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Bloc Québécois chief aptly calls chopping off power provides to the U.S. a ‘scorched earth’ coverage. However that describes tariff wars normally
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For probably the most half, Canada’s premiers and the federal Liberal authorities have been united of their response to Donald Trump’s tariff threats. Photograph by Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press/File
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For all of the discuss of a nation divided by President Trump’s anti-Canadian rhetoric and a sure premier who received’t put the nationwide economic system earlier than her province’s, on the query of tariffs, Canada’s message to Trump’s Washington may be very united certainly. It’s so united, in reality, that this week Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared to channel Ezra Levant circa 2010.
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Bear in mind “Ethical Oil” — the oil-sands advocacy group, the e book? “Over the past few years, Canada’s oil sands exports to the United States have displaced 80 million barrels of Saudi oil annually,” Levant wrote in Moral Oil: The Case for Canada’s Oil Sands. “That’s 80 million barrels less each year from a misogynistic, theocratic dictatorship that has used its oil money to bankroll terrorists.” We shouldn’t examine “oil sands oil to some impossible, ideal standard,” Levant argued, however slightly to its “real competitors.”
Effectively-lettered of us in large cities throughout the nation virtually rolled their eyes out of their sockets. Extracting oil from the oil sands is especially emissions-intensive, they protested, and apart from, all oil is unethical and we must be weaning ourselves off of it.
Quick-forward 15 years, and “energy products” nonetheless account for almost 1 / 4 of Canada’s exports. Throughout Trudeau’s tenure as our proudly environmentalist prime minister, Canada’s crude-oil manufacturing has soared 62 per cent — from 91 million barrels in June 2016 to 147 million in October final yr.
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And there was Trudeau on Tuesday making just about Levant’s argument. Canada has “all the resources” Trump must usher in his new American “golden age,” Trudeau mentioned — from aluminum to lithium to “energy.” He didn’t say the O-word particularly, nevertheless it was greater than implied when he mentioned, “the alternative for (the Americans) would be more resources from Russia, China or Venezuela.” You don’t point out Venezuela, which boasts the world’s largest confirmed oil reserves and never a lot else, in the event you’re not speaking about oil.
This was a fairly good argument in 2010 and it’s one now — as are the essential numbers. In October, in line with the U.S. Power Info Administration, 58 per cent of American oil imports have been from Canada, whereas Mexico — additionally in Trump’s doghouse — was in second place at seven per cent. Whereas Nicolás Maduro’s Bolivarian-socialist nightmare-state has probably the most oil reserves, Putin’s Russia is in eighth place and China is in 14th.
It appears to me Canadians may truly be too united towards this risk — or at the very least, too united behind deeply flawed responses
The argument has additionally labored on Republicans previously. “Dirty oil and dangerous oil come from rogue regimes,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham advised Ontario Chronicle in 2010 having toured the oil sands. “The oil coming from Alberta in my view is not only acceptably clean, it is safe.” Graham is chair of the Senate’s price range committee, Trump’s common {golfing} associate and one of many president’s most appalling lickspittles. Possibly he can do some good and discuss some sense.
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Again dwelling, it appears to me Canadians may truly be too united towards this risk — or at the very least, too united behind deeply flawed responses. In relation to tariffs, nearly all of us appear to agree on two details.
Level one: Trump’s promised tariffs will harm Individuals simply as a lot or greater than Canadians. Trudeau has mentioned it (together with on CNN); NDP Chief Jagmeet Singh has mentioned it; Conservative Chief Pierre Poilievre has mentioned it.
And level two: We should completely retaliate towards these tariffs, those that harm American shoppers simply as a lot or greater than Canadians, by imposing our personal tariffs … which by our personal logic will harm Canadian shoppers simply as a lot or greater than Individuals. Trudeau, Singh and Poilievre are united on that time as nicely — which is odd, you may suppose, and would maybe be unpopular. As an alternative solely 13 per cent of respondents to an Ipsos ballot launched Tuesday opposed retaliating.
The logic of slapping a tariff on American orange juice, as has been proposed, is sound so far as it goes. Canada is the most important marketplace for exported Florida oranges, in line with the U.S. Division of Agriculture. There are OJ alternate options for Canadians: In 2023, 42 per cent of our imports come from Brazil. The 5 greatest citrus-producing counties in Florida voted between 54 per cent and 78 per cent for Trump. And whereas they don’t develop a lot citrus on Palm Seaside Island, and it’s unclear how a lot Trump actually cares about any of this someway (he solely reiterated the tariff risk to Canada after his inauguration when requested about it by a reporter) it will hit the president near dwelling.
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However paying extra for orange juice doesn’t actually remedy any of our issues any greater than it would remedy America’s issues to pay extra for all the pieces we ship south.
The place we’re not united is on the query of letting the American bastards freeze in the dead of night, to borrow a phrase. On Tuesday Bloc Québécois chief Yves-François Blanchet joined Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in opposing the broadly mooted notion of limiting chopping off power provides to the Individuals — his explicit curiosity being hydroelectricity, clearly. “If you break the Americans’ habit of getting energy from Quebec and Canada, once they have found other sources, you will be in a very disadvantageous position to negotiate new contracts,” Blanchet advised The Canadian Press.
He known as it a “scorched earth” coverage — an apt description. However that describes tariff wars normally, which Blanchet helps. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe joined the skeptics’ caucus on Wednesday as nicely, telling reporters in Regina that the province helps “very small, targeted tariffs that are there to change the minds of U.S. decision makers,” however not “broad-based dollar-for-dollar … counter-tariffs.”
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“Saskatchewan most certainly is not supportive of and would be working actively to ensure that an export tariff couldn’t be applied on Saskatchewan products,” mentioned Moe. He’ll little doubt be branded a traitor the identical approach Smith has. However we’d like extra questioning voices on this debate, not fewer.
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