Kaylee Glenn
Appearances
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
Prime Minister Trudeau himself took a trip to Mar-a-Lago to meet with President-elect Trump in a way that received some mixed reviews in Canada, at least. Some saw this as a potential strategy for a leader who knows how to deal with a president like Trump, meeting him on his home turf, figuring out how there might be a way to dampen the tariff rhetoric there.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
But on the other hand, Trump is not yet president. And so there are folks who have been critical about Trudeau's apparent deference to the incoming president. We're also seeing provincial leaders and regional leaders responding to these threats of tariffs. So Ontario Premier Doug Ford, for instance, has recently threatened to
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
enact sort of province-wide retaliatory measures in the form of cutting off Ontario's energy supply to specific United States if the tariffs are imposed on Canadian goods.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
And this is not exactly a weak threat. Ontario's energy supply to the United States amounts for providing over 1 million homes with their electricity. And this would have regional impacts within the United States, particularly in states like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania. New York, which all account for large dollar amounts and large quantities of trade with Canada and with Ontario specifically.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
What's also interesting is that Ontario Premier Doug Ford has mentioned that he is planning on meeting with other provincial premiers in Canada to sort of coordinate a potential response across the provinces to any sort of tariffs that are imposed by the United States.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
In Trump's first term as U.S. president, he went ahead and threatened to impose tariffs on Canadian and Mexican products and actually went ahead and did impose them. But what happened in Trump's first term was that Canada and Mexico retaliated. Canada imposed reciprocal tariffs on steel and aluminum products that remained in place until NAFTA was renegotiated to become the USMCA.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
The renegotiated NAFTA into the USMCA was widely perceived to have included terms that were viewed as quite preferable for the United States.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
I think what this means is that the goals of what a second term Trump administration is trying to achieve really matter here. Candidate Trump mentioned the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico and specifically mentioned that the border between U.S. and Canada and the border between U.S. and Mexico is a key issue that he signaled he might use tariffs to address.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
So if the goals of the tariffs are in fact security in nature, it's not entirely clear how tariffs would bring about desired policy change given that Canada and Mexican leaders have already signaled they want to take action on the border. So that is to say there's already room for cooperation and there might not be necessarily a need for the pressure levied by tariffs.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
There still remain irregular migrant crossings at unofficial entry points between Canada and the United States. And Prime Minister Trudeau alongside President Biden coordinated the implementation of what's called the Safe Third Country Agreement to specifically address these irregular migrant crossings.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
So there's already been movement on the policy side between Canada and the United States to address things like irregular migrant crossings. Beyond that, it's not entirely clear what might be addressed in any sort of future policy move beyond what Canada and the United States have signaled they already want to do.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
I mean, that's certainly possible. We sort of got a taste of Trump's foreign policy approach during his first term in which he dealt with traditional allies of the United States in ways similar to how the United States has treated its traditional adversaries with big threats and sort of harsh rhetoric for perceptions of unfairness. So
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
In a way, yes, President Trump in his first term was precedent-breaking in terms of how he spoke about and how he handled allies. For instance, in his first administration, he considered Canada to be a national security threat and therefore justifying the imposition of the tariffs that we saw in 2018.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
I can't recall a time when the United States had considered Canada to be a national security threat to that degree after 1812.
Today, Explained
Trump trolls the neighbours
Correct, yes. I mean, Canada has been a security ally across many different formalized alliances with the United States. So it's not out of Trump's precedent, but it is out of U.S. precedent.