/americans-choose-most-expensive-way-possible-to-discover-what-goods-made-in-canada/

ergophobe

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Re: Canada's Prime Minister speaks on tariffs
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2025, 10:07:57 PM »
I bet this won't get much coverage on American media.

Perhaps not. That is fundamental to the strategy. The reaction in the traditional US media is overwhelmingly negative (WSJ called it the "Dumbest Trade War in History"). If you go over to the Fox website, it's hard to even know the tariffs are happening. The only prominent article on the front page, was a story about how hockey fans in Canada booed when the US national anthem was played, which actually is on the front page twice. You have to go way way way down and look at the small thumbnail, small font articles to even see that Canada retaliated.

I think you have to zoom out here to see a few aspects of this strategy. Ezra Klein has a good analysis that starts with this quote from Steve Bannon from 2019:

Quote
Steve Bannon: The opposition party is the media. And the media can only, because they’re dumb and they’re lazy, they can only focus on one thing at a time. …

All we have to do is flood the zone. Every day we hit them with three things. They’ll bite on one, and we’ll get all of our stuff done. Bang, bang, bang. These guys will never — will never be able to recover. But we’ve got to start with muzzle velocity. So it’s got to start, and it’s got to hammer, and it’s got to —

Michael Kirk: What was the word?

Bannon: Muzzle velocity.

IN short, as Ezra writes, "If you’re always consumed by the next outrage, you can’t look closely at the last one. "

That comes from this essay
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-trump-column-read.html


ergophobe

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Re: Canada's Prime Minister speaks on tariffs
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2025, 11:01:00 PM »
Ontario cancels, then restores, $68 million Starlink contract after protesting US tariffs
https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/03/ontario-cancels-then-restores-68-million-starlink-contract-after-protesting-u-s-tariffs/

The Achilles heel of getting in a trade war with an administration having such a love affair with billionaire broligarchs.
« Last Edit: February 04, 2025, 11:33:04 PM by ergophobe »

buckworks

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Re: Canada's Prime Minister speaks on tariffs
« Reply #5 on: February 05, 2025, 01:44:33 PM »
A harsh article in the Vancouver Sun:

https://vancouversun.com/news/opinion-farewell-america-pete-mcmartin

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Pete McMartin: Where there was once admiration, there is now a firm and angry resolve. Schoolyard bullies don’t want to be buddies. They want your lunch.

buckworks

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Re: Canada's Prime Minister speaks on tariffs
« Reply #6 on: February 05, 2025, 03:26:38 PM »
Another harsh article, this from Charlie Angus:

https://charlieangus.substack.com/p/from-this-moment-everything-changes

Quote
There was a time when we used to joke that we were the mouse sleeping in bed with an elephant. Then the comparisons got darker: being a neighbour to America was like living in an apartment above a meth lab. Now we are coming to terms with the fact that we share border with a predatory regime run by men who look on democratic nations as suckers for a shakedown. While we may share incredible relations at the individual level, Canadians understand that we are no longer neighbours.

littleman

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Re: Canada's Prime Minister speaks on tariffs
« Reply #7 on: February 05, 2025, 11:27:36 PM »
Honestly, I am having a hard time responding to this.  Trump got the roughly 1.5% more votes than Harris.  Most of those who voted for him knew what was coming -- that says something about human nature.  At this point I could only hope that incompetents overpowers malevolence.

ergophobe

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Re: Canada's Prime Minister speaks on tariffs
« Reply #8 on: February 06, 2025, 06:14:24 PM »
>> hard time

Honestly, I have a lot to say, but it's not in keep with the forum, definitely not in a public thread. But sitting here amidst a lot of hard-working federal employees being vilified daily by the administration is, I think, maybe a bit like being a Canadian.

ergophobe

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Re: Canada's Prime Minister speaks on tariffs
« Reply #9 on: February 08, 2025, 02:11:37 AM »
Meanwhile.... (paywall)

Behind Closed Doors, Trudeau Says Trump Threat to Take Over Canada Is Real
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a talk with business leaders, said Canada’s wealth of critical minerals are behind Mr. Trump’s comments about making its northern neighbor a U.S. state.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/world/canada/trump-canada-trudeau.html

Meanwhile redux... this was not prominent in the NYT, CNN or Foxnews (meaning that I could not find it there). Basically being ignored by US media across the spectrum (see, "flood the zone" above), but it is the second most-read news story of the day on Le Monde.

After the sanctions against the ICC announced by Donald Trump, 79 countries denounce the increased risk of “impunity for the most serious crimes”
In a joint declaration, these 79 countries regret “any attempt to undermine the independence” of the International Criminal Court after the signing of the American decree prohibiting entry into the United States to its directors, employees and agents.

Quote
“As fervent supporters of the ICC, we regret any attempt to undermine the independence of the Court,” add these 79 signatories in a joint declaration launched by Slovenia, Luxembourg, Mexico, Sierra Leone and Vanuatu, joined in particular by France, the United Kingdom, South Africa, the Palestinians, Germany, Canada, Chile and Panama.
https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2025/02/07/apres-les-sanctions-contre-la-cpi-annoncees-par-donald-trump-79-pays-denoncent-l-augmentation-du-risque-d-impunite-pour-les-crimes-les-plus-graves_6536243_3210.html

ergophobe

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Re: Canada's Prime Minister speaks on tariffs
« Reply #10 on: February 14, 2025, 04:52:30 AM »
Monthly family book club was tonight.

My cousin from Canada basically doesn't want anything to do with the US anymore. When looking at next books, she is avoiding US authors, publishers and booksellers. As a general rule, she is avoiding whenever possible engaging with the US economy. She does not find talk of the 51st state amusing at all.

buckworks

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Re: Canada's Prime Minister speaks on tariffs
« Reply #11 on: February 14, 2025, 08:14:21 AM »
>> avoiding whenever possible

That attitude is spreading far and wide.

Many people I know who were formerly quite relaxed about where their goods and services came from have shifted to active, emphatic avoidance and distaste for anything American.

The catch phrase is "buy Canadian, bye American".

ergophobe

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Re: Canada's Prime Minister speaks on tariffs
« Reply #12 on: February 14, 2025, 07:48:25 PM »
Traditionally, it's a better strategy to attack your enemies, but the consequences of attacking your allies tend to be more subtle and play out over longer time spans.

littleman

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Re: Canada's Prime Minister speaks on tariffs
« Reply #13 on: Today at 08:12:25 AM »
I don't think most people realize how deeply integrated the USA's and Canada's economies truly are. We have vehicles that cross the boarder multiple times in production.  We do over $900 billion in total trade each year and are each other's largest trading partners. 

If someone wanted to come up with a plane to disrupt the economy of North America this would be an excellent way to start.