Sam Cooper

Under the looming threat of U.S. tariffs—framed by officials as a response to deadly fentanyl trafficking linked to Chinese precursors rather than a conventional trade dispute—Canada has moved swiftly to appease the White House.

This afternoon, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), announced the appointment of a “Fentanyl Czar” alongside a $1.3 billion border security plan. The initiative includes new helicopters, advanced surveillance technology, additional personnel, and closer coordination with U.S. agencies to stem the flow of fentanyl.

“I just had a good call with President Trump,” Trudeau wrote. “Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border.”

Trudeau also outlined plans to designate cartels as terrorist organizations, implement 24/7 surveillance, and launch a Canada–U.S. Joint Strike Force targeting organized crime and money laundering. He signed a new $200 million intelligence directive on fentanyl, asserting that these measures helped secure a 30-day pause on proposed tariffs against Canadian goods.

The announcement follows President Donald Trump’s imposition of sweeping new trade penalties: a 25% tariff on exports from Mexico and Canada and a 10% duty on Chinese goods. While those levies took effect two days ago, Trump has now granted Mexico a one-month reprieve—on the condition that President Claudia Sheinbaum deploy 10,000 soldiers to the northern border to crack down on fentanyl trafficking and illegal migration.

In exchange, senior U.S. officials—including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick—will negotiate with their Mexican counterparts on a long-term solution before tariffs are reinstated.

Trump emphasized that Mexico’s forces were “specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl and illegal migrants,” stressing that cross-border cooperation was essential in tackling what U.S. authorities call a national drug crisis.

Markets initially tumbled over fears of an escalating tariff war among the world’s largest economies but rebounded on news of the temporary reprieve for Mexico and Canada. Now, both governments face a critical deadline.

More to come.

News release from Max Bernier, Leader of The People’s Party of Canada

It’s important to understand that the 25% tariffs announced by President Trump today are NOT imposed on Canada — they will be paid by American consumers and businesses who buy goods imported from Canada. Tariffs are a tax, and Americans who will have to pay more or go without our products will be the first to suffer.

Of course, Canadian exporters of these goods will as a consequence lose clients, contracts and sales, and will be forced to cut down on production and lay off workers. Or they will lower their prices to keep market shares and will see their profits diminish.

Because 75% of our exports go south of the border, our economy will for sure be very negatively impacted by this.

The stupidest thing our government can do however to deal with this crisis is to impose the same kind of tariffs “dollar for dollar” against US imports.

The US economy is ten times bigger than ours, much less reliant on trade than ours, and much less dependent on our market than we are on theirs.

Not only would retaliatory tariffs have much less impact on American exporters, they would immediately impoverish Canadian consumers forced to pay more for imported goods, as well as destabilize Canadian businesses that need inputs from the US in their production processes. It would more than double the harm of the US tariffs to our economy.

Trade wars are bad for everyone, but they are much worse for a small country with fewer options. We simply cannot win a trade war with the US. It’s very unlikely that Trump will back down. All we will do is provoke a massive economic crisis in Canada, until we are forced to capitulate.

Another self-destructive thing to do would be to set up giant “pandemic-level” bailout plans to support everyone affected by this trade war. This will simply bankrupt our governments even more than they already are and make us even weaker.

So what should we do?

1. Double down on efforts to control our border, crack down on fentanyl dealers, deport all illegals, and impose a complete moratorium on immigration, to answer Trump’s immediate concerns about Canada.

2. Tell the US administration that we are ready to renegotiate North American free trade and put dairy supply management and other contentious issues on the table.

3. Wait and see to what extent Trump is willing to keep tariffs in place despite the harm it does to the US economy. Despite his pretenses that Americans don’t need our stuff, the reality is that on the contrary they have few other options for crucial resources like oil, lumber, uranium and other minerals, etc. He will stop acting like a bully when he sees that he can get more results by sitting down and negotiating.

4. To reduce our dependence on the US market, immediately implement an ambitious plan to tear down interprovincial trade barriers and help our impacted exporting industries find alternative markets in other countries.

5. Immediately implement a series of bold reforms to make our economy more productive, including: reduce corporate and personal taxes, abolish the capital gains tax, abolish all corporate subsidies, get rid of excessive regulation, remove impediments to the exploitation and export of natural resources, drastically cut government spending, mandate the Bank of Canada to stop printing money and start accumulating a gold reserve to prepare for the global monetary reset (which is likely part of Trump’s plan).

In short, instead of adopting a suicidal strategy to confront Trump, we must do what we should have done a long time ago to strengthen our economy and our bargaining position. The transition will be rough, but not as much as complete bankruptcy and disintegration.