Well the first months of the Trump administration have seen the big lie, told over and over and over. that Canada is a threat. In fact the threat has come out of the White House – that Canada bend to economic power and become the 51st state or else. Several officials, mostly ex-Fox News broadcasters, have fed the American people the lie(s) that drugs, immigrants, and terrorists are pouring over the border into the USA. None of which is true.

And so Canada moves on, requiring more Canadian steel to be in our projects, adding our own tarrifs to appropriate products (but not feigning national security), developing new trading partners with the UK and the UE, as well as other large economies. And Canadians are avoiding USA made products and touring the USA. Our southern cousins won’t see us as much for a while.

Canada is moving on.

Of course, the larger issue is that as tariffs, the promises (unkept) of ending war, the incursion into the business and politics of multiple countries for multiple reasons, creates uncertainty. I listened today to an American manufacturer who works with manufacturing plants in China and Vietnam, while so much is uncertain about costs and, therefore, production quotas. He discussed his inability to manufacture in the USA – “I can’t hire anyone who wants these jobs.”

Billions of dollars are flowing into the USA government coffers, but the job numbers are beginning to tell the story of a loss of economic momentum in the not-so-united states of america. The one just north of the Gulf of Mexico!

While Canada moves on with new trading partners, new trade deals, as does most of the world, there is one thing that is true. There are few winners in a trade war, but if Canada will win in any way it will likely be in the long run as the reliance on our southern neighbour for trade and friendship evaporates.

The only question in my mind now is, will this president leave in January of 2028. I highly suspect he will aim to remain. And that will bring some new struggles for that deeply divided country.