Politico Canada reports this morning (September 1 2026):

In an exclusive interview with POLITICO’s DASHA BURNS, Greer said Canada “could see additional tariffs and you could see import bans or prohibitions similar to the ones that Canada has imposed on us earlier.”

That interview occurred late in the day on August 31 2026, as per Burns’s opening statement in the video below. The two speakers on this show are Politico Global Anchor Dasha Burns (left) and Senior White House Reporter Megan Messerly (right).

Canada trade talks went cold. What happens next?, Sept. 1 2026

Dasha Burns speaking, Min. 0:57:

Megan, we have been following this back and forth with Canada for what—over a week now? I got to speak with the US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer last night about the latest here.

1:11 He's of course a major player in this whole thing. And look, he was pretty blunt about the fact that it’s gone cold, like there are no negotiations happening right now. He basically said, “Listen, we gave Canada the best deal we could. They’d been the ones asking for us to come to the table. We didn’t ask for these negotiations. They asked for them and then we came to them with a deal and they walked away. So that’s that.”

NOTE: As Dasha says that, she shakes her head as in “Can you believe this crazy?” and on the word ‘so’ she draws out the ‘o’ and makes these big eyes.

You have to actually watch the video to get the real gist of what these two journalists are saying, to see facial expressions that say a thousand unspoken words. She follows up her theatrics with:

1:42 Of course, that's not that. There's a whole lot of fallout that could happen from this.

Megan joins her in the joviality. And yet, as we listen to this White House Reporter speak across more than one session, we notice two important things:

1. She knows the history of the USMCA/CUSMA deal going back to Trump’s first term.

2. She understands both Canada’s perspective and also Trump’s perspective.

Megan Messerly speaking, Min. 1:46:

There is really so much to unpack here and this like the saga has literally been going on for more than a year.

1:52 Things have been pretty tense between the US and Canada and we should say like the fundamental challenge here which you know Canada’s argument is they signed this trilateral trade agreement with the US and Mexico in Trump’s first term and their argument has been why should we need to relitigate some of these trade questions. That of course has not been the president’s position.

2:15 And so from his perspective, there’s been this obstinate Canada that’s been, you know, unwilling to come to the table and deal in the way that other countries have. He’s been really frustrated at some of the retaliatory measures Canada has taken. For instance, some provinces have pulled US alcohol off the shelves. That has been a huge irritant.

2:34 And the US’s argument for like a very long time has been if you guys aren’t going to remove your retaliatory measures, we’re not going to come to the table. And that’s why you had the president threaten these massive 50% tariffs on 20 billion dollars of Canadian goods that eventually did get Canada and the US to the table.

2:52 They were closing in on some sort of trade agreement to sort out some of these thorny issues and it all fall fell apart.

The Politico Anchor Dasha Burns agrees completely. And if you’re listening to the video you can hear what she actually thinks of Greer’s concept of retaliating against Canada’s retaliation. But she’s confused when it comes to the name of Canada’s political parties. She mentions Canada’s Republicans. No, Dasha, I don’t think so. A quick Google Search would have given you the names of Canada’s political parties and there most certainly is no Republican Party in Canada. Otherwise, she comes across as an intelligent young woman.

Dasha Burns speaking, Min. 2:57:

It all fell apart. I mean, what what Greer said Canada wanted was better tariff treatment across the board when it came to vehicles to heavy trucks as well as he said certain derivative products and steel and aluminum and those are asks that went beyond what Canada had agreed to earlier in in the negotiations.

3:14 And Greer confirmed that Canada walked away from a deal that the president approved and was ready to go with. Now, this September 8th deadline that is coming up next week, the retaliatory tariffs from Canada kicking in. I mean, he made it pretty clear that the United States is not really going to take that on the chin, that more retaliation will come in reaction to the retaliation.

She goes on to list the potential items he threatened on Canada in retaliation for its insubordination: it could be higher tariffs or some sort of prohibition of goods and services. What impresses me is their lack of imagination. “Like what Canada has done to the US,” is what he says, the things “that really really ticked off Trump.”

And no, they deny that the upcoming midterms play any role in this. This continual denial makes one wonder exactly how MAGA thinks it has secured the vote. Dasha and Megan do not touch that topic.

Dasha says, Min. 4:02:

You know, there are some a state and border state Republicans, Canada border state Republicans and Democrats that have been really concerned about what this trade war will mean for for consumers, for farmers.

This concern is real, very real. However, most of that just sounds so very wrong, almost to the point that one wants to discount and write off the entire video. However, listening to these two women is perhaps the only way we will know exactly where Americans stand on very important issues, meaning that there are some Americans who have a clear-eyed view of both sides of the situation albeit the wrong names for our political parties.

One more statement she relays from Greer is his position that

4:10 The United States is enacting its trade policy and if Canada is is not on board with that, that is not a political consideration for the United States. It it is a policy consideration for the United States.

Dasha, however, believes it’s politics playing on both sides of the border. No, Dasha, you don’t get it either, I now realize. This is not politics. This is survival. We Canadians are in this fight for our lives, for the survival of our economy, our sovereignty.

Megan agrees that politics always always plays a role. But she points out something Canadians in general did not know: Apparently, Canada’s retaliatory tariffs:

1. target a lot of states that have competitive midterm races

2. come right at the time of these midterm races

3. are meant to hurt

Wow! I knew that Mark Carney knew what he’s doing. I had heard the word “surgical.” But this is more targeted, more “surgical,” than I could have ever imagined.

“Canada is not naive,” she says.

Megan speaking, Min. 4:35:

[Politics] always always plays a role. And I mean this is one of the really big challenges here, you know, talking to folks the last week plus about this. One of the big challenges is Canada—on one hand they’ve again threatened these retaliatory tariffs, the ones you mentioned that will take effect next week, and they really are targeting a lot of goods that hit states that have competitive midterms races right—like Canada is not naive to the fact that they really want to hit the US in some painful spots to get them back to the negotiating table.

NOTE: Is that Canada’s point or is that your belief, Megan?

5:07 But this just isn’t the way the president does business and the posture from the president and the administration broadly has very much been, you know, we are the 200 pound gorilla in the room here. Our economy is so much bigger than yours, Canada. You need to come and be the supplicant here. We’re not playing this game with you.

NOTE: Canada understands this very well but Canada is no longer playing that game.

5:25 We’ve seen the president over the last couple days rename Lake Ontario to Lake America. He’s been very frustrated that China and Canada are like the two countries here not willing to wheel and deal.

NOTE: I speak only for Canada. Canada demands respect as a sovereign nation on an equal footing to the United States. About a year ago, I saw a statement by a Chinese official saying the same thing.

Of course, I talk to folks close to the White House and they know the president loves a good deal. If Canada were to come, hat in hand to the US and say, “Here’s an amazing deal. We’re going to give you all these things.” The president would probably take it. But Canada can’t do that because they have their own domestic politics to think about and the US is not very popular right now in Canada.

Dasha comes back on and shares that Greer didn’t think Canada would come back to the table very easily. He claimed the US had nothing better to offer.

Dasha speaking, Min. 6:12:

I asked what the conditions would be to start negotiations again. He told me that he wouldn’t say that there are conditions. He said, quote, “It just seems to me that a deal was available and they didn’t want that. Where’s the United States supposed to go from there? It’s not like there’s a better deal available for the Canadians.” So where this goes from here, Megan, is like a massive question.

6:31 And of course, there’s this idea of how much tit for tat is there going to be. Greer says that they’re not interested in that. At the same time, they’re not going to sit by and and not retaliate. And then you’ve got some other big characters in Canada like the Ontario premiere Doug Ford who threatened to cut off energy exports to the United States, which Greer called a quote “Chinese type of thing to do.”

Um, no, not a Chinese thing but an American thing. I have never seen the Chinese retaliate against retaliations. The Chinese play by the rules, the Americans do not. Neither the Canadians, nor the Chinese, nor the Americans get to make the rules. The rules are made by the proper officials at Brussels or somewhere. Donald Trump and his administration place themselves above the law, not a position that neither Canada nor China will accept.

Greer, she says, dismisses the idea that Canada will cut energy since not all premiers are on board, and also, the US is not touching energy. As though Canada would not do something that the US would not. As though Canada is so inferior that it cannot possibly have an original thought. Might it be that he is afraid and that he has to downplay the threat to make himself feel better?

Dasha says the path forward is very murky and Megan agrees. She plays a clip of Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Michigan for the November 2026 election.

CLIP Abdul El-Sayed speaking, Min. 8:11:

There’s a smart use of tariffs. This ain’t it. This is a vanity war. And I want to be clear, this vanity war is not a war with Canada. It’s a war on Michigan because we have to pay the price and we pray it every single day for goods that should not cost as much as they do.

Whatever he calls it, it is also a war with Canada. If he has such a big problem with it, let him round up the Americans and physically arrest the criminals in the White House. Alternatively, let Americans stop working. Let them do sit-ins all over the country, stop the operation so that the Trump administration cannot operate. Americans do not have to put up with this and they are responsible for the evils, for the lost lives of millions, Trump imposes on the rest of the world.

That is incredibly chaotic.

June 15, 2025

Sarah Bowman

QUORA QUESTION: What are the 10 states discussing joining Canada?

California, Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Maryland, Vermont, New Hampshire

I can’t remember all the different states that have asked me if they could join Canada.

I’m only one of forty million people. I can’t make this decision on my own. But I know there are lots of other Canadians who say, “We don’t want them,” meaning the Americans.

And yes, all of you are Americans, whether or not you like the label. We don’t want you.

The extremely disrespectful thing about questions like this is that they don’t think to ask, “How can we qualify to become Canadian?” No, that is not their attitude. This question is like so many others. Americans discuss among themselves whether it would be good for them to secede from their country and join Canada. They act as though Canada has no say in this, as though whatever Americans decide will happen.

That is so disrespectful. That is so arrogant. We Canadians have had to put up with American arrogance all our lives. What makes you think Canada would accept you?

Oh, you’re Americans. That’s right. And Americans get what Americans want.

Not this time.

Answer this question: Why don’t these ten states get together and form a brand new country?

COMMENTS

Alice Gerard - Quora, lives in Buffalo, New York, 1 year ago:

I would want all of the Great Lakes states to get together and become an independent nation. It would be a good choice for us to be free and independent to negotiate a treaty with Canada protecting the lakes for perpetuity. Unfortunately, the United States is too dysfunctional to do that.

But no, Americans don’t get what Americans want. Rich Americans and large corporations get what they want. The rest of us??? I don’t think so.

Sarah Bowman · 1y

Now you’re talking my kind of language. I really like your idea. Those lakes need protection and care.

Alice Gerard · 1y

Thank you so much. I live on an island in the middle of the Niagara River that connects two Great Lakes, so this issue is near and dear to my heart.

Alex Kanyon - Quora 1y

I think Vermont and Maine would be welcome to join Canada more than the others, they are culturally not so distant. California is alone equal to the population of Canada and would upend the nation if it joined.

Sarah Bowman

· 1y

they are culturally not so distant

I know that’s what they say. But I think that’s just because Canadians of Ontario and east are talking. Others say west coast states are same culture as BC.

BUT:

• Americans don’t want a king. They fought a war to get rid of the British monarch. Two and a half centuries later, the British monarch remains head of Canada. I foresee serious problems if American states join Canada.

• Americans are so individualistic, each on their own, no concern or care for their neighbour. Canada instinctively cares for the stranger and welcomes those in need of a home, sharing with them resources and healthcare.

• Americans say in regards to universal healthcare that they don’t want their money to be used on strangers. They say people who don’t have money don’t deserve healthcare, which makes zero sense and we do NOT want that attitude in Canada.

• Americans are used to having very high regard for religion, religious institutions, religious holidays—-but all things religious must be Christian. Canada is a secular country. The clashes would be insurmountable.

• Americans are a flag-worshipping nation. Their school children must pledge allegiance to the flag every single school day. Canada’s flag is not used to worship; it is used to being a beacon of identity. But Americans with such a deep instillation of allegiance to the flag could not leave that attitude behind; it’s part of their DNA.

• Americans cannot lose their inherent arrogance simply by changing their citizenship. All they want is our “free” healthcare, our sane government, our gun laws, or some such thing—all things they can get in their own country. They come with the attitude that Canada must and will accept them if they wish to join. This arrogance is intolerable and will cause endless trouble for Canada. Let them fix their own country!

Those are a few of the things for which it would be very bad to admit American states of any stripe to Canada.

Alice Gerard · 1y

Fortunately, no one in the United States is mandated to pledge allegiance to a piece of cloth. The Supreme Court rule in 1943 that it was a violation of students’ freedom of speech to be mandated to recite the pledge of allegiance. The court ruling was West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette. Two girls from a Jehovah’s Witness family were expelled from school for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The ruling was based on freedom of speech, rather than freedom of religion, but both would have applied.

Sarah Bowman· 1y

Thanks for the clarification. I’ve mentioned this a lot of times on Quora answers. You’re the first to correct me. QUESTION: Is it not a ritual in every classroom to pledge allegiance to the flag? Is my mistake using the word “must” rather than “do”?

Alice Gerard · 1y

I think that it probably is a ritual in most classrooms, but not all. Many kids like it because it delays the moment that the teacher says, “Hand in your homework.” I cover the school board for the local newspaper, and the pledge of allegiance is a ritual there, too. I don’t like it because it feels like indoctrination to me, as well as being very much not the truth, so I stand there while everybody else engages in the nationalistic ritual before getting down to business.

Aug. 17 2026

Sarah Bowman

QUORA QUESTION: Since the United States is the most powerful military country and cannot be defeated, does this mean that Canadians who are unwilling to let Canada join the United states are irrational?

Hmmm. You say the United States cannot be defeated because of its powerful military. They do say Americans are both very arrogant and very ignorant. To claim that your country cannot be defeated is the height of arrogance. To claim that the world’s most powerful military guarantees against defeat in the summer of 2026—you posted this question on June 29 2026—is rock-solid evidence of total and complete ignorance of the facts.

So what if your idol claims the Hormuz Strait is open and that he controls it, if you had an ounce of brain power, you would be asking why the price of gas is not coming down and why bombs continue to drop.

That’s not what you’re asking. You’re posting a lie, using it for your premise, then accusing Canadians of being irrational for not being willing to join up with such a failure of a country.

Nothing doing! We Canadians have watched every insane action that your insane president took against a once flourishing country—itself. The United States of today is not recognizable as the same country Donald Trump inherited from Joe Biden on January 20 2025. Back then, it was a normal first-world country, though backward in healthcare and gun policy and women’s rights and such. Today, those stains remain, plus the full-scale damage and destruction Donald Trump wreaked.

Canadians have paid with their lives not to be part of the United States. It’s only because we defeated the United States in the War of 1812 that Canada exists. That’s the answer to your question.

1. Canada defeated the US in 1812.

2. Iran defeated the US in 2026.

3. It’s a lie that the US cannot be defeated.

4. Canada is so much freer and happier and has an all-around higher quality of life than the United States that Canadians would be totally irrational to join the US.

Aug. 24 2026 (six days ago)

The Kyle Jordan Project | Substack

The Kyle Jordan Project (@thekylejordanproject): "Dear American friends and family, I genuinely don't think your news is telling you the whole story about why Canada just said no to the United States. And I REALLY don't think you're being told how much the United States actually relies on Canada. So, buckle up. Because the i…"

[T]he idea that America holds all the cards and Canada is some insignificant little country that should shut up and take whatever deal we’re offered is complete bullshit.

Canada was willing to negotiate. We were willing to make concessions. We were willing to reduce retaliatory tariffs if the United States reduced theirs.

We wanted a fair deal.

Then the American demands changed.

The U.S. wanted restrictions on Canada’s ability to make future trade agreements with other countries.

Seriously, what the fuck?!

Another country wanted a say in who CANADA is allowed to trade with.

They pushed us on Canadian cultural protections and protections for the French language.

I mean... we’re a goddamn bilingual country.

They also changed the proposed deal on vehicles, including the treatment of larger vehicles, after Canada had been negotiating for substantially lower auto tariffs.

At what fucking point do you stop calling that a trade negotiation?

Canada was being asked to surrender pieces of its sovereignty in exchange for tariff relief.

So we said, “Fuck you Orange MacGobler.” Your spray tan is showing.

And apparently there’s this idea floating around that Canada can’t possibly say no because America doesn’t need us.

Well...

…So when you hammer Canadian auto manufacturing, you’re not punching some completely separate foreign industry.

You’re punching your own supply chain.

And then there’s something else Americans really need to understand.

YOU SELL AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF STUFF TO US.

Canada isn’t just America’s supplier.

We’re one of America’s biggest fucking customers.

Canada is the top export market for roughly half of U.S. states and one of the most important export destinations for almost the entire country.

Hundreds of billions of dollars worth of American goods and services are bought by Canadians every year.

…Those aren’t Canadian jobs. Just do you know.

Those are American jobs supported by Canadian customers.

…They don’t need Canada because we’re nice.

They need Canada because WE BUY THEIR SHIT.

The United States needs Canada!

…And millions of American jobs depend on Canadians continuing to buy American products.

That’s precisely why starting a trade war between two countries whose economies have been welded together for generations is so fucking stupid.

Replacing a reliable supplier sitting directly across the world’s longest international border with suppliers thousands of kilometres away isn’t free.

And replacing one of your biggest customers isn’t particularly easy either.

Canada has 41 million people.

America has more than 340 million.

Nobody is pretending we’re economically equal.

We’re not.

GOOD.

Canada isn’t the 51st state.

We’re your neighbour.

We are no longer your ally.

We don’t give a shit about being your customer.

And, fuck what you hosers need from us.

And whether Donald Trump likes it or not...

You can’t hide the fact that he’s a... Rapist. Pedophile. Misogynist. Racist. And an overall piece of shit.

And he doesn’t give a single fuck about American people.

NOTE: Emphasis added.

Aug. 29 2026

Sarah Bowman

QUORA QUESTION: Will the US tariffs on Canada lead to more than a short-term boycott of US products?

Yes. The boycott started about 18 or 19 months ago and is only hardening with the new 50% tariffs imposed now and the threat of more to come on Jan. 1 2027. Also, it’s not just Canada. In addition, Gavin Newsom said the tariffs would remain even if a democrat came into office.

BREAKING: USA Confirms Permanent Tariffs, Aug, 27 2026

Kellerman speaking, Min. 0:32:

[Gavin Newsom’s] tone is very much more considerate and respectful when he speaks about our country. And he’s been presented in the media and seen by a lot of Canadians as potentially a change in two years when the bombastic buffoon and the Republicans finally get defeated. If we could get a Democrat in charge in the United States, then things will go back to the way they were, maybe get better.

1:02 Now, I’m here to tell you, that that’s not the case. And Canada is in this fight for the long run. I’m going to play you some clips of his interview with CBC Rosemary Barton. And he uttered only one word, the most important word that he uttered in the whole interview that basically tells us everything we need to know. Let’s see if you can catch that.

Rosemary Barton speaking, Min. 1:20:

With a future Democratic president, should Canadians expect that all tariffs disappear and that we go back to a real free trade relationship?

YouTube transcript doesn’t catch it but at Minute 1:27, before Rosemary stops talking, Gavin says, “No,” and a second later continues:

Gavin Newsom speaking, Min. 1:28:

I don’t know. I mean, look, I thought that the framework of Donald Trump’s…”

Kellerman cuts the clip and says:

blah blah blah. He speaks for another minute and a half. Did you catch it?

He then replays the clip several times so we can hear the word no repeated many times.

Kellerman speaking, Min. 1:49:

No. No. No. No. That’s the word.

Canadians, we have to understand we’re in it for the long haul. It doesn’t matter who the president is. This is US policy, right? Tariffs against other countries’ imports. They will not deviate from that. They will not waver from that. The days of free trade with the United States are gone. Our prime minister understands this.

In that case, I don’t see the boycott letting up at all. We’re used to it by now. Supply chains have adjusted or are in the process of adjusting. This is not something one can reverse overnight and just decide to change because we’re in the mood. The American booze business will just have to find other customers if it can. It’s no one’s fault but your own that you’ve got crazy policies. Can the average American help it? I don’t know and I don’t care. I’ve got enough to care for myself, my country, and the rest of the world. Americans don’t care for anyone outside their own skin so I don’t care for them either. They are outside my own skin.

COMMENTS

Marc Allo - Quora, Anti-colonialist | Staunch Pan-Africanist, Aug. 29 2026

I wonder why you Canadians do this. Yes, Trump is bastard but these grievances he is pursuing aren’t exclusive to him alone. Several US presidents have grumbled about them but never been able to say them out loud.

Now you have a bastard who is doing that and you guys are bitching about like he is 100% wrong or someteething which he isn’t. Canada says we provide low stamping fees for forest harvesting and we put tariffs on diaries to protect our farmers. Well, what the fuck do you guys think the US is doing? Who the fuck are they protecting? who is more important to them?

And then.you hear canadians go we boycott their products for 18 or 19 months! Well what’s the real effects? Cos last I saw if these boycotts worked the US would have removed the tariffs by now right? Yet the more you boycott their products the more tariffs they impose on you.

Last time that embarrassing scene at the G7 meeting when Carney was placating Trump and was caught on the hot mic! It looked almost like the leader of a developing nation pacifying a more powerful country’s leader. And here in lies the elephant in the room. Canada-US trade relations is super similar to that of a developing — developed nations relation. This is what you would see more in the relation between say France and Ivory Coast cos Ivory Coast trade is more dependent on France than vice versa and France thus gets to dictate terms.

When you deal with a bastard like Trump who doesn’t mince words and like to say what’s on his mind — diplomacy be damned, it’s not too hard to see why he says things like Canada should be the 51st state and calling your leaders governors. Is that disrespectful? you bet. But is there a scintilla of truth to his concerns? Well, you answer that.

Canada cannot sustain a trade war with the US, face it. They will bury you guys completely, given the level of dependency. EU can never in a 100 years fill any gap left by the US. Hell not even China if they meant well. So stop all that huffing and puffing. Cos like Trump says, you guys got no cards. Whatever retaliation you think you can inflict on the US would feel more like a pinprick. The US can completely devastate Canada. Listen to that Premier from Alberta. You may think she is a sell off. But she is more pragmatic than all your leaders combined

Sarah Bowman · Aug. 29 2026

we put tariffs on diaries to protect our farmers.

Couple things.

1. It’s dairies, not diaries. There’s a very important difference.

2. Canada has a tariff rate quota on US dairy. Here’s how that works. The US can export a large amount of dairy into Canada tariff-free. But there’s a quota. If the US goes over that quota—and it never does—then an outrageous tariff applies. How is that unfair? The US can export as much dairy to Canada as it wants tariff-free because it does not want to fill its quota! Tariffs only apply if the US goes over its quota but it never even reaches the quota. We Canadians are totally baffled what Americans are bitching about.

3. Add to that the case of Canada’s Tariff rate quota on Chinese EVs. China can export a certain number of EVs (the quota) into Canada for a reasonable tariff. If China sends us more, an unreasonable tariff applies. That is exactly the same as with TRQ on US dairy. The numbers are different but the policy is exactly the same. But here’s what make zero sense to us Canadians. The Americans are bitching over the TRQ for Chinese EVs like all hell broke loose. They are bitching equally over the TRQ for their dairy but the opposite way—like they are not allowed to send anything at all. QUESTION: How can the exact same policy, the TRQ, flood the market when it’s Chinese EVs but cut it off at the root when it’s US dairy?

NOTE: As of this writing, there is no answer to my question. However, Andrew Chang’s YouTube “Is Trump right about Canada charging 250% tariffs? | About That” might answer it. This issue goes back much further than Donald Trump has been in the White House, though Trump gives it his own unique twist.

Is Trump right about Canada charging 250% tariffs? | About That, April 2 2025

Andrew Chang speaking, Min. 0:33:

Supply management in the context of dairy is just basically how Canada strictly controls production, prices, and foreign access to this country’s dairy market in order to protect it. That last one, foreign access, is where Trump’s 250 270% tariff number comes in. Because indeed, skimming through this 1400-page tariff schedule, we can see milk and cream, low-fat, Canada charges a 241% tariff on imports.

1:09 As the fat content goes up, so does the tariff rate, up to 292.5%.

CLIP Donald Trump speaking, Min. 1:15:

Canada has been ripping us off for years.

Andrew Chang speaking, Min. 1:22:

Yogurt is where you’ll find 250.5% tariffs. And whether you’re talking about powdered buttermilk at 208% or butter itself at 298.5%, maybe these rates do seem kind of crazy, especially coming from a country like Canada that thinks a mere 25% tariff imposed on its goods is too much.

CLIP Mark Carney speaking, Min. 1:42:

He’s attacking Canadian families, workers, and businesses, and we cannot let him succeed.

Andrew Chang speaking, Min. 1:50:

But let’s ask the question, how often does anybody actually pay these incredibly high tariff rates?

He plays clips of experts.

CLIP Expert speaking 1: Almost never.

CLIP Expert 2 speaking, Min. 1:58:

As is often the case, the Trump administration has taken a thread of truth and then applied it inaccurately across the whole system.

Andrew Chang speaking, Min. 10:28:

And this is where we get to the heart of the critique of Canadian supply management and whether it violates the principle of free trade.

CLIP Expert 1 speaking, Min. 10:36:

The allegation is that the allocation of these licenses has been strategically manipulated in Canada to prevent US exporters from using them. The Americans feel they’re not getting access that they were promised under this agreement.

Andrew Chang speaking, Min. 10:48:

I don’t want to suggest that this is the only reason so much zero tariff room goes unused. Canadian milk is held to a different standard than American milk. It has to be RBST free, for example, and that’s a growth hormone. And businesses have to decide every day, would Canadians even want the American product if it were available?

CLIP Expert 2 speaking, Min. 11:11:

And in some cases, it might just not be financially worthwhile to import. A sharp cheddar from Wisconsin may not be significantly better than some of the beautiful cheeses that we can make here in Canada. So, there might just not be the demand for it.

Andrew Chang speaking, Min. 11:23:

But the extent to which Canada is or isn’t gaming the system, this has been the subject of legal disputes. One of which forced Canada to make changes to how it manages dairy, but which the American dairy industry still says falls far short.

Andrew Chang speaking, Min. 11:43:

Though the most recent legal ruling before a dispute settlement board ended up going very squarely in Canada’s favor. So look, this half century old system is a bit like a ping-pong match, but consider how the back and forth might be in a way besides the point.

12:01 American dairy represents a fraction of a percent of all Canada US trade. My strong belief is that President Trump is using the dairy sector strictly as an example. We have over $700 billion dollar of trade between Canada and the US. Dairy represents1% of all the trade that’s being done. So whether or not they would have access to the Canadian market would not make any difference in the end.

12:27 In the scope of the trade relationship between Canada and the US, they’re really small potatoes. But dairy has huge sway in politics. And if Trump’s plan is ultimately to put America first, Canadian dairy may just be the start.

This was aired well over a year ago, on April 2 2025. Americans still bitch and whine about dairy. I think their real concern is that Canadians are acting like a sovereign country making their own decisions without asking Washington’s permission, which severely undercut’s Washington’s ability to control and regulate Canada as the subservient vassal state they see us as being. In other words, Washington sees Canada as a vassal state and Canada is having none of it. This upsets Washington no end.

And that is what this trade war is all about.

Originally posted in Quora, Aug. 29 2026

QUORA QUESTION

Mark Carney’s 2026 Davos speech called on middle powers to unite or risk being “on the menu.” Given how middle-power alliances historically escalated conflicts (e.g., into WWI via chain-ganging), do today’s coalitions risk the same danger?

Have you been watching what is happening in real life or digging up old stuff in an effort to debunk what is actually working? It appears to me you have been doing the latter.

There are people, especially Americans, who automatically know it can’t and won’t work. But they are not observing objectively to note what is actually happening.

Middle Powers Set Adrift on Stormy Ocean

I do not think Mark Carney was writing a military plan. I think he was articulating a pattern he had observed over the past year. What was so obviously happening was that great powers were weaponizing everything the lesser powers had depended on for survival. Integrated supply chains, for example, and trust.

This cut loose the middle powers and left them to drift out to sea without anyone. They were rife for the great powers to prey on for supper. Or breakfast. Or just for a snack. They were on the menu for whatever it was the great powers wanted.

Carney, being the talented crisis manager he was, knew what to do. He teamed up with other middle powers like Canada and over time these middle powers gained confidence and strength. Since trade and defense were high on the list of everyday responsibilities for the leaders of these middle powers, they started organizing themselves among themselves.

It was early days but the need was great. At Davos he expressed what was happening and how they might proceed. It was more a sharing of ideas than a publishing of a war plan. And that is how it continued to be perceived by everyone except the US. The US was offended and insulted not to be asked for permission, not even to be consulted.

What Mark Carney Said/Did Not Say

I’m looking again at your question. No, Mark Carney did not say, Middle Powers, you must unit. You have a choice. Either unite or find yourself on the menu.

Mark Carney did not speak with that kind of command. He did not see himself as having the right.

Here is part of the Davos Speech:

This is…building coalitions that work – issues by issue, with partners who share enough common ground to act together.

In some cases, this will be the vast majority of nations.

What it’s doing is creating a dense web of connections across trade, investment, culture, on which we can draw for future challenges and opportunities.

Note, he says to find partners “who share enough common ground to act together.” That’s advice, a tip—not an order. This, he says, creates a “dense web of connections” and not just across one thing but across many interest. He lists them. If you have been following Mark Carney, you will know he was merely sharing what he himself had been doing. He had been travelling the world talking with everyone who would talk to him, making connections that are now, months later, bearing fruit in trade, in investments, in defense coalitions.

I did a word search. Nowhere does Mark Carney tell middle powers to unite. Here’s his actual line:

Argue, the middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.

He did use the word “must” because he observed that if we’re not at the negotiating table the great powers eat us little ones alive. We’re on the menu. That is in contrast to the great powers. It is his opinion that the great powers can go it alone. Given their market size and military capacity, he felt they had the leverage to dictate terms. In his words:

But I’d also say that great powers, great powers can afford for now to go it alone. They have the market size, the military capacity and the leverage to dictate terms. Middle powers do not.

For that reason, he says, middle poweres are best advised to work together.

When Middle Powers Work Alone

He points out what we’ve been doing so far, each one of us trying to negotiate alone on our own with the United States. We competed with all the other middle and small powers for the favours of the US. In Carney’s words:

But when we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what’s offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating.

We think we’re establishing our sovereignty in doing this. We’re not, he says. “This is not sovereignty. It’s the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination.” In other words, we accept that we’re small, that we don’t have the power to overwhelm and demand our rights be honoured. We are performing sovereignty but in fact we accept subordination.

That’s because one middle power is acting alone. But look at the diagram below showing one Great Power for all the Middle Powers and Small Powers. When the Middle Powers and Small Powers combine their powers, as illustrated in the diagram, they are just as great or greater than the single Great Power. An example from real life is the European Union vs the United States. The EU has more people, more money, and a greater military in total than the United States. They are figuring out ways to combine forces.

If we ignore the above advice, Carney points out that here is what our options are. First, we accept that the Great Powers rival each other. In other words, China and the US are in direct rivalry with each other. Then there’s Russia, which is of dubious position in relation to the United States but in close cooperation with China in some things. They have their rivalries that are outside the realm of the Middle and Small Powers. Given this situation, here is what our options are:

1. compete with each other for favour, or

2. combine to create a third path with impact.

Will This “Coalition” Risk War?

To answer this question, I do not see “today’s coalitions,” as you call it, “risking war.” What I see is small and medium-sized powers facing annihilation, struggling to survive. And Mark Carney has outlined a pathway to survival. By helping each other in a turbulent storm-tossed sea, we middle and small powers can help each other survive the storm. That is human survival strategy from ancient times.

The chain-ganging you speak of at the start of WW2 was very different. In 1939, we did not have a worldwide threat of global annihilation for all nations like we did from early 2025 to the day when Carney gave his speech in January 2026. By today, in late August 2026, much recuperation has occurred on the global stage and the United States is sinking fast. This is primarily because Middle Powers have in the months since Carney’s Davos Speech cooperated and worked together for each other’s survival, while Donald Trump continued to destroy his own country and to lash out at all the other countries. This international behaviour only served to isolate the US and contribute to some degree to its downfall.

QUORA QUESTION

Most of these so-called “Canadians” are actually descendants of Americans who founded Canada in the 1600s, which makes them American. Should America annex Canada which will unite all American people under one country?

Um, so my ancestors spent about a hundred years in the United States between a thousand years in the Germanic lands and more than two hundred years in Canada.

How about you? Which of the Native Americans are you descended from? Because, using your argument, the only way you’re American is if you were born of Native Americans. Otherwise, you’re just an immigrant like all the rest of us, whether paleface, very dark-skinned, brown-skinned like some Southern continents, or the shade of brown that comes from Asia. There used to be an entire continent full of people who were true Americans but then the barbarians came across the ocean and killed them off so they could take the land. But not by any stretch of the imagination are they actual Americans by your definition.

You say descendants of earlier immigrants, i.e. the founders of the US, are not Canadians just because they moved to Canada several centuries ago. That means the founders themselves were English—and NOT American because they just moved in from England a few centuries earlier. So they fought a war to make the land their own. So did Canadians. Canadians fought the Americans and the Americans lost. We drove the Americans back across the Lake. We burned their government buildings, including the White House, if indeed it was White back then.

Now here’s the dirty truth about how Americans fought their war of rebellion or independence, depending how you look at it. Not by any means did Americans win that war on their own. They had the French and the Dutch and perhaps some other Europeans helping them. And the English didn’t actually care for your to win. So: you and a batch of other rebels won a war against people who couldn’t care less to be rid of you. You were that nasty.

And you’re still that nasty.

But when it came time for you to annex Canada, you couldn’t do it. You lost the war of 1812 Big Time. Your goal was to annex Canada and drive the British out of North America. YOU LOST. You never accomplished that. At all. The British left when they were good and ready. Canada is still here, as you just noted. And we will remain here till long after you are gone.

What I can see happening before this century is quite over, but not in my lifetime, is that United States truly going down the drain. It is headed straight for third world status and is more or less already there. At the moment, some really powerful and optimistic individuals are running your country. I don’t see these dying out before I’m gone. But the way they have already alienated the rest of the world permanently, I can only see things deteriorate and finally in about fifty years settle into utter hopelessness with no one caring or knowing how to fix things.

At the same time, if Canada keeps going strong in the path Mark Carney is setting things up, and if Canada manages to remain humble and to escape the hubris and arrogance of Americans at the height of their glory (they are already showing signs of losing the extreme hubris but they’ve still got a very long way to go), I can see in the far distant future a Canada choosing to resuscitate farms in some historical valleys like Louisiana and Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and Georgia. It will be different from how Americans did is in their early centuries with slave labour.

And whether Canada will actually become the owner of those lands or not, is not something I can predict. But if Canada were strong and independent like Mark Carney is aiming for, I can see Canadian leaders having the confidence to do it. However, those leaders aren’t born yet, or if they are, they are very young children. What I’m saying is that conceivable the two countries will one day be one under the name Canada.

This is not something I could have conceived of a few months ago but the US is slipping and spiralling downward so fast and so much by the week. Something’s going to give.

All these things, in my reckoning, are evidence that Americans as a nation approve of his actions. I have also all these years encountered statements like the following posted by Mike Webster - Quora who lives in Brantford, Ontario:

The very fact that Trump can exist and succeed as a politician in the United States is indicative of a much more serious overall disease. That disease isn't going to go away when Trump is nothing but a stain on history. We have to be prepared for the next Trump. And make no mistake, without major reforms and changes in the United States, another trump-like character will eventually emerge (LINK).

Not until reading it just now did I realize we’re saying the exact same thing. What I described is the system that allows for such horrific disasters to occur.

What Happens to Canada When the US Debt Crisis Hits?, Aug. 26 2026

Michael Hainsworth speaking, Min. 0:02

That ticking you’re hearing is the forty trillion dollar US debt bomb.

Martin Eichenbaum, Professor of Economics at Northwestern University and International Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute, speaking, Min. 0:06:

It is a very high probability event that over the course of my lifetime—ten years, whatever, I’m an old guy—that there will be a fiscal crisis. Will it happen in a year or two, it would be presumptuous for me to say that I knew for sure. But I think that it’s going to go off!

Michael Hainsworth speaking, Min. 0:27:

That’s Martin Eichenbaum. He’s the Charles Moskos Professor of Economics at Northwestern University, and International Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute. He’s also a member of the board of directors of the Bank of Montreal.

0:40 This summer, as the US equity markets hit an all time high the thirty year yield hit a five-point-two percent, also an all time high. This is the market telling us that the underlying health of the economy is failing.

0:52 What does it mean for Canada? Martin joins now.

They exchange greetings.

Michael Hainsworth speaking, Min. 1:00:

You say this is completely predictable but we’ve got our heads in the sand. What actually causes the US debt bomb to detonate? What does the damage look like?

Martin Eichenbaum speaking, Min. 1:08:

Great question. Let me be clear. I can’t predict the exact moment that we’ll hit a crisis. But I do think we’re headed on a path—at least the United States is headed on a path that is utterly unsustainable. No one knows what the magic number is from debt to GDP but I’m pretty sure it’s not infinity.

1:29 And if you just look at the projections of the congressional budget office under any plausible set of assumptions about interest rates and the growth rates of the US economy, we’re just caroming—we’re now well past where we were at World War 2. And if we continue along the present path, we will vastly exceed it.

1:50 So we’re at about a hundred percent now, give or take, we’ll be at one-hundred-sixty in a couple years. And at some point, the market’s going to go, “You know what, this isn’t working out for us.” And we’re already seeing some signs of that. So traditionally, the US government has been able to borrow at interest rate that was cheaper than any other government. That is no longer true. Virtually all of the major economies in Western Europe are able to borrow at lower rates than the United States.

Michael Hainsworth speaking, Min. 2:20:

Because treasury rates are tied to mortgages, corporate loans, consumer credit, what are the implications for the average American household if the bomb goes off?

This is where I let you watch the video. I’m getting in over my head with all those big words. What I wanted to do with this post was alert people that this video exists. I’ve seen so much speculation and finally we get to hear a true expert talk. They also discuss what happens to Canada, but again, it’s too deep for me. However, I’m thinking there are a lot of people who are smarter than I am when it comes to money and its terminology. I’m posting this video for them, for you. If you are able to break it down to very simple terms to I can understand, feel free to do so in the comments.

Does Trump believe in God? This is important because if he doesn’t, then this accusation carries no weight. And there probably is no charge that does carry weight with him re violating the ancient name of an even more ancient lake in the heartland of North America. Lake Ontario was named eons before Europeans arrived in North America. Donald Trump is only the most recent European to erase its ancient identity.

Among other names used for Lake Ontario during the French Colonial period were Lake Frontenac and Lake St. Louis. None of these Euro-centric names caught the beauty of the Iroquoian word Kaniatarí:io or Oniatarí:io meaning “lake of shining waters” or “beautiful lake” (Lake Ontario - Wikipedia).

ICT News reports on this at ‘It’s an Indigenous, Iroquoian word’ - ICT. ICT=Indian Country Today. One of the people quoted is Richard Zane Smith, a Wyandotte artist and linguist.

“I believe Trump is being dumb,” Smith told ICT. “He has no love for our mother earth. He typifies the conquest spirit of Andrew Jackson. Erase the Indigenous peoples, mine and pillage ‘til resources are gone and then move on.”

Andrew Jackson, seventh US president who served from 1829 to 1837, signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, forcing the mass, forced relocation of Native Americans, a legacy that makes him the ultimate historical symbol of colonial erasure. To Indigenous Peoples today, that is who Donald Trump is.

From Great Lakes Guide/Watersheds/Ontario/Lake Ontario:

And that—all of the above—is why I think changing the name of this ancient lake with the ancient name is poking God’s eye with his finger. Not that I believe in God but there are some things that are so important that it’s just wrong to poke your finger into them. This is one of them.

I didn’t know that and I’m sure Donald Trump doesn’t either. He can’t change its name.

It’s still Lake Ontario on Google Maps on my computer. And his alternative name for Gulf of Mexico is listed in parentheses below the gulf’s real name.

Thus, even Google is making him look stupid. And nobody in the rest of the world is going to use his names. Everyone hates the Americans too much at this point in history.

Oh, We’re Going To a Trade War!

Canadian Resistance Army - Trade War (Official Music Video), Aug. 25 2026

Our neighbour declared a trade war

Over lumber and steel and a whole lot more.

Tariffs came signed by an orange hand

The Canadian Resistance comes alive.

Oh, we’re going to a trade war!

Beavers and Moose won’t take it anymore.

Buy Canadian spreads from town to town.

And when the smoke has drifted by the Canadian flag still flies.

I’m delighted they worked the controversial wildfire smoke into this little song about Canadian sovereignty.

Bring your tariffs, bring your fight.

We’ll answer back with all our might…

Oh, we’re going to a trade war.

Then we’ll carry on once more.

An Orange Man Came Pounding on Our Door

Min. 0:16 in Canadian Resistance Army - Not Your 51st State (Official Music Video), by DemonFlyingFox, Feb. 18 2026

0:19 We’re done with the sorry’s and keeping the peace…

We’ll kick the Orange Man out at any cost…

Canada stays ours, come what may

I love the defiant posture of the animals prepared to defend the country “come what may.” The Rangers marching along the Beautiful Border Wall built by Canadians for Canadians, again prepared to stand and fight if that is what it takes.

“It’s all here, Officer,” says motorist handing out a paper to Grisly Bear in Camouflage Uniform holding long rifle. “I’m just a tourist.”

“Sorry, Sir,” says Officer Grisly Bear, “No Americans allowed.” He points OUT!

Min.1:55:

Lobsters move deep down on the ocean floor. They cut the neighbors fiber to our shore. Our patience is gone. Politeness cast away. Your endless greed ends here today

Takedown

Panel 1 The Orange Man steps right on top of Canada Border Service Agency station, Donald Trump crushing, violating, erasing the international border between our countries. Militarized Canada Geese zoom at him but he laughs. Canada has no military, he scoffs.

Panel 2 A weapon of some sort pieces his heart and he feels a little thump. He looks surprised, steps back off Canada’s border service agency station. The good flies away at full speed, directly into US Airspace.

Panel 3 Trump crumbles as the air pushes out of his plastic body. The goose’s powerful wing knocks the sailor’s hat off his head. The look on his face is shock and defeat.

Panel 3 Over Orange Man’s deflated body the Canada Geese fly off into US Airspace.

Point of interest: I also came across a video of Greenland defending its land against encroaching Americans. Like Canada, it had militarized animals mixed in with armed humans on harmless-looking vehicles like dog-sleds. I wonder: Why is it that northland peoples use animals to symbolize defending their land.

The Irish Cussing out Donald Trump for High Gas Prices

Now for a good close look at the grifters behind all of the above chaos.

The Good Ol’ Boys of MAGA USA, July 3 2026

0:06 We’re dumber than a sack of hammers, that’s what people say

We tanked the constitution, and we started up a war

…

We tore the east wing down when we had nothing else to do

We changed the color of the pool and tried to make it blue

We’re good at doing stupid things cause we don’t have a clue

And lying is our best defence because we hate the truth

…

1:03

We’re dumber than a sack of hammers, what more can we say.

We tanked the constitution, cause we really do not care

We’re trying to sack election laws because we don’t play fair

The dumb-o-crats are saying that we’re breaking all the laws

And some are even trying to prove that we’ve committed fraud

We’ve been accused of hiding things inside the Epstein files

They say we are protecting those they think are pedophiles

Oh, we’re the good old boys of MAGA, MAGA USA

We’re dumber than a sack of hammers,

that’s what people say

By my title, America the World’s Biggest Navel-Gazer, I mean that the people of the United States see themselves as so insular, so exceptional, so superior that they analyze the world through their own inward-looking lens rather than by objective globally agree-upon standards and lenses. Very many non-Americans warned them what would happen if they elected Donald Trump in November 2024 but nobody listened. Americans, obviously, by their own inner wisdom know better than any non-American. They just know that and automatically dismiss advice from the rest of us no matter who sound or how solidly based.

WHAT TO CALL IT: The States or America

But first let me clarify what I mean by America. I have written long and loud about this. I have repeatedly posted this image below with my message in which I argue that the tiny chunk of land between Canada and Mexico is not America. It is the United States of America. America, I have argued, is the entire two continents of North and South America.

I am not the only Canadian with a problem in this. Witness the Substackers who talk about USians. But our prime minister speaks openly about America. I cannot bring myself to critique him. And it is easier to just call that nasty little country south of the border by one little name: America. So let’s crush and cram it all between those two east-west lines at the 49th Parallel-Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway and at the Rio Grande. Locally, in our vernacular, it’s just The States. But I suppose we can call it America if we want for the sake of convenience. US works great for short, except it looks like it’s talking about “us.”

Examples of US Navel-Gazing

Above, I mentioned the American rejection of non-US advise about electing Donald Trump, the warning that electing him would bring unwanted change to their democracy. We saw it published all over, in Project 2025, in news articles. They elected him anyway. To Americans, an outsider's critique is viewed not as valuable insight, but as jealousy or an attack on their identity.

As though we were lying when we said we didn’t want to be American. As though we didn’t actually mean it when we put our lives on the line and paid the ultimate sacrifice defending our land when they showed up with military and weapons in the 16, 17, and 18 hundreds. They had navels to gaze, work to go to, classes to attend, when they should have been marching on the Supreme Court as it was debating whether or not to allow his name on the ballot.

The American Constitution itself says that an insurrectionist cannot be allowed to hold public office. A court had called his actions of January 6 2021 an insurrection. Large numbers of Americans opposed having his name on the ballot. Americans of an earlier generation went to war to cast off what they perceived as tyranny. In fact, this so-called tyranny was only the British Empire protecting the Indigenous peoples and their land. The English in the 13 Colonies did not care about Indigenous Peoples. They wanted land—all of it, all the way to the West Coast, all the way to the North Pole. Their navels looked so good. They fought a war and formed a brand new country.

The current generation’s navels were so well fed—or interesting or in need of constant monitoring—they did not even bother to turn out for a traditional protest march. Because, when Special Council Jack Smith handled Donald Trump’s case, he found him guilt as charged and he also found him guilty of contempt of court at least ten times. He would have jailed other Americans overnight at the very least for two or three contempts of court. But Golden Boy Donald Trump? With all those fierce MAGA men sitting in the audience, Jack Smith had to let him off with slap-on-the-wrist fines and warnings. These men were threatening his life and the lives of his loved ones if he so much as touched Donald Trump.

I think all the time how the global situation could be so much different today if regular law-abiding Americans would have filled up those court rooms every single day. Not just one little group, but different people every day, proving to MAGA that Jack Smith had the power of the people behind him. Proving to Jack Smith—and MAGA—that if anything happened to Jack Smith or his family there would be lawsuits the likes of which they had never seen and would never hear the end of.

In that case, Jack Smith could have safely put the criminal in jail. The Supreme Court could have been convinced that it was in its best interests not to allow Trump’s name to be on the ballot. Even Trump’s own appointed judges might have decided it was in their own best interests to vote against him.

Of course, to the horror of many, the new president of the United States might have been a highly talented black woman who could not be pushed around. Or perhaps a famous white woman who truly knew the ropes from having walked them with her husband.

But Americans did—NOTHING. They had navels to gaze. Work and school called. So they left one little man to deal with a very powerful criminal and his entire following, a following that made sure their beloved leader was well-supported at his trial and his prosecutor sufficiently intimidated. The result: Today that criminal is president of the United States, caterwauling around the world, killing whomsoever he feels inclined, including American citizens of any and all skin colours.

That the rest of the world said he was an American Hitler washed over Americans. They dismissed it when his own immigrant wife said in her heavy accent that he loved reading Hitler’s Mein Kampf at bedtime. No American in their right mind uttered such blasphemy.

American Navel-Gazing on YouTube

This video is a clear example of American navel-gazing. It starts out telling the story from both the Canadian and American sides regarding the 50% tariffs. At least, that’s the feeling I got, especially when it told Carney’s story exactly the way he told it himself. But then when it comes to the real impact on real human lives, it looks exclusively at the American family. It’s as though Canadians have fallen off the map. Which is ridiculous, given that this situation could not exist without Canada.

Gemini’s Summary:

• The Stated Focus: The narrator explicitly states, “I want to understand what this trade war actually means for your family, for prices at your grocery store, for the jobs in your community.” (17:09)

• The Invisible Neighbor: Even though the video details the 50% U.S. tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods (4:39) and notes Canada’s upcoming dollar-for-dollar retaliation on September 8th (9:22), it frames the tragedy entirely around how “American farmers, American manufacturers, and American families are going to feel this in their pocketbooks.” (15:05)

• The Analytical Void: There is zero mention of the Canadian workers, businesses, or communities whose livelihoods are being disrupted by the weaponization of a 96-year-old depression-era statute (6:13). The narrative implicitly treats Canada merely as a catalyst for a U.S. economic problem (1:10).

This video is made with AI synthesizing Bill Clinton’s voice, pretending to actually being Bill Clinton himself speaking. But another person’s name, outlined in green below, is listed in the spot where a channel’s name is listed.

Willow Abbott wrote out the message, then chose an AI voice to read it, a voice as close to Bill Clinton’s as she could get. She wants listeners to think it is Bill Clinton speaking. I know this because she keeps repeating the phrase, “When I was president…” She says this in Bill Clinton’s AI voice. I’m going to call the voice “Narrator.”

"Canada Just Did What No Country Has Done To Trump!" | Bill Clinton - YouTube, Aug. 22 2026

The Narrator begins with “two countries,” “two nations,” “each other’s borders.” Equal nations, neither is better than the other. Neither nation is named at this point but we all know they’re talking about Canada and the United States. Since they start out with equality, I assume that is going to be the theme: Canada and the US are two countries on equal footing. Canadians see it that way and it is so good to see this video seeing it this way, too, though something tells me it’s made by an American—not Canadian.

Narrator speaking, Min. 0:00:

There are moments in our politics where something happens between two countries, two nations that have lived side by side, traded together, defended each other’s borders, shared a continent in peace for longer than most alliances in human history. And you realize we may be crossing a line we can’t easily walk back from. What happened between the United States and Canada in the last 72 hours is one of those moments.

Countries have now been named, but on an equal footing. Which country you put first is neither here nor there, though one tends to put one’s own country first. They put the United States first.

0:37 And I want to talk to you…with the kind of honesty that I think this situation demands. Because what’s unfolding right now isn’t just a trade dispute. It’s a fracture in the most successful economic partnership the modern world has ever produced. And the choices being made on both sides of that border are going to reach into your household into your grocery bill and the cost of building materials and farm equipment and everyday goods that Americans depend on. So, let me walk you through exactly what happened, why it matters, and what I think is coming next.

Americans. One nationality has now been named without naming the other, and that should have been my tip-off but somehow I didn’t notice. I continued reading/listening.

2:32 Canada does have protectionist policies in certain sectors. Their dairy supply management system is complicated. Their provincial liquor boards have restricted American alcohol in ways that are genuinely frustrating for US producers. Those are real grievances and any honest conversation about this has to acknowledge that.

These are geopolitical issues that one ignores at their own peril. The US liquor off Canadian shelves has been a major issue. It had to be addressed on the national level. The story told here sounds like the story that was told by Canadians. I thought I was listening to a video that gave fair and equal coverage to both countries.

3:03 But here’s what matters. We had a framework for resolving those grievances. We had a process. We had the USMCA. And what’s happened over the past year and a half. Instead of working through that process, we’ve watched it get dismantled piece by piece through unilateral tariff actions that have now escalated into something neither side may be able to control.

Depression Era 50% Tariffs

3:28 On July 20th, President Trump signed three proclamations invoking section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, the Smoot and Hawley Act to impose 50% tariffs on a range of Canadian goods.

3:50 Now, I need you to understand something about section 338 because this is where the story gets really important. This provision has never been used to impose tariffs before. Not once. Not…by any president in the modern era. The Congressional Research Service confirmed it earlier this year.

4:22 Section 338 may have been referenced as leverage in negotiations back in the 1930s and 1940s, but no president has ever actually pulled the trigger on it until now. And the tariffs it authorizes are the maximum allowed under that statute, 50%. They cover 554 Canadian tariff lines, roughly $20 billion in annual imports.

List of Items to be Tariffed

4:53 We’re talking about cement, furniture, clothing, dairy products, wine, hockey sticks, fishing rods, and here’s the part that should concern everyone. These tariffs apply even to goods that qualify under the USMCA.

5:16 That’s a first. In previous rounds, USMCA compliant products were carved out. That protection is gone. The administration argued that Canada discriminates against American autos, alcohol, and dairy compared to what it offers other trading partners. And I’ll grant you there’s a kernel of truth in the auto argument.

Canada’s Retaliatory Tariffs

5:58 But here’s what I keep coming back to. Canada’s retaliatory tariffs exist because we impose tariffs on Canada first. We started this cycle and now we’re using a 96-year-old law that’s never been tested in court that has no implementing regulations, no judicial precedent. We’re using that to escalate further. That should give every American pause.

WHAT HAPPENED

Almost a Deal
When Carney Calls Off Trade Talks

I know that if you’re here, you’re someone who…want to understand what’s actually happening, not just get a headline.

6:48 What you’re getting from cable coverage on this is not enough. They don’t have the time or the incentive to dig into the real numbers, the tariff lines, the sector breakdowns, the timeline of what was offered and what was rejected.

7:25 Here’s where things went from bad to worse. The tariffs were set to take effect on August 19th. Hours before the deadline, President Trump paused them for three days. He went on social media and said, and I’m paraphrasing, that subject to the finalization of documents, the United States and Canada had a deal.

7:55 Prime Minister Carney confirmed that intensive discussions had been taking place and that substantial progress had been made. For about 48 hours, it looked like both sides might find an off-ramp. And then late Friday night, last night, it fell apart.

8:17 Carney suspended the negotiations. He called his negotiators back to Ottawa. He said that last minute changes in the American proposed terms were, in his words, unfair and uneconomic, and that they called into question the reliability of any deal.

8:38 Now, I want to be fair about this. We don’t know every detail of what those last minute changes were. Carney referenced the auto sector and Canada’s ability to maintain other trade agreements. He said Canada had been willing to drop its remaining retaliatory tariffs on steel, aluminum, and autos, and to encourage provinces to put American alcohol back on shelves, but that Washington’s final demands went too far. His words were, “They asked too much and offered too little.” And at 12:01 this morning, the 50% tariffs went into effect.

9:21 Twenty billion dollars in Canadian goods are now subject to those duties. And Canada has announced it will retaliate dollar for dollar with its own tariffs taking effect September 8th targeting American steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics.

I feel like I am truly listening to a Canadian story told by an American. It feels so good to be treated as an equal by an American.

9:37 Let me tell you what concerns me most about this. It’s not just the economic damage, although that damage is real and it’s coming. It’s the institutional precedent.

Here is where I’m going to use the phrase “When I was president…” because I want to include the part about using institutions to solve problems and I’m not sure how else to do it.

9:58 When I was president, we had disagreements with our trading partners, serious disagreements. But we worked through established frameworks. We used the WTO (World Trade Organization). We used bilateral negotiations within agreed upon structures. We didn’t reach back 96 years to a depression era statute that has no regulatory framework, no court precedence, and no established process, and weaponize it against our closest ally.

10:33 Because once you do that, you’ve told every trading partner in the world that the agreements they signed with the United States can be overridden at any moment by a law that was written before most of them existed as independent nations. You’ve told them that USMCA compliance doesn’t protect you.

10:49 That’s not leverage. That’s unpredictability. And unpredictability is the most expensive thing in international trade because businesses don’t invest in countries they can’t rely on.

11:10 I understand the political argument for toughness. I do. There’s a certain appeal in standing up and saying, “We’re going to get tough with Canada. We’re going to make them play fair.” But toughness without strategy is just chaos.

This next part does not sound like a person who is playing fair or who has a clear picture of what is going on.

11:27 And right now what I see is an escalation cycle where both sides have made public commitments they can’t easily back away from. Carney told the Americans in advance, “If these tariffs land, we stop negotiating and we retaliate.”

I agree if you look at that statement out of context, if you don’t look at the long history of conciliatory concessions demanded and given in the most inconvenient and—I would say unreasonable—situations, this looks extremely rigid. But Canada has been negotiating with this man for nearly two years. It started with Justin Trudeau on about Dec. 3 2024. It is now Mark Carney in August 2026. The other side has changed deadlines and other terms more often than anyone can count. The time has come to law down the law, so to speak.

11:46 He did exactly that. The American Trade Representative said publicly that he would not tolerate retaliation. Both sides are now locked into positions. And as one trade law expert put it, that’s how escalation stops being a choice.

14:52 Tariffs met with tariffs. Rhetoric met with rhetoric. The off-ramp that one former trade official described is going to be even harder to find now that both sides have committed publicly to their positions. And in the meantime, American farmers, American manufacturers, American families are going to feel this in their pocketbooks.

Yes, and so will the Canadians but you don’t bother mentioning Canadian farmers, Canadian manufacturers, Canadian families. You’re so busy observing your own navel. We are the real victim here. Every time Canadian leaders mention the need for retaliatory tariffs, they express a thought of concern and compassion for the American families that are already suffering so much. They worry that Canadian retaliatory tariffs will add even more suffering. But Canadian leaders have no choice.

The Americans have the vote. They were warned that electing Trump was a bad idea. In fact, anyone with brains could have known that electing a failed businessman was a very stupid move. Canadians were one of the parties doing the warning. Canadians were preparing for the worst they could imagine for months, even years, before the November 2024 election.

No one could imagine what the Americans would unleash but we all knew it would be bad if they unleashed a Trump 1.0. Gavin Newsom says he worked closely with this man during Trump 1.0, but that Trump 2.0 is totally different. I would say one analogy that might somewhat catch the difference is that Trump 1.0 was like a summer wind and rain storm—very unpleasant to be out in but survivable, while Trump 2.0 is like a fierce winter blizzard that kills within hours if you don’t find shelter.

So it was the Americans that voted him in. They have the vote. They also have the power to remove him from office if they choose to take that route, even though it would be technically illegal but it would save lives on a global scale. That, in my estimation, makes it mandatory, an absolute duty of the American people. But of course they don’t listen to a mere Canadian. They just want to flee to my country and sully it too. They refuse to fix their own country and solve their own problems. So disgusting.

15:23 America’s strength has always come from our ability to build relationships that other countries can trust. That’s how we built the post-war order. That’s how we created the most prosperous trading system in human history. And the foundation of that system was the idea that when America makes an agreement, it means something. that when we sign a treaty, when we join a pact, when we shake hands on a deal, you can take it to the bank.

15:59 What worries me about what’s happening with Canada isn’t just the tariffs. It’s what this says about our reliability as a partner. If we can invoke a 96-y old statute to override a trade agreement we ourselves negotiated, what message does that send to every other country thinking about doing business with us?

16:24 Now, I’m not telling you this to be partisan. I’m telling you because I believe that American leadership depends on American credibility. And credibility is the one thing you cannot tariff your way back to. You earn it through consistency, through fairness, through keeping your word, and you lose it through exactly the kind of escalation cycle we’re watching unfold right now.

17:09 It’s going to help you understand what this trade war actually means for your family, for prices at your grocery store, for the jobs in your community. You deserve to have that clarity. Don’t be the person at the table just nodding along when someone brings us up. Don’t be the one who finds out what happened after it already hit your household.

17:38 I think you know that America has corrected course before. We’ve pulled back from the brink before, but it only happens when enough people understand what’s at stake. And right now the stakes are higher than most folks realize.

And Americans refuse to care for anyone but their own skin. There’s a world of suffering out there that is their fault, no matter who they cast a ballot for. They refuse to remove the criminal from power. They are so busy gazing at their own very exceptional navels.

Listen to/read his argument and let me know in the comments what you think.

Newsom: ‘A matter of days’ until Trump flips on tariffs and ‘tries to save face’, Aug. 25 2026

Vassy Kapelos speaking, Min. 0:19:

Your initial response posted on social media, Governor, to the president’s imposition of those section 338 tariffs was pointed…What do you think it says that he slapped those additional tariffs on Canada?

A note on the language. I cut it here but Vassy called it “colourful.” Doug Ford likewise exchanged some “colourful” speech with Donald Trump. When asked if the Prime Minister called him on it, Ford said he did not. To me, that suggests Prime Minister Carney did not feel it was uncalled for. Perhaps that is one of the things he wanted to do himself when he cut himself short in Saturday’s press conference.

I believe things worked out exactly the way Canadians wanted them to work out. At the same time, we are a bit surprised but also gratified to see our leaders express in public our own feelings. I have for years held Americans responsible for doing big fat NOTHING with regards to Donald Trump’s crimes. My complaints on this go back long before he wont he election in November 2024. Americans as a nation allowed this to happen.

That is my position. From that position, people like Gavin Newsom are as guilty as MAGA. We really are our brothers’ keepers. Canadians believe that, even if they don’t all hold as strictly to this position as I do. We believe in caring for each other. We also believe in standing up for justice and righteousness. Witness the massive resistance led by Charlie Angus, a Canadian, that has adherents throughout the world. Versus people like Bernie Sanders and Gavin Newsom who also do a lot of speaking but that’s all they do. Stump speeches. They accomplish nothing. Yet they have the full power of citizens and politicians to actually take physical action.

Gavin Newsom’s Answer

He called Trump’s actions weakness masquerading as strength, flailing. He used the word tantrum.

Newsom speaking, Min. 0:45:

This is this is embarrassing. It’s embarrassing to the United States. It’s embarrassing to the people in the United States. I think it’s embarrassing the Republican party here in the US as well. I can imagine uh the phone calls the administration is receiving.

1:07 He’s creating a lot of political pressure for a lot of the members of the Republican party in the northern states. But he’s damaging one of the great relationships that we simply can no longer take for granted between the United States and Canada.

Then comes the line that we all knew was coming, that in California folks have a very different view than does the current occupant of the White House.

And my pet peeve rears its head again: Yeah, this person is in the White House with your permission, Gavin Newsom. Which we sufferers here in Canada see as approval. You might as well have voted for him.

Vassy speaking, Min. 1:28:

How permanent do you think the damage to the overarching relationship is?

Gavin starts out by stating the obvious, that Trump is not permanent, then uses his own position in the old office of Ronald Reagan, a Republican president, to show that he knows what good Republicans used to be like, what they believed in and stood for.

Gavin Newsom speaking, Min. 1:45:

There’s nothing that approximates the Republican party that I remember represented in Donald Trump, particularly in trade policy and tariff policy.

1:54 But as it relates to the damage, no, I’m not naive. I was there when your prime minister gave his remarks in Davos. I commented right after those remarks how impressed I was and also in many respects how distressed I was because he used some pointed words. You know, once the mind is stretched, it never goes back to its original form. The fact that this damage may be more long lasting than I had originally believed and and so that concerns me.

2:18 But I understand it at the same time. I also hope you and your viewers understand that Trump does not represent the majority of this country. Nor, I believe, the majority of his own party as it relates to his conduct vis-a-vis your country.

2:41 And the insults and the insulting policies that back up this current approach I think are again deviant from the vast majority of thinking here in the United States.

You wish. From my observation, Trump is merely saying out loud what every American has been taught from the cradle, i.e. that Canada is a no-account country that rightfully belongs to the United States.

Vassy asks his thoughts on Canada walking away from the trade talks, and not ultimately settling on a deal like some other countries did.

Working With the New Trump vs the Old Trump

Gavin Newsome speaking, Min. 3:15:

You’re talking to someone who’s been battling Donald Trump for years and years and years. Also, someone who’s worked with Donald Trump…through COVID, supply chain, issues related to social unrest.

3:32 But this new Trump, this is something completely different. The griff the graph. It’s a corruption story at the end of the day. He’s been using tariffs and trade policy in so many respects for his own personal benefits….played out now in terms of his own tax returns and his family and the grift that you’re seeing across the spectrum across the globe. And I’ve been saying this for over a year.

4:00 Trump’s success is figuring out your weakness and exploiting it. But he respects strength. He respects clarity and those that were rolling out the red carpet, those that you know were kissing the ring, they most of them paid the price.

4:13 I think your prime minister has played this extraordinarily well. He’s looking long term. I think he recognizes what we recognize here in the United States. Again, the temporary nature of Trump. He recognizes the midterms are around the corner and the Trump presidency as we know it will end this November, certainly in January when a new speaker is sworn in. More oversight, more accountability, more transparency. But I think the approach of strength is foundational. And again respect.

4:43 But at the same time, I think this notion of just being clear and maintaining your conviction is foundational and important moving forward.

NOTE on “The Trump presidency will end.” I’ve heard Gavin Newsom say this before. He’s traveling all over the United States as though campaigning for the presidency himself. And everywhere he goes, he says with this same kind of confidence and finality that Trump’s presidency will end. Contrast that with the equally confident speeches of Trump that imply there will be no end to his reign.

More accurately, he insinuates that he will get a third term. The people who say he can’t because of what the Constitution says forget that he ripped up the Constitution as soon as he got into the Oval Office again. In fact, his Supreme Court ripped up the Constitution in order to get him back into the Oval Office.

The Voices of The American People re Canada

Vassy then asks about the response of the general American public. This time, she says, voices have been much quieter than during Trump 1.0 when NAFTA was renegotiated the first time. Back then, she said, people were saying what Gavin was saying now, that “this is not a good idea to put tariffs on Canada, that we want to maintain the relationship that exists under the free trade arrangement that we have. “

She wants to know if this will change.

Vassy speaking, Min. 5:25:

Do you sense that there will be more push back in and outside of Congress at different political levels to the president’s tariff regime, particularly, I would ask, where Canada is concerned?

Gavin rambles for a minute or so imagining what it must be like being this or that politician, concludes that “this is a boon for the Democratic Party.” And then he comes to Donald Trump himself.

Gavin Newsom speaking, Min. 5:48:

I mean, imagine the phone calls Donald Trump’s receiving, again from members of his party, not from those condemning him from my party. I think it’s a matter of days, if not weeks, at the latest where he completely flips on this and then tries to save face. It will be all about saving face, the ego at play here. But this is interesting. This one has broken through. Uh

6:12 The level of disrespect that you’re on the receiving end is really extraordinary. Going after allies. It’s just an extraordinary moment in world history, in American history, in the history between our two nations. And so we have to be repairers of the breach and we have to call that out.

Newsom’s California is “Not Like That”

Then he launches into another diatribe of “we’re not all like him.”

He explains the ads he did. Gavin speaking, Min. 6:36:

That’s why I did ads up in Canada. I don’t know that they were well-received, but making the case…that you matter, that we care. We have 1.7 million visitors a year and how proud we are of that relationship. We don’t take it for granted. And so, I think it’s incumbent for people like me and in positions large and small across the country to do more at this moment to make that case because I don’t want to see permanent damage done here.

Yeah right. Answer me this: Why did we not notice how important we were until you missed our money?

But you don’t promise our physical safety. You don’t guarantee protection of our person from ICE. That is outside your power. We saw that when ICE invaded your own cities.

Canadian Trust for NORAD and Five Eyes

He goes on to say that NORAD and Five Eyes are too important for the relationship to be permanently damaged.

Gavin speaking, Min. 7:04:

NORAD’s too important. Five Eyes is too important. NATO’s too important. Our supply chains are too important. Our people-to-people relationships are too important.

Again I say, yeah right. You’re asking us to trust a nation that allows its president to rant daily about making us your fifty-first state, calling our prime ministers governors. Since you, as an outspoken and fearless US leader has given his president permission to threaten our sovereignty, you cannot expect us to trust our security to the United States under your presidency, either.

Sure, if someone from the outside attacked North America, I would imagine NORAD would hold. But Five Eyes? Are you kidding me? Rumour has it that the US no longer shares all info with the rest of us and that we certainly no longer share everything with the US.

How can we? Your president cozies up with Russia! NORAD was established specifically to counteract an attack from Russia. It would be very strange for the Five Eyes to share the information with the United States that Trump has been seen in private hours-long drives with Vladimir Putin, and that these drives ostensibly produced clandestine plans and that all effort much be put forth to obtain recordings of the conversation.

When Trump is Gone, Will Things Go Back To Normal?

Gavin speaking, Min. 7:12:

60,000 businesses in California, Canadian born businesses, too important to allow what Donald Trump is doing to be made permanent.

Vassy asking a final question, Min. 7:22:

In that vein, sometimes when we interview Republicans about this subject, they kind of push back on the idea that if Democrats were to assume power in the White House, for example, don’t be so sure that those tariffs will be reversed. Traditionally, you know, Republicans were actually more pro- free trade than than Democrats were.

7:43 Obviously, that has reversed in in recent years. Can you assure Canadians who are watching this conversation that the tariffs that have been applied to our country and our exports to the United States under democratic leadership would be reversed, would not be in existence.

Gavin Newsom speaking, Min. 8:00:

I think it’s the right question and and to be fair it’s a foundational question on the basis of experience. You had Biden who came in and actually maintained some of the tariff policy of the Trump administration, particularly China, not just in relationship to other countries not to be in China and so I think look having targeted tariff policy as an industrial policy, this is not an industrial policy what Trump’s doing across the board on hockey sticks.

8:23 This is a tantrum being played out. Honestly, it’s literally a tantrum. I mean the idea that he circles. I mean this is the president of the United States that circles. You know another, the lake of Ontario making a Lake of America. I mean, it’s just madness.

8:39 But it’s again weakness at the same time. And I think it’s important that that be reinforced. And so I can’t guarantee that, but I can guarantee you nothing like this. The level of disrespect talking past people, talking down to people, talking past and down to you, talking about the 51st state, on the basis of our history, our proud past, our present, how important you are to our future and the world we’re trying to build. No, those days are numbered.

9:12 When Donald Trump’s no longer president, that I can guarantee you, you won’t see something like this again. I really believe that in my core, even from most Republican aspirants to the White House as well.

TIMELINE:

Friday August 21 about 11:45 PM Trade Talks collapsed.

Saturday August 22. Morning Press Conference in Ottawa

Carney answered many deep questions about the trade talks that had collapsed just before midnight.

“It’s a power play, and it becomes a question of sovereignty,” he said.

When asked if Canada was in a trade war with its southern neighbour, Carney said, “Yes, that’s obvious.”

“You’re at war when you get attacked, we got attacked,” he added.

Saturday August 22 11:06 PM

Background Discussion

“Canada wants the benefits of being a state without being one.” No we don’t. We are a state, a sovereign nation state. We demand the rights of a sovereign nation state on an equal footing with the United States. Equal footing, however, is not how Donald Trump sees the relationship as per the National Security Strategy he published in November 2025.

On Page 6 he lists US assets or American’s Available Means to Get What We Want. Trump does NOT want to be held back. He called it “so-called “DEI” and other discriminatory and anti-competitive practices.” He wants leverage over countries that want access to US markets. I think in that context, leverage is just another word for dominance and/or control.

He says on Page 15:

our leadership position cannot be taken for granted. Preserving and growing our dominance… ensure that our markets continue to be the most dynamic, liquid, and secure and remain the envy of the world…. consistent with American security interests.

August 24 2026 CityNews at 10:20 AM

Trump escalates trade war, vows 50% tariffs on Canadian autos and steel

Trump threatens to ramp up tariffs on Canadian auto and steel by January, Aug. 24 2026

U.S. President Donald Trump has sharply intensified the U.S.–Canada trade war, announcing a sweeping plan to impose 50 per cent tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks, auto parts and steel beginning Jan. 1, 2027.

WARNING: If you struggle with high blood pressure you might not want to listen to this video. The news anchor’s voice reflects the fury and frustration felt by every Canadian as he delivers the breaking news from south of the border. This morning, barely an hour prior, an entirely new batch of 50% tariffs were threatened via Truth Social. You can read the post below.

Our news anchor highlights the inconsistencies and lies. It’s only the start of the first full week of the trade war and already this. Of course, we’re the nastiest nation on earth as per that post, and so on and so on. We all know the story. Just don’t bust a vein. He and his are not worth it.

Doug Ford calls Trump “the type of person that would steal your lunch money the first day, he’d steal the toque off your head the second day, and the third day he’d steal your running shoes” (Canada's premiers react to U.S. trade war with calls for unity and economic support).

DIANA A.

Originally posted on Quora, July 18 2026

QUORA QUESTION:

I struggle to take President Trump seriously. Why do so many people think he is amazing?

I think a clue can be found in Maya Angelou’s famous quote: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Trump, the born con artist, knows this intuitively. So he makes his adoring fans feel smart (not like those eggheads in liberal universities), politically savvy (giving them buzzwords and talking points to use ad infinitum), invulnerable (by scorning such things as masks and vaccinations) and like winners in life (by turning the political landscape into an us-vs-them war zone).

And they love him so much for that that they really don’t care what he’s doing to the country, to our economy, or to our international reputation.

ROB BAXTER

Originally posted on Quora, Aug. 24 2026

QUORA QUESTION

Why did the US react strongly to Canada’s counter tariffs, and what does this say about their trade relationship?

This question sounds like someone’s homework, or research project.

A simple browser search provides so much info, one wonders about some people’s research skills.

Quora abounds in baseless opinions, so how about something from a credible source or two, including a reaction from Senator Patty Murray, Democrat, Washington State, among others?

Increased Costs for US families and businesses; long-standing relationship damaged:

U.S. politicians condemn Trump’s ‘chaotic’ trade war against Canada, Canada’s National Post, August 23, 2026

“U.S. political leaders, including at least one Republican, are warning that President Donald Trump’s escalating trade feud with Canada will raise costs for U.S. families and businesses, while damaging a longstanding relationship with the nation’s closest ally.

The widespread criticism comes after Canada pulled out of trade talks late Friday night and promised 50 per cent U.S. tariffs on CA$20 billion in Canadian imports kicked in on Saturday.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Saturday that Canada would enact dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs on Sept. 8, the Tuesday after Labour Day.”

( . . . )

Washington State

“ ‘Canada is NOT the 51st state. Trump owes our friends and neighbors an apology for nearly 2 years of his boorish insults and jeers, ‘ Democratic Washington State Senator Patty Murray wrote on X, calling Canada the state’s largest trading partner.”

Michigan

“Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer also warned that her state is ‘uniquely impacted’ by what she called Washington Republicans’ ‘ongoing, chaotic tariff wars with Canada.’

‘These tariffs act as a tax hike on Michigan families and businesses by raising prices at the grocery store and the gas pump,” she posted on X.’”

“The border state took in about $55.5 billion in Canadian goods last year — 80 per cent from Ontario — while sending about $28.8 back across, most of it over the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, per the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.”

Pennsylvania

Tariff tensions grow between U.S. and Canada, WFMZ, August 22, 2026

“Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney said, “In short, they asked too much and offered too little. In recent days the United States proposed new terms that were uneconomic, unfair and undermined the net benefits for Canada and called into question the reliability of any deal.”

North Dakota

North Dakota seriously impacted by imposed Canadian tariffs, KFYR TV, July 25, 2026

“BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - North Dakota is one of two states that could be most impacted by threatened Canadian tariffs by President Trump.

Vermont will also be impacted significantly.

The United States does more business with Canada than with all other countries combined.

The North Dakota Trade office says that farms across the state could feel the 50 percent hike.”

( . . . )

High tariffs could unleash a new wave of economic chaos, with risks of higher inflation and worsening relations between the two nations.”

Vermont and New York

Gov. Scott speaks out on paused Canadian tariffs, My Champlain Valley, August 20, 2026

“In a statement released Thursday afternoon Governor Scott said in part, ‘I have long said imposing tariffs on Canada is a bad idea and harmful to Vermont. I hope both sides use this opportunity to reach a lasting agreement, that strengthens trade, provides certainty for businesses and families, and recognizes the enormous value of this partnership.’

Vermont Democratic Senator Peter Welch says, “things like the tariffs, that’s the responsibility of Congress. And whether you’re Republican or Democrat, we cannot cede authority to the executive, Republican or Democrat, to raise taxes on the American people on our businesses and our farmers.”

Vermont allegedly imported roughly $2.8 billion worth of Canadian goods in 2025.

In the Empire State, Governor Kathy Hochul, chiming in, saying New York farmers are struggling.”

New York

Governor Hochul extends invite to Canadians, WWNY TV, August 21, 2026

“ALBANY, New York (WWNY) - Things are not good between Canada and the U.S. these days.

Canadian visitation to New York State fell more than 26 percent in 2025.

The Hochul administration is trying to change that, at least a little.

Governor Hochul announced a NY LOVES CANADA promotion this morning.”

Wisconsin

U.S.-Canada Trade Talks Collapse, Sparking Tariffs and Political Fallout in Wisconsin, WEAU 13 News, August 22, 2026

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - A major trade standoff is brewing on our northern border, and it could soon hit Western Wisconsin’s farms and factories right in the pocketbook.

Trade talks between the U.S. and Canada collapsed late Friday. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney put the brakes on negotiations, accusing the U.S. of pushing for “unfair” and “uneconomic” terms.

“In short, they asked too much and offered too little,” Carney said.

“What this means for Western Wisconsin

The fallout could be incredibly painful for our local economy. Canada is Wisconsin’s largest foreign trading partner.

Extension experts at UW-Madison warn that local dairy farmers—who depend heavily on exporting cheese and butterfat to Canada—face severe export restrictions and plunging commodity prices if Canada shuts the door. Meanwhile, local heavy equipment manufacturers face steep new duties on outbound tractors and harvesters.

Still, Canadian leaders are projecting confidence. “It will be painful, but we have a strong, vibrant, diversified economy,” said Ontario Premier Doug Ford, noting Canada is already working to shift its trade partnerships elsewhere.”

More than 33% of California, Oregon and Washington residents (…) indicated they would support joining Canada

With Canada “Not For Sale” Could American States Want To Join The True North Strong And Free? - 21st Century Tech Blog, April 29, 2025

“Recent polls in the U.S. show that 20% of Americans, when asked, would favour joining Canada. Based on this, I tried to imagine which states might want to become Canadian provinces and what that hypothetical realignment might look like. Rather than Trump annexing Canada, the reverse would occur with American states joining the True North Strong and Free.

• The Big Pacific Coast Three – More than 33% of California, Oregon and Washington residents, when recently polled, indicated they would support joining Canada. These three have more in common with Canada than with the policies of Trump and his Republican acolytes in D.C.

• Point Roberts, a small American enclave that lies south of Vancouver, British Columbia, is in the state of Washington but only reachable over land by driving through Canada. Just erase that border.

• Then there is Oregon’s coastal beauty, which is as close to Vancouver Island’s Tofino scenery as you can get. And as for California, it is the most progressive of American states and has more Canadian expats living and working there than anywhere else in America. So, that’s my reason for these three to become Canada’s 16th, 17th and 18th provinces.”

‘Bad deal’: Canada’s Carney announces retaliation after US tariffs, USA Today, August 22, 2026

“The tariffs apply to just over 5% of Canadian exports to the United States, including on various goods such as wine, dairy, hockey sticks and cement. Carney said about $28 billion worth of goods would be tariffed.

They do not apply to exempted goods including energy, potash, fish and critical minerals. The tariffs do not qualify for preferential treatment under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free-trade agreement, which shielded much of Canadian goods from earlier U.S. tariffs.”

Song of the day: You’ve Got Your Troubles, I’ve Got Mine, by none other than The Fortunes

“I see that worried look upon your face,

You’ve got your troubles, I’ve got mine . . . “

That Canada is NOT the United States.

What it means to build a passionate identity on what we are not, i.e. “We are NOT American.”

How one can enjoy American culture (movies, novels, cuisine, fashion, entertainment) without ever losing touch with one’s own deeply Canadian identity.

How the very air we breathe and water we drink is better and purer and freer in Canada than in the United States. NOTE: I don’t know if that is objectively or measurably true but it is noticeably true when one reads American attitude and history. I think what this one person with dark skin said of their experience travelling from somewhere far north of the Canada-US border down into the United States is indicative of the tension in US culture.

“The further south I went, the browner I felt,” they said, meaning that racism or the discrimination against dark-skinned people got stronger the closer they got to the US border.

If this brown person felt the tension, then so do white Americans. One cannot discriminate against others without feeling unfree oneself. A fully individualized confident person does not feel the need to discriminate, look down on others, be racist. People who do that to others fear deep down that others are doing the same to them. People who live in this culture all their lives are not aware of the tension and fear anymore than the fish are aware of water.

I speak from experience. I was born into a micro-culture like that. And when I got out, I literally felt lighter physically. Like I had been wearing a heavy winter coat and now removed it. So visceral was this feeling that I looked down over my body to check what I was wearing. To my surprise, I was wearing the same summer clothing I had worn the day before. But I felt like I had shed heaving winter clothing. I realized: Nobody’s watching me.

I had not known what a toll the judgmentalism had been taking from me. Now I knew. I believe the same applies to Americans. In fact, I read an American’s testimony to that effect. They spend much time outside the US where they feel so much more free, but they dread going home. It’s the same every time. As for Americans who have never left, their knee-jerk response at the suggestion to introduce gun control laws is that they need their guns in case a stranger pulls a gun on them.

That knee-jerk response does not exist in Canada. We do not expect strangers to have guns. Thus, there is an atmosphere of freedom in Canada that does not exist in the United States. This is something Americans do not understand.

I also want to quote the answer written by Asad - Quora, a Computer Science Undergraduate passionate about technology, entrepreneurship, and continuous learning who lives in Pakistan. Asad’s original answer is posted here. NOTE: I created the image above using one of Asad’s lines.

QUORA QUESTION

What do most Americans completely misunderstand about Canada?

Asad says:

One thing I suspect a lot of Americans don’t fully understand is that Canadians, especially English-speaking Canadians (as opposed to Quebecers or other French-speaking communities, who are often mistakenly viewed as just another regional flavor of English-speaking North Americans), are genuinely content being Canadian. Not being politically American isn’t some accident or a failure of imagination on our part. It’s a deliberate choice. Canadians are happy not being American.

I notice this sentiment showing up in all kinds of ways. Take the “Jesusland” map that liberal Americans often circulate during politically tense moments, imagining Canada absorbing the more progressive regions of the U.S. That idea assumes Canada, despite being its own sovereign nation, is essentially just an extension of America, and that Canadians would jump at the chance to annex large chunks of U.S. territory during difficult times, as if liberal Americans and Canadians were basically the same people.

Americans totally misunderstand what Canada is. They misunderstand the spirit of Canadians. It doesn’t help that we don’t express it in an American style but it really does behove them to learn our language if they want to understand us.

Stop being aggressive. Be content just to stand back and observe and live your life without being seen or acknowledged. Stop caring what others think. Be proud of who you are, not in a boastful way that makes you want to brag, but in a way that no matter what people do or say to you, they can never take it away.

• Prime Minister Carney chairs First Ministers’ Meeting | Prime Minister of Canada, Aug. 19 2026

The message as posted was to ask premiers to work together as strong Team Canada approach “as the federal government works to finalise a deal with the United States,” which suggests there really is a deal in the making. And that “the government’s goal is to secure the best deal for Canadians – one that provides the greatest possible U.S. market access for Canadian businesses.”

Prime Minister Carney emphasised the importance of remaining focused on Canada’s central economic strategy: building our economic strength at home and diversifying our partners abroad. That is how we will build a stronger, more independent, and more resilient Canadian economy.

A word that appears in all these statements is “independent.” The “deeper integration with the US” is completely off the table.

• Carney asks premiers to put U.S. alcohol back on shelves amid trade deal talks: N.S. premier

That’s in CityNews. I get the local version in my email. I haven’t checked if others such as CBC are also carrying this. QUOTE:

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says the prime minister has asked premiers across Canada to put U.S. alcohol back on liquor store shelves amid trade deal talks.

I get the impression that it’s not because our Prime Minister is finally caving but I’m still trying to put it all together. The stated purpose of the virtual meeting was to “discuss the ongoing trade negotiations with the United States.” The statement also implies that there is a deal in the making. We know that a major “sticking point” with the US was the so-called alcohol ban, and that putting it back on the shelves will be a move to make them happy.

Then again, we can’t expect “credit” from Jamieson Greer. He said a while back that Canada does not get credit for doing something bad then rectifying it. I do want to know what Canada is getting in return. The article does not say. Nor does it say how Premiers responded or whether they will comply.

This poster was made, using values expressed by Mark Carney in Prime Minister Carney announces the largest clean energy investment in North American history | Prime Minister of Canada and a line from the US National Anthem (as well as the with its flag and the flag itself). I made the purple Canada poster first and I liked it. I felt it represented Canada’s deep unshakable but seldom articulated values. Then I made the US poster and I felt the end result did not represent the bold daring flashiness Americans might want.

But now, seeing them side by side, I think they are a perfect representation of our two countries and cultural values. Canada looks muted and understated, as though it pretends to make some attempt at worldly daring. The Americans, however, are proper and bold with a clearly-stated worldly position. Their colours cannot be mistaken.

Nor can Canadian values be compromised. Canadians look with skeptical eye at the American flashiness and daring, and see a pretentious “land of the free and home of the brave” amidst overwhelming debt and poverty and fear. Canadians are well aware that they are ignored and scorned and that Purple Hearts are given the American Heroes while Canadian contributions and bravery are overtly ridiculed. Despite it all, Canadians dig deep and grow strong roots to make a good life for themselves under the greedy long noses and outstretched sticky fingers of the Americans to the south.

That is how Justin Trudeau resigned for the good of the country. That is how Mark Carney offered his services for the good of the country. That is how Canadians voted for the man with experience when their country needed extra-ordinary talented management. And that is how, by mid-August 2026, that extra-ordinary management had organized all the details and made the biggest announcement in North America’s History.

Not the flashy United States. Canada. It was Canada that did it.

An announcement equal in magnitude to the TransCanada Highway, or the St. Lawrence Seaway. That is what the upgrade and expansion of the Churchill Falls Hydro-Electric Power Plant would be in Eastern Canada.

The world was changing and for the better. See my next article for more on the Churchill Falls Hydro-Electric Project, to be posted in Canadian Identity because it is primarily about Canada.

Statement by Prime Minister Carney on ongoing Canada-U.S. trade negotiations | Prime Minister of Canada

August 18, 2026
Ottawa, Ontario

“Over the last number of weeks, Canada has engaged in intensive discussions with the United States to address outstanding trade issues and deliver greater certainty and real benefits for Canadian businesses, workers, farmers, and families.

Substantial progress has been made, although there is important work still to be done. As this work is ongoing, the United States has agreed to postpone the implementation of its 50% tariff on a range of Canadian goods under Section 338 of the U.S. Tariff Act of 1930 until end of day, August 21.

While we continue this work, Canada remains focused on building a stronger, more independent, and more competitive economy at home.”

A three-day reprieve. He must love the pressure, the excitement, but no one else does. Carney said he’s prepared for every situation. I wonder what his trick is for this one. I am sure he can’t go on like this forever just to entertain the Big Baby. And his enablers. Why do they all look so silly?

Originally posted on Quora, Aug. 17 2026.

QUORA QUESTION

What do Canadians generally think about Trump and America?

Kick ’em to the curb, drive ’em to the dump, cover ’em with dirt so deep they can never again be resurrected. Keep these vultures to pick off any attempts to come back up.

I am looking again at the video posted by Large Man Abroad on July 25 2026.

Introduction

I am doing this after researching the meaning of terms like SEMA (Special Economics Measures Act), which allows the Canadian government to freeze bank accounts of politicians who support the 50% tariff. You will recognize the video from my post Canada is Repatriating CAF From UN Peacekeeping Efforts in Support of Canada’s Defence Priorities. In this post, I highlight the implications that Canada is preparing for war. I do this especially for those readers who have expressed a desire for such insight. Primary sources for Large Man’s video and for my comments are the press conference at Charlottetown after the First Minister’s Summit, and First Ministers’ Joint Statement | Prime Minister of Canada.

THE VIDEO:
IT’S HAPPENING: Canada Recalls ENTIRE Military to Stop Trump’s Corporate Raid!

POSTED July 25 2026

IT’S HAPPENING: Canada Recalls ENTIRE Military to Stop Trump’s Corporate Raid!, July 25 2026

Large Man speaking, Min. 0:00:

So, Canada’s transitioning into a war economy, and by the end of this episode, you’re going to see exactly how that’s happening. Now, we’re exactly 26 days, I believe, away from August 19th, 2026.

0:11 And that’s going to be the day that the Trump administration’s Section 338 tariffs, the absolute nuclear option of trade warfare are scheduled to hit the 49th parallel with a maximum 50%.

0:24 So, the clock’s ticking.

Mainstream media, says Large Man Abroad in this video, reports that “Ottawa is in a state of absolute panic” and that “Any day the Canadian Federation will crumble under the weight of Washington’s demands.”

No, we Canadians all know that is not what is happening, but the very fact that US media is saying this is cause for Canada to prepare for war. It is full justification for Canada to call home its reserves from foreign missions.

How so?

US News Media Under Trump Administration

I think we can count on the US media to express Donald Trump’s wet dreams. We all remember him kicking out the Associated Press on February 11 2025 for not kowtowing to his new name for the Gulf of Mexico, which he changed to Gulf of America. Though legally this name-change need only be recognized by public officials, which excludes an independent news agency like the Associated Press, the White House rejected all rationale.

The NBC New York reports February 11 2025:

“It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism,” Pace said in a statement. “Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.”

The Guardian reports a few days later on Friday February 14:

On Tuesday, the Associated Press said another one of its journalists was refused entry into an executive order signing ceremony at the Oval Office – a move described by the news agency’s executive editor, Julie Pace, as an attempt by the White House to “punish” the organization for its independent journalism.

Yes, it happened twice on the same day. In fact, in February 2025, as many as sixteen such “events” occurred. See calendar and associated footnotes1 for details. With a very heavy hand, the Trump administration fired everyone and anyone—thousands of people working in government positions of which the Inspector General of USAID is one example—who disagreed with official policy, at times before making that policy known.

February was by no means the end of the story. The American news media got the message very loud and very clear and if, in July 2026, Donald Trump said Ottawa was in full-blown panic mode and that the Federation of Canada was about to fall apart, then the American news media reported that Ottawa was in full-blown panic mode and that the Federation of Canada was about to fall apart. Thus it lived another day to be Trump’s mouthpiece.

US Beliefs Present Crisis for Canada

All of this presented a crisis for Canada, because a United States that believes Canada is falling apart is going to act as though Canada is falling apart. We know how much they want Canada. If you think your prize is about to fall at your feet, you make sure to be positioned to grab that prize before others get it. Some quotes from Large Man’s video:

Large Man speaking, Min. 0:44:

What we just witnessed in Charlottetown was not your standard political press conference. Prime Minister Mark Carney and the provincial premiers didn’t just hold a summit. What they held was a public war room briefing. While Washington is looking at spreadsheets and dreaming of a quick capitulation, Ottawa is looking at the map. They’re pulling the trigger on the master plan to turn the great white north into an impenetrable economic and military fortress.

Reader, did you catch that? Canada’s top leadership in a War Room. They have pulled the trigger, i.e. excuse me, this is difficult for me to say but this means they had a master plan in place and now the time for action has arrived. The point of no return. That is if this Large Man Abroad is correct in his reading. Let’s read for ourselves the First Ministers’ Joint Statement | Prime Minister of Canada, July 23, 2026, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

Today, Canada’s First Ministers…focused on Canada-United States relations, and on how to effectively strengthen Canada’s energy independence, break down labour mobility and internal trade barriers, and on how to make Canada’s carbon markets more effective….[First Ministers] remain united in the goal of building a stronger, more united, more prosperous, and more resilient Canada.

I did a word count and the word(s) that stand out above all others are Canada (mentioned 26 times) and Canadian (mentioned 9 times). In comparison, energy was mentioned 6 times, security 3 times, economy 1, but economic was mentioned 7 times. I conclude that to our First Ministers, Canada and Canadians are top priority—as should be the case.

Locked Shields

Large Man speaking to Canadians, Min. 1:31:

Your leaders have locked shields. They’ve outmaneuvered a fractured US administration and moved your country into a wartime economic footing.

He’s taking an analogy from ancient Roman warfare and their neighbours.

This image is what locked shields looks like. The straight sides of the shields fit together tightly, curve around the body of the soldier, protecting his body from shoulders to knees. The long spears of the neighbouring phalanx cannot pierce the roof or sides and the army is safe inside, able to penetrate the enemy and fight in close combat with short spears.

“Money is pouring into Canada.” “Carney outsmarts Trump.” “Follow the Money to Canada.” That’s the titles I’m seeing now-a-days. Like in the frame above, Canada’s leaders have built a solid fortress of locked steel protecting brains, bodies, and faces, but leaving eyes exposed for clear vision. In their hands they carry short but sharp weapons in case they’re needed for close-up combat because close-up combat cannot be fought with the long spears of the phalanx.

The Trump Administration hurls the long spear—the insult, the broken contract, the ridicule—to kill from a distance too far away to catch the blood splatter or hear the scream of the fallen soldier.

Other Charlottetown Highlights & Accomplishments:

• the United States’ direct violation of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA)

• United Team Canada

• Canada’s new government signed more than 20 economic and security partnerships

• nearly 140 trade missions around the world led by provinces and territories since March 2025

A leak from the trade negotiations with Washington said Canada might be prepared to walk away from trade talks if the 50% tariffs are imposed. Based on that, I think Large Man is probably correct in his reading. Canada has waited, bided its time, but now the time has come. If those 50% tariffs are imposed it’s war. Economic war. No more trade talks for Canada.

But the other day another update was posted. Global News says a Big gap remains between Canada and U.S. in ongoing trade talks: sources, August 14 2026. We hear basics from the sides of:

Jamieson Greer (American Trade Rep):

• the new 50 per cent tariffs on some Canadian goods are in direct response to the retaliatory measures. [NOTE: This disregards that Canada is retaliating against illegal and unjust tariffs imposed by the US in the first place. The message: Canada has no right to defend itself. Canada will not accept this.]

• Canada’s federal and provincial measures are “the kind of things that China would do.” “Those are things that would have to be resolved.”

Carney’s 3-Pronged Plan:

1. cut a deal on sectorial tariffs and avoid new ones coming into place

2. Step 2: Both countries sign partnerships in areas like energy and defence

3. Renegotiate CUSMA in a more stable environment.

What happens if Greer refuses to comply is an open question.

CANADA’S MASTER PLAN

A war time prime minister does not post his Master Plan in the Community Hall for the Enemy to see. However, so far as I’m concerned, everything Mark Carney has done since being sworn in back in March 2025 has led to this moment, has been part of the Master Plan. He introduced it via the Davos Speech on January 20, 2026 and gave the details at the Economic Club of New York on May 28, 2026.

Links to More Details

For more details, I’ll summarize as best I can. If you have been following Mark Carney’s statements and announcements since March 2025, you know what the Master Plan is. NOTE: I didn’t vote for him because I didn’t know him back then.

• Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy, February 17, 2026, Montréal, Québec

• Security, Sovereignty and Prosperity - Canada.ca, February17 2026

• Canada’s new government is rebuilding, rearming, and reinvesting in the Canadian Armed Forces | Prime Minister of Canada, June 9, 2025

  Toronto, Ontario

• Canada joins new NATO Defence Investment Pledge | Prime Minister of Canada, June 25, 2025, The Hague, the Netherlands

• Defence Investment Agency - Canada.ca, July 13 2026

• Over 20 economic and security deals on five continents in twelve months, May 28, 2026

  New York City, United States of America

• SAFE Program (Security Action For Europe), February 24 2026

• Build Canada Homes , August 10 2026

That covers the economy, security and the armed forces, and domestic prosperity. All are needed to survive a war, economic or otherwise. As Large Man says above, Canada has truly “outmaneuvered a fractured US administration” and “moved [Canada] into a wartime economic footing.”

Repatriating the Canadian Armed Forces

Large Man speaking, Min. 7:11:

And if you want the absolute undeniable proof that Ottawa is preparing for a macroeconomic siege, look no further than the Canadian Armed Forces….[Canada is] officially terminating peacekeeping operations across the globe. Operation Cobalt in Kosovo, Operation Snow Goose in Cyprus, Operation Crocodile in the Congo.

7:35 General Jennie Carignan, the chief of the defense staff, has made the objective explicitly clear. The Canadian Armed Forces are bringing their soldiers home to defend Canada. And this is not a budget cut. This is a repatriation of force.

What Large Man sees in this repatriation is well worth noting. It is his opinion that Canada learned from US military aggression in Greenland earlier this year and is therefore “pulling up the drawbridge” and preparing for war. NOTE: Greenland is again in the news because a Texas company arrived without permission. This happened since Large Man posted this video, which tells me he is referring to the earlier fiasco.

He believes one of the Canadian government’s “chief tactical leverages” will be the Special Economic Measures Act or SEMA. He believes this because:

9:48 During the presser, reporters begged Carney for specifics on counter tariffs. He gave them nothing. He went completely silent. By refusing to telegraph their retaliation, Ottawa was using uncertainty as a psychological weapon.

Large Man speaking, Min.10:23:

Canada’s waiting. They know that a targeted asymmetrical strike using SEMA and the Investment Canada Act can freeze private equity assets of the US political insiders driving this trade war.

10:32 Think back to the Gordy How Bridge breakdown we did recently. Every time a truck crosses that border span, a management fee for a toll royalty gets skimmed into the corporate portfolio. This is exactly what SEMA is designed to target. Ottawa has the legal authority to de-anonymize the Delaware shell companies, freeze the equity, and seize those skimming fees right out of the pockets of the DC elites.

Whoa! I want to know: How does that work? How can it be legal to take money out of someone else’s pocket? And the government is doing it???

I have a long and in-depth conversation with Google.

From Google Search:

Asymmetrical Financial Retaliation: Instead of standard retaliatory tariffs, Canada is leveraging the Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA). This gives Ottawa the legal authority to pierce anonymous corporate structures and directly seize private equity assets held by Washington political insiders.

The Mechanics of SEMA and Asymmetrical Retaliation

This strategy describes a shift from a standard trade war (taxing imported goods) to targeted economic warfare against specific individuals. Instead of making everyday products more expensive for citizens, Canada would weaponize its legal and financial systems to target the personal wealth of the political decision-makers driving the tariffs.

How Standard Tariffs Work vs. How SEMA Works

• Standard Tariffs (Symmetrical): The U.S. taxes Canadian steel, so Canada retaliates by taxing U.S. bourbon. This hurts businesses and consumers on both sides but rarely impacts politicians directly.

• SEMA Enforcement (Asymmetrical): Canada bypasses the consumer entirely. Ottawa uses national security laws to look directly into Canadian companies, find out which foreign politicians or wealthy insiders secretly own shares, and freeze or confiscate that money.

From Government of Canada/Canadian sanctions – Essential information:

Sanctions…are used to foster international peace and security, combat corruption, and promote respect for international norms and values…. They form part of a comprehensive foreign policy approach…

Sanctions…can encompass a wide variety of measures, including, but not limited to…asset freeze

Sanctions applied against foreign states may target specific individuals or entities, specific economic sectors or may apply more broadly, depending on the foreign policy objectives the sanctions seek to achieve.

More from Google Search:

What “Piercing Anonymous Corporate Structures” Means

Wealthy individuals often hide their ownership of real estate, infrastructure, or businesses using layers of shell companies registered in tax havens like Delaware.

• The Mask: On paper, a profitable Canadian toll bridge or logistics hub might be owned by “ABC Holdings LLC” in Delaware.

• The Piercing: Under SEMA, the Canadian government forces banks and corporations to reveal the ultimate beneficial owner. If a U.S. political insider is behind it, the mask is stripped away.

A Concrete Example of the Strategy

The host illustrates this concept using an infrastructure asset like the Gordy Howe International Bridge:

1. The Asset: A major bridge connects the U.S. and Canada. Every truck crossing it pays a toll.

2. The Flow: A portion of those toll fees gets funneled out of Canada into a private equity fund owned by D.C. political elites.

3. The Strike: Instead of stopping the trucks, Ottawa activates SEMA, freezes the corporate bank accounts in Canada, and permanently seizes the incoming cash flow.

The goal of this strategy is to create immediate, personal financial pain for the specific individuals crafting U.S. trade policy, forcing them to reconsider their economic stance.

That sits exactly right with me. It’s justice and it might actually work. Hurt James Greer personally. Hurt Howard Lutnick personally. Hurt Donald Trump personally. That kind of thing.

Large Man speaking, Min. 10:57:

They don’t need to tariff the American consumer. They can seize the capital flows of the insiders sitting in Washington. The Trump Administration thinks they’re squeezing a subservient neighbor….But the reality is, the real reality is that Washington has woken up a sleeping giant.

This is one thing on which I deeply and seriously disagree with Large Man on. Canada has not been asleep. Canada has been waiting, biding its time, exactly as he was saying earlier. NOT sleeping. But I’ll let it go.

Large Man speaking, Min. 11:22:

Washington expects a standard, predictable trade negotiation full of bluster and eventual compromise and capitulation. Instead, they’re walking blindfolded into a macroeconomic siege that they’re not prepared for. The clock is ticking.

11:38 The August 19th deadline is exactly 26 days away. It isn’t just a date on the calendar. …Canada has hardened its borders. It’s securing its grid. It’s recalled its military and prepared a financial kill switch. They’re ready for this. The question is, is the American industrial base really ready for a neighbor that no longer needs them?

February 2025 was Trump’s first full month in office for his second presidency. It was also the third anniversary of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an invasion that he had publicly stated would conquer Ukraine in three days. Three years later, the war was still ongoing. On February 28 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met in the Oval Office with American President Donald Trump to finalize a contract giving the US access to critical minerals in Ukraine in exchange for military aid against Russia.

VALUES OF TRUMPISM/MAGA

Trump said many of the same things to Zelensky in the context of the Russo-Ukraine War as he and MAGA said to Canada and Greenland. I consider such comments to constitute values of the Trump Administration on the meaning of sovereignty when it regards countries other than the United States.

From Love-Bombing to Blaming the Victim

They say the Trump-Zelensky relationship started with Trump’s freaky request for Zelensky to investigate then-US President Joe Biden, a request Zelensky wisely declined. I start here with Trump’s promises to end the war in Ukraine. Most people remember the blow-up in the Oval Office on February 28 2025. Eight days earlier, BBC News published a major article on the “deepening rift” between the newly-inaugurated US President Donald Trump and the wartime Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The article’s title is: Trump says Zelensky and Putin need to 'get together' as US and Ukraine work on mineral deal - BBC News. It posts a video “What Trump and Zelensky have said about each other as rift deepens.” In the first frame, dated March 2023, Trump promises to end the Russo-Ukraine war before he enters the Oval Office, as though he already knows 1) that he will be elected 18 months in advance and 2) that he has access to the power required to end this war. Most likely, he had neither that knowledge nor that access but he was love-bombing Zelensky. The second frame is dated September 2024 and shows both leaders walking together. Trump is telling Zelensky something about having a discussion to see what “we can come up with.” I don’t know what that is about but then he adds what a great honour it was to have him—Zelensky—”with us.” More love-bombing.

Trump was inaugurated on January 20 2025 and the real world set in. But Zelensky had absorbed Trump’s promises, along with the historic promise in about 1994 when his country relinquished its nuclear weapons on the promise of three countries to defend Ukraine in case of attack. Those three countries were: Russia, United Kingdom, and United States. In January 2025, in an interview Zelensky expresses confidence that Trump will be “decisive in this war,” that he is able to help Ukraine stop Putin. February 2025, White House Secretary Karoline Leavitt reports that Trump and Zelensky had a constructive telephone conversation.

No report on what was actually said in that conversation, but things started to change. The narcissist took over control of the situation, orchestrating meetings with everyone present except Zelensky and his European allies. I am unable to post the video here but I can copy the frame and put Trump’s speech on it. It is also dated February 2025 and shows Trump speaking at a podium with US flags in the background.

“And I think I have the power to end this war,” he says. “And I think it’s going to end very well. But today I heard, ‘But oh well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there three years. You should have ended it three years. You should never have started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine.”

The article has, with this one little video, captured the entire strategy of the narcissist and moved all the way through the love-bombing stage to the stage of blaming the victim.

Zelensky and Carney: Analyzing the Stages

This is the exact same strategy or pattern this very same bully imposed on Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. He went from begging Prime Minister Carney to visit two weeks into Carney’s prime ministership (love-bombing) to calling him nasty for not “bending the knee” and “kissing the ring” (blame-the-victim). With neither Zelensky nor Carney did it end with one blame-the-victim session. In the video discussed above, Trump next called him a “dictator without elections,” even though Zelensky explained that holding elections while the nation was under fire in a shooting war was impossible. Likewise, though the media is currently full of Trump calling Canada and Canadian leaders nasty, he also did it a year earlier. I came across the old news articles.

The Victims Respond Maturely

Both Carney and Zelensky refused to stoop to the narcissist’s level. BBC’s video shows Zelensky expressing “great respect” for Trump as “leader of…the American people who constantly support us,” but saying that unfortunately he “lives in this space of disinformation.”

CTV News reported Trump’s latest attack on Carney on Aug. 7 2026, stating that two days earlier on Wednesday August 5, at Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas, the president of the United States said the following to “jeers from the crowd”:

I love tariffs, right? Because we’ve been screwed by tariffs used against us for years. By China, by Japan, by South Korea, by Germany, by everybody, by Canada. Canada’s nasty. They are. They’re nasty. I love the people but they’re nasty. Nasty leadership.

By way of response, Mark Carney would have been fully justified in pointing out that: He’s projecting full blast. If anyone’s nasty, it’s him. Just ask my trade negotiators.

As we all know, that’s not what Prime Minister Mark Carney said. He does not answer with pettiness like that. When journalists at Saguenay, Quebec pressed him the next day for a response, he said:

Whatever adjective is used, yes, we’re standing up for Canadian workers, for Canadian businesses, as we always have from the start.

Now that’s mature. He’s not denying anything. But he is admitting to the Canadian people that in Trump’s mind he—Mark Carney—is behaving in “nasty” ways and that this is how he is doing it. He lets his Canadian audience judge whether or not his behaviour should be classified as nasty.

Sources

Shankar Narayan‘s substack article August 12 2026 with the title “The United States now needs NATO more than NATO needs the United States: A Big Vote of Thanks to the Oligarchs Who Made This Possible”

Carney responds after Trump says ‘nasty’ Canada ‘screwed’ U.S. with tariffs, Aug. 7 2026

Key takeaways from the fiery White House meeting with Trump and Zelenskyy | Donald Trump News | Al Jazeera, Feb. 28 2025

Trump says Zelensky and Putin need to 'get together' as US and Ukraine work on mineral deal - BBC News, Feb. 20 2025

You Have No Cards Without Us

Trump tells Zelenskyy: “You have to be thankful, you don’t have the cards.” Feb. 28 2025

US President Trump starts by telling Ukraine President Zelensky, “Your country is in big trouble,” as though the man who has been leading this war torn country the last three years does not know this.

Trump speaking, Min.1:21:

You don’t have the cards. You’re buried there. Your people are dying. You’re running low on soldiers. Listen, you’re running low on soldiers. …let me tell you, you don’t have the cards. With us you have the cards but without us you don’t have any cards.

He’s not blaming the victim, he’s conditioning the victim to accept his terms, his cards.

Values Revealed

Value 1: Smooth over inconvenient facts.

Trump says Zelensky and Putin need to 'get together' as US and Ukraine work on mineral deal - BBC News

Donald Trump said on Fox News:

I don’t think [Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky] is very important to be in meetings…He makes it very hard to make deals.

Two separate situations clarify exactly what he’s talking about. One occurred in the Oval Office.

Trump cuts in, speaking Min. 0:41:

If you didn’t have our military equipment—if you didn’t have our military equipment this war would have been over in two weeks.

Zelensky corrects him with a wave of the hand, Min. 0:49:

In three days. I heard it from Putin. In three days.

Trump speaking, Min. 0:55:

It’s going to be a very hard thing to do business like this I tell you.

The other occurred decades earlier. Interviewing him in 1990 on his new book “Surviving at the Top,” Barbara Walters read a quote.

You write in your book:

My bankers and I worked at a terrific deal that allows me to come out stronger than ever. I see the deal is a great victory and eventually the rest of the world will too.

Verge of bankruptcy? Being bailed out by the bank?

Trump protested in a whiny voice:

Well you don’t have to say it like that.

That’s it. Donald Trump values smoothing out these little wrinkles of reality, these nitty-gritty little accuracies that get in the way of persuading and convincing people.

Zelensky wanted Trump to see that he wasn’t bothered by his tough talk. Trump wanted Zelensky to understand that he, Donald Trump, would not stand corrected. Barbara Walters’s hard-hitting style also infuriated him so he tried (unsuccessfully) to ruin her professionally.

Value 2: Protect Oneself against Lesser Beings

Presumption: Lesser beings are dangerous because they are jealous of your position, your wealth, your possessions, and will do what they can to acquire them.

Trump says Zelensky and Putin need to 'get together' as US and Ukraine work on mineral deal - BBC News

The US-Ukraine “Minerals Deal” is Win-Win for Americans and Ukrainians

Ukraine–United States Mineral Resources Agreement - Wikipedia

Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, found US President Donald Trump’s “aggressive rhetoric towards Europe and Ukraine and his much less justified rhetoric towards the Russian Federation a bit strange.” This is especially the case, since Ukraine wants to cooperate with the US. there must be security guarantees. I understand that this is the normal way of doing business (Trump says Zelensky and Putin need to ‘get together’ as US and Ukraine work on mineral deal - BBC News).

The advisor found it strange because normal confident politicians, and even less confident politicians, do not use this extremely fearful attitude covered by aggression when talking about other nations. Ukrainians did not experience the Europeans as dangerous; it was the Russians they experienced as dangerous because it was the Russians who were dropping bombs on them and shooting missiles into their residential apartment blocks. The Europeans, on the other hand, were trying to help them. He did not know Trump’s belief that the Europeans were inferior or lesser beings and therefore dangerous.

NOTE: My only evidence that Trump held this belief is his attitude of aggression toward what one might be justified to think he saw as lower classes or inferior beings.

Value 3: Most Important Person

As Most Important Person in the World and President of the United States, Donald Trump must receive everything he wants or wishes for. His wish is law and he must be obeyed in all things.

The consequences or fallout of this third value have proven to be enormous for the entire world, since there are people in this world who directly oppose any belief in this value. The Iranians are top of the list and they hold the Strait of Hormuz. They hold it because Trump’s Value 3 was so powerful he was unable to hear the warnings uttered by his own people.

TRUMP BURNS HIS CARDS

I started writing this article two days ago on August 12. Since then, Trump took actions that immeasurably strengthened my argument. This first quote is from Shankar Narayan’s article of August 12.

Shankar, who specializes in weapons and military strategy, says this problem could be fixed inside a year by a “few strokes of a pen, a series of production contracts and the appointment of one dedicated, competent official to oversee their implementation,” but that it’s not going to happen because “the necessary fixes run directly against the interests of the oligarchs behind this administration.” The way Shankar Narayan sees it, it’s the billionaire oligarchs behind Trump who pull the strings. I think it’s fairly common knowledge that Ukraine is the only country on earth that has the know-how to build the kind of drone technology that could hope to win a war against Iran.

August 14 2026

The next morning, August 14, CNBC published Drone stocks rally after Trump orders tariffs on foreign-made components. Claiming the tariffs will create new jobs, while protecting U.S. national security and the defense industrial base, the White House says:

U.S. drone production needs to be expanded rapidly to ensure U.S. national and economic security…[O]utsourcing parts poses major security and cybersecurity concerns.

I put that in the wider context of:

• Narayan’s diagram above showing that the US cannot possibly hope to produce enough drones to protect itself

• the extreme incompetence of war management or whatever it is properly called that the Trump administration demonstrates with its illegal military ventures.

• the testimony of Lieutenant General Joseph Gerard in a clip played by Midas Touch below, Minutes 15:35 to 18:28, in which he lists the weapons of China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia against which the United States has no defense.

FURIOUS World Leaders CUT OFF Trump and TWIST THE KNIFE!!!, Aug. 14 2026

Midas Touch adds, Min. 18:28:

that's coming from one of our top generals right there who also says we can’t protect our homeland.

In that context, the Trump Administration yesterday tariffed the only weaponry that could possibly help it win the war with Iran.

Donald Trump, the man who told Volodymyr Zelensky a mere 18 months ago that “With us you have cards,” has now burned his cards.

I started writing this before he did this and I thought I had a solid argument. I was definitely going to post that day but then something came up and it got postponed. Now this morning I learn of the tariff he’s put on imported drones. That makes my argument many times stronger. He keeps losing wars because he’s guided by the wrong set of values. He once said he is guided by his own morals. His own moral values tell him that He is Most Important Person in the World and that all policies must “smooth over inconvenient facts” and “protect against inferior beings” to ensure the survival and exaltation of “Most Important Person.”

TO SUMMARIZE: How Trump’s Values Play Out

Inconvenient Facts:

• the US cannot make enough drones

Lesser Beings:

• Ukrainians are by default lesser beings and there is no way the Mighty USA can accept drones from them.

Most Important Person:

• tariff imported drones; otherwise, it will be said that Ukraine saved the United States and no one will remember Most Important Person

This story is not finished. We don’t know how these values will play out, whether or not tariffing drones and drone parts will be catastrophic for the US.