Canada has managed to evade Donald Trump’s dreaded tariffs by the skin of its teeth, with the 25 per cent levy on Canadian imports — which was due to come into effect in mere hours — now on pause.
The topic was all anyone seemed to be able to talk about Monday as citizens, businesses and politicians on both sides of the border braced for the extreme measure to come into effect at midnight.
Up until late afternoon, it appeared that talks between the U.S. President and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had gotten nowhere, with the former still intent to “attack his closest friend and ally,” in the words of Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
But, shortly before 5 p.m., Trump backed down and agreed to delay what some still see as an inevitability, and others consider nothing more than a showy, strategic threat to force America’s neighbours on both sides to bend to its wishes — in this case, to get tougher on border control.
Trudeau released a statement confirming the 30-day deferral of the tariffs, both on goods coming into the U.S. from Canada, and also the retaliatory tariffs Canada was prepared to impose on products coming the opposite way across the border.
Ford, who has in many ways served as Canada’s greatest patriot in the face of Trump’s bullying, published his own statement on the matter about half an hour later as we all breathed a sigh of relief.
We have some good news today. We have temporarily averted tariffs that would have severely damaged our economy, giving time for more negotiation and time for cooler heads to prevail. Thank you to the countless workers, union leaders, businesses and everyday proud Canadians who…
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) February 3, 2025
Sharing the good news, he admitted, as he had already stated at an unrelated press conference earlier in the day, how disastrous the tariffs could have ended up being.
“We have temporarily averted tariffs that would have severely damaged our economy, giving time for more negotiation and time for cooler heads to prevail,” he wrote, thanking the “countless workers, union leaders, businesses and everyday proud Canadians who rallied together” to help bring about this last-minute reversal of course.
He added that Ontario is, for now, backtracking on its own planned measures of withdrawing all American booze from LCBO locations provincewide and barring U.S. firms from any government contracts.
But, he noted that the province “won’t hesitate” to take the above steps if Trump decides to go ahead with his tariffs after all.
“Make no mistake, Canada and Ontario continue to stare down the threat of tariffs. Whether it’s tomorrow, in a month or a year from now when we’re renegotiating the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, President Trump will continue to use the threat of tariffs to get what he wants,” he wrote.
“We’re already feeling the impact. So long as our trading relationship with our largest trading partner is up in the air, we will continue to see many potential projects frozen and projects that were already under way put at risk.”
He ended with a call for Canada and the U.S. not to fight amongst themselves, but to instead “remain united and focused on the real trade war we’re fighting, with China. If we want to win, we need to fight together — not each other.”
