TORONTO – Indecisive is a rather polite way to describe the 47th President of the United States of America. If I were to use how social media describes him, I wouldn’t be a nice guy. What can I say. After living in this nice country for 51 years now, a lot of that niceness has rubbed in on me. 

Since the first week of February this year, Canadians have been beset with worry over the 25% tariffs on all goods and 10% tariff on energy. At the 11th hour of the allotted February date, the 47th announced that the tariffs will then take effect on March 4, 2025. And, at exactly 12:01 a.m. of this date, the tariffs did come. Few hours later, he changed idea. And he also changed on items relating to automobiles, to which he said that tariffs on these will take effect next month, April. I wonder then what’s coming up next month. A lower rate, a higher one, more items in line to be taxed, some exemptions?

It was never about fentanyl or the undocumented crossing over from Canada to the US. He dangled these and we took the bait by authorizing more people to police the borders and revealing seizures of fentanyl at the borders. Canadians saw the ulterior motive of the 47th when he referred to outgoing PM Trudeau as “Governor” and called Canada the 51st state. Google couldn’t come up with a viable explanation why provincial parks in Canada were called state parks. Clearly, the 47th wanted Canada to be a feather in his golf cap, his best legacy as the candidate who beat Kamala Harris whom 64% Canadians favoured over him. So, this begs the question, why so personal?

On the first day that the tariffs kicked in, Premier Doug Ford told all LCBO outlets in Ontario to remove all US alcohol from their shelves. As well, he cancelled $100 million satellite deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink. He threatened 25% export taxes on electricity from Ontario to 1.5 million residents in NY, Michigan, and Minnesota and warned that if the 47th escalates the levies next month, he will not hesitate to shut off the power on these US subscribers. Additionally, all US based companies will be banned from participating in government procurement resulting in US businesses losing tens of billions in revenues. This rhetoric prompted a call to Ford from the White House, a call that ended with Ford sticking to what he declared.

Canada’s economy will surely be chaotic and damaging. But if it’s any comfort to us Canadians, the American way of life will suffer too. Car parts that involve three countries, Canada being one of the three, will get more expensive. So do houses, lumber being a necessity to build a house. Maple syrup will lose its place in the US shelves. And, crude oil, with Canada being the largest supplier of this to the US (61% of oil from Canada went to the US from January to November 2025), would certainly affect the Americans, especially this coming summer when most Americans take to the road for that long awaited annual road trip.

Americans with close connexions to Canada are saddened by everything that has been going on between the two countries. Canadians have become more fervent in their nationalism. Premiers of the ten provinces have been meeting to address the tariff problem now facing the country. There’s a resolve to tear down internal barriers in the country to help address this tariff problem and so far, there has been positive results from this meeting.

On the day that 25% tariff to all imports of Canada from the US kicked in (and before Trump’s umpteenth U-turn), stock markets in the US, Europe and Asia all registered a downtrend. And days before the 47th was to give his State of the Union (SOTU) address to Americans, his approval rating was 48%. Nonetheless, these didn’t matter to him. After all, he has proclaimed himself as “king” in his own social media outlet.

In the pic above, Donald Trump (from Twitter X – @WhiteHouse)