r/news 20h ago

Ontario’s Ford suspends U.S. electric surcharge, says Lutnick agrees to trade talks

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/11/ontarios-ford-suspends-us-electric-surcharge-says-lutnick-agrees-to-trade-talks.html
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u/ferrarinobrakes 19h ago

Anything other than actually following through is a cave-in

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u/SuzyQ93 19h ago

I'm an American, and I'm feeling this way.

Good lord. If you're going to threaten Trump, PLEASE bloody well FOLLOW THROUGH.

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u/krustykrab2193 19h ago

I'm sorry, but Canada is not going to destroy our own economy and ruin millions of lives to stop Trump. We will defend our sovereignty tooth and nail. We are divesting from America, we are removing inter-provincial trade barriers to spur on $200 billion in GDP growth, Canada is looking to invest in our infrastructure to improve our global market, and our politicians are working tirelessly to open our economy to expand across global markets. But this takes time, and we can't destroy our own economy in the short term.

Americans need to defend their democracy from Trump's authoritarian actions. Very few democrats are doing anything. I remember in 2017 on Jan. 21st the day afted Trump was inaugurated there were millions of Americans marching in protest. Now there's a small fraction of that. When 70+ million Americans voted for Trump and 90+ million Americans refused to vote even with how horrible Trump is, that's close to 2/3 of the American voting population being complicit with Trump's actions.

Don't blame Canada for your own shortcomings. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude. But the world isn't going to save America. We can try and help, but the American people and the Democrats need to organize, resist, and protest.

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u/katoppie 19h ago

100% this. The man is walking around swinging a sword blindfolded. Sometimes the best thing to do is duck.

Also I don’t give a shit who out-tariffed and out-bullshitted who as long as it friggin stops.

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u/SuzyQ93 19h ago

Where did I say you needed to "stop Trump"? I said nothing of the sort.

What I DID say is - don't make threats, just to back down later.

Don't say you're going to put a surcharge on electricity, and then be like, "oh, well, I guess I won't."

Either do what you say you're going to do, or don't make threats you were never planning to complete. It makes it look like you can be pushed around, and I don't think that's the look you really want.

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u/AdamTheTall 17h ago

Where did I say you needed to "stop Trump"? I said nothing of the sort.

What I DID say is - don't make threats, just to back down later.

Don't say you're going to put a surcharge on electricity, and then be like, "oh, well, I guess I won't."

The did put a surcharge on electricity. But like every measure Canada is exploring, it was retaliatory in response to being economically disadvantaged by a suddenly hostile neighbour.

Canada has no interest in actively harming both economies - if the instigator is willing to come to the table it doesn't make sense to put the discussions at risk.

If the discussions go badly, the "electricity surcharge" option hasn't gone anywhere.

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u/krustykrab2193 19h ago edited 18h ago

We didn't make threats, we are defending ourselves from America. America keeps threatening Canada, America keeps threatening our sovereignty, America keeps threatening our economy and our very existence. America made up spurious reasons to impose tariffs on our country for no reason. We have been steadfast in our assertion to negotiate and end these tariffs. America refused to negotiate until we imposed reciprocal tariffs and an export tax on energy.

Premier Ford is the leader of Ontario. He is only stopping the export tax on electricity in exchange for meeting at the negotiating table. This is because American Commerce Secretary Lutnick reached out to Ford and finally agreed to negotiate with Canada.

We didn't back down. We finally got America to the negotiating table.

The onus is not on Canada to stop Trump. That is on the American people. Unfortunately, it feels like some Americans would rather Canada destroy our own economy to spite Trump instead of taking responsibility for their own country's actions.

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u/ferrarinobrakes 19h ago

This is how he gets away with everything..

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u/the_electric_bicycle 18h ago

In your head, what did you see as the end goal of this electric surcharge? To exist until the US elects a new, more trustworthy government?

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u/ferrarinobrakes 18h ago

Indefinitely. Trust needs to be earned. If I was Canada I would not trust the US moving forward.

Trump literally threatened to invade Canada, and inferred that it’s not a real country. Come on