In The Globe and Mail, Andrew Coyne writes
Here are some posts about their impact:
...When your back is against the wall, it tends to stiffen the spine. Perhaps Mr. Trump expected Canada to fold like the others, but the extravagance of the U.S. demands made that impossible. It is difficult to see how any government, of whatever party, could have accepted the terms presented to us, not least because there was no guarantee we would receive anything in return: as it has since been reported, the U.S. reserved the right to raise tariffs in future to whatever level they please, notwithstanding anything in the deal. So we are headed for heavy weather. It is highly unlikely that Canada will give in, no matter what punishment is meted out to us. And yet it is hard to see how the Trump administration could yield, either, precisely because of the admiring notice we have been getting elsewhere. It is true what they say: In defying Mr. Trump, we are setting an example for the rest of the world. Therefore it is likely he will try to make an example out of us. This is about much more than trade, in other words, more even than our existence as a sovereign state. Fate has assigned us the role, as it has other nations from time to time, of a kind of Horatius at the Gate, the one who “keeps the bridge” when all the rest have fled. Our fight, it is no exaggeration to say, is the civilized world’s fight. It is a fight for reason and comity in the affairs of nations, against an administration whose worldview, and behaviour, is increasingly that of an aggressive dictatorship, in all its crudeness and its thuggery...Tuesday Canada responded to the Trump tariffs, announcing a thoughtful, detailed list of American goods that will be tariffed in September.
Here are some posts about their impact:
Here's a good Tod Maffin video about Canadian small businesses that deserve our supportNEW: This is the list of 700 “dollar-for-dollar” retaliatory tariffs Canada is putting on US goods. Unlike Trump, Canada is smart enough to know that no-one wins a trade war, & tariffs hurt both countries. But Trump and his goons have given Canada no choice by making this about far more than money.
— Brent Toderian (@brenttoderian.bsky.social) August 25, 2026 at 8:21 PM
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And here's another good one about the counter-tariffs:
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Hey, just coincidentally, Global News did this report a few days ago, on the Canadian military plan to recruit and train a much larger supplementary reserve force - PM Carney announced this last year but I hadn't heard any more about it until now.
Also I found an interesting article at the website of the thinktank Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI), about issues in developing such a force Canada already has enough trained troops to fill the Reserves — but we let them just walk away: J.L. Granatstein for Inside Policy
I expect Trump will hate Carney now with the fierce hate of a thousand suns.
Quite possibly he already did - remember the look on his face when the Spanish soccer team captain happily shook Carney's hand after refusing to greet Trump.
As I mentioned in last night's post, Trump is a petty and vindictive man, and so are the people around him. It would not surprised me if Nutlick's last-minute additions to the agreement were actually intended to be land mines for Carney, to jeopardize Carney's leadership. They thought Carney would be so desperate for a deal before his Economic Summit in September, that he wouldn’t realize all the poison pills they were inserting into the final drafts.
Canada always reads the final drafts.
Tuesday's New York Times has a major article [gift link] describing how the negotiations fell apart. It doesn't confirm my theory, but it does suggest there were some mysterious last-minute agendas on the American side:
The clock ticked toward midnight on Friday. New U.S. tariffs on Canada were about to come into effect and negotiators cooped up across the street from the White House were still plodding through the differences on each side. Aides shuffled in and out with new drafts, adjusting and readjusting.
U.S. officials said they had offered Canada the best trade deal of any nation. Canadians believed it was a bad one. In the waning hours, both sides dug in even more.
One Canadian negotiator said it was as if “shadow figures were suddenly in the room,” raising topics that had supposedly been settled in previous days....
...A month of intense talks to stave off new U.S. tariffs on Canada and soften the ones previously imposed by the Trump administration had been yielding steady progress. But they collapsed suddenly, setting in motion an all-out trade war between the two nations.
The sticking points were many. In the last few hours, negotiators clashed over Canadian rules promoting French-language movies and shows online, as well as the Trump administration’s demands to dictate Canada’s steel tariffs on other countries. Canada, in turn, insisted on more generous treatment for its autos, electric vehicles and products made with metal — and ultimately backed away from its offer to cooperate on the Keystone XL pipeline that President Trump has long desired, people familiar with the negotiations said....
In Tuesday's The Guardian, Jen Gerson writes Canadians do not seek a trade war – but nor will we be bullied by Donald Trump
The Canadians are exceedingly angry. I realise this can sometimes be difficult for foreigners to deduce, given our national struggle to express the full range of human emotion outside ice hockey riots. However, let me assure you that the prime minister Canadians saw take the stage on Saturday morning in the wake of the collapse in trade negotiations with the US was a Mark Carney practically vibrating with fury.Gerson is now one of Canada's best journalists. She's often a little too right wing for me, but she has battled against Alberta separatism and she was one of the first - perhaps even THE first - to say two weeks ago that Carney shouldn't sign the deal - her judgement has been absolutely vindicated.
“You’re at war when you get attacked. We got attacked,” he said, in a rare press conference that was as candid and clear as he ever tends to be....
Finally, on the lighter side
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Here's USA Today:
Borrowing from the playbook of master negotiators, Donald Trump has gained the upper hand in his ongoing trade war with Canada by … wait for it … threatening to rename a lake. I clap for our brilliant dealmaking president! And offer a few more things to rename. www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
— Rex Huppke (@rexhuppke.bsky.social) August 25, 2026 at 4:28 PM
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Canada thinks it is stupid tooFor example, Canadian bacon will now be "Patriot Pork." And throughout the United States, hockey must be referred to only as "American Stick & Ice Flat Ball."
— Rex Huppke (@rexhuppke.bsky.social) August 25, 2026 at 4:32 PM
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Moving on to something happier, here are some Canada good news posts
"Salmon are not simply a resource," Lheidli T'enneh Chief Dolleen Logan told the gathered media. "Salmon are relatives. They are a part of our culture, our identity, our laws, our responsibilities." www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
— Andrew Kurjata (@akurjata.ca) August 25, 2026 at 10:08 PM
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