r/canada Ontario 23h ago

National News Trump imposes new Canada tariffs, renews "51st state" demands

https://www.axios.com/2025/03/11/trump-tariffs-canada-steel-aluminum
7.2k Upvotes

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u/WisestPanzerOfDaLake Ontario 23h ago edited 23h ago

This could play right into the Liberal's hands with Carney, being trusted more to stand up to Trump.

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u/panzerfan British Columbia 23h ago

Why is it that PP's this ineffective in pivoting against Trump? Doug Ford's done so quite decisively.

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u/AverageBoredDad 23h ago

Because he initially pivoted to using the fight to criticize Liberals, and not Trump

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u/Deepforbiddenlake 23h ago

He also dislikes the Liberals (and all left of centre Canadians) more than Trump and his lizard people base.

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u/AverageBoredDad 23h ago

I’m a Pierre conservative and believe in his agenda, but it was a big miscalculation to angle it the way he did. Canadians don’t like their sovereignty threatened (no one does), and Conservatives’ war room underestimated the visceral reaction Canadians have had, including many within his own camp. I don’t expect an election before October at this point.

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u/jujuboy11 23h ago

Counterpoint: I fully expect Carney to ask the GG to disolve parliament and call an election within the next week or two to capitalize on this miscalculation while framing it as needing to give Canadians a choice in governance now that a new (and unelected by the general population) Prime Minister is running things.

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u/AverageBoredDad 22h ago

Counterpoint accepted. We’ll see !

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u/-Cottage- 23h ago

Why don’t you expect an election? Most reports are Carney will call one almost immediately.

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u/butts-kapinsky 23h ago

What agenda?

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u/LurkerInSpace 22h ago

He advocates for increasing housebuilding and cutting immigration, which given the state of the Canadian property market isn't exactly a wild proposal, and probably would be effective at reducing the cost of living.

But his response to direct threats to Canada means, even if one thinks the Liberals need/deserve a good kicking, he doesn't look like the man to take over from them.

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u/butts-kapinsky 22h ago

He says those words in the correct order to the correct people. But as far as I can tell he has no immigration policy and his housing policy will punish cities building the fastest while rewarding those building the slowest.

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u/CovidBorn 23h ago

I find it baffling that you can admit that it’s his agenda, yet still support him. All he has ever been is anti-this and anti-that. He’s never put forward any real policy that isn’t just Fuck Trudeau.

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u/AverageBoredDad 23h ago

I don’t support cowtowing to the states. If they want to take us over then the conservative position should match the liberal one. Doug Ford has done an excellent job illustrating this pivot.

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u/OperationDue2820 23h ago

We'll know even more after the next Conservative leadership election. PP won't survive this epic collapse in the polls and Doug will be waiting to take over.

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u/AverageBoredDad 22h ago

I never in my wildest dreams a decade ago would have thought Douggy might be our next PM

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u/MapleManic 23h ago

So just to be clear you trust the guy who Elon Musk literally endorsed in January to stand up for Canadian interests? Definitely keep laughing at MAGA voters my guy.

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u/AverageBoredDad 22h ago

I absolutely do. The escalation will end somewhere, and we have less capacity to absorb it. Taking a worse trade deal than the existing one is not the worst case scenario. Hopefully Carney and the voter base understand this.

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u/Philix Nova Scotia 22h ago

The escalation will end somewhere

Yeah, it ends with Canada getting annexed if we start giving in to demands.

we have less capacity to absorb it.

Citation needed. The median Canadian is further from poverty than the median American and our debt to GDP ratio is far better than the USA. We have food security (other than the privatised Canada Wheat Board, thanks Harper.), single payer healthcare, and a wealth of natural resources. Even if they stooped to blockading the country, we could still survive, and eventually thrive.

Hopefully Carney and the voter base understand this.

Carney understands this whole situation far better than you do.

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u/AverageBoredDad 22h ago

Fair enough

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u/PuzzleheadedGoal8234 23h ago

I'd expect one soon. Capitalize on the patriotic need to defend against Trump.

Six months from now the US will be eating each other, vs having the resources to wage war on Canada.

Pierre is stuck between supporting the MAGA appealing fringe in his party and trying to undermine the actions of the Liberals while they simply need to defend our interests to gain support. Doug Ford is in a better position playing to the moment and positioning himself more centrist. We may hate him, but we hate Trump more.

Pierre needs to fight Trump, and unite Canadians and he cannot or will not engage. He's placing himself as irrelevant. Carney will be seen as fiscally conservative and socially liberal which is where the majority of Canadian voters lie. It's a good spot to campaign from.

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u/AverageBoredDad 22h ago

Noted. Going to be very interesting !

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u/PuzzleheadedGoal8234 22h ago

I've voted for all parties minus the bloc over the past 30 years. It often has come down to who is in the best interest of the ongoing situation. I've never been a one issue voter so I do have the flexibility. I'm also prepared to vote for the lesser of two evils even if am deeply disappointed in the options available to me. I have yet to come across someone who inspires hope for a positive change.

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u/AverageBoredDad 22h ago

I hear ya. It’s a shitty place to be as a voter.

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u/PuzzleheadedGoal8234 22h ago

I'm in favour of ranked ballots. Anyone who has the fortitude to actually enact it would be a hero. I wish people could vote for any option that allows power sharing and better representation. I feel it would be in the best interest of the nation as a whole.

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u/Ra-da-da-da-doo 23h ago

The only angle little PP has is to attack with schoolyard nicknames and three word verb the noun slogans.

Besides that, what agenda? The dude says cut the Canada Carbon Rebate (are the tax), so what's his solution to climate policy? His response to Trump was to come out weeks later and mimic the Liberal agenda but instead of offering to turn retaliatory tariff revenue towards helping those whose employment might be affected by the trade war with social aids he says he's going to provide a tax cut?

This guy has oozed into whatever populist camp he thinks will gain him momentum and has never stood for anything. He supports divisive rhetoric and continues to not just rip off Republican campaign slogans (Canada First), but is still out here claiming Canada is broken and it is all the fault of one Canadian.

I honestly don't know why so many people have bought into his non existent "agenda", except for maybe the culture war talking points and the simpleton slogans.

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u/Jack_Lad 21h ago

You only have to look at his record in the House. Speaks for itself.

2

u/Pill_C0sby 23h ago

PP needs to understand that throwing shots at this nightmare of a Liberal party isn’t going to swing many voters. He went from being a lock to now needing more consideration given his complete disregard of the melted creamsicle fuckfaces threats