PM Trudeau denounces U.S. tariffs on Canada
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on Canadians to stand united in defence of their country, warning that U.S. President Donald Trump has unleashed a full-on trade war to ruin their economy in the false hope of annexing Canada.
The battle for Canadian independence will be tough and costly, Mr. Trudeau said, but Ottawa will step up with emergency relief measures to help workers and businesses withstand job losses and closings from U.S. tariffs on Canadian imports.
“We’re insulted and we’re angry, but we’re Canadian, which means we’re going to stand up for each other, we’re going to fight, we’re going to win,” he told a news conference on Parliament Hill on Tuesday.
Mr. Trump imposed 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian goods and 10-per-cent tariffs on energy imports, as he had been promising to do since shortly after he was elected in November. Those initial threats set off months of lobbying from the federal and provincial governments, which ultimately failed to head off the levies before they took effect at midnight on Tuesday morning.
The response from Ottawa, provincial governments, businesses and individual Canadians was immediate.
Mr. Trudeau announced a suite of retaliatory tariffs to respond to what he described as an existential threat to the country and promised a robust relief package for affected workers. Provincial governments removed U.S. alcohol from store shelves and pledged to block U.S. companies from bidding on multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects, while threats to cut off energy revealed tensions between premiers that were already on display in the lead-up to the tariffs.
Protesters staged anti-tariff rallies in front of the U.S. embassy in Ottawa and at American consulates in several cities.
The mere threat of tariffs has paralyzed business leaders’ ability to make decisions for weeks, and the coming economic shock galvanized top Canadian executives to speak out about how Canada needs to respond to a changed economic reality.
“We need to leave the porch light on. In the meantime, we need to fight with great vigour,” said Frank McKenna, deputy chair of TD Securities and a former New Brunswick premier and Canadian ambassador to the U.S..
The Prime Minister, who is only only days away from handing the reins of power to a new Liberal leader, said he hoped to talk the President out of the trade war but conceded it might not be possible to change his mind.
“What he wants to see is a total collapse of the Canadian economy because that will make it easier to annex us,” he said. “That is never going to happen. We will never be the 51st state.”
Mr. Trudeau did not hold back on his criticism of the President for going after one of America’s closest allies while cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mr. Trudeau said Canada has responded to the unjustified trade war with a first round of countertariffs on $30-billion of U.S. goods that took effect after midnight, followed by another $125-billion of tariffs in 21 days.
In response to Canadian countermeasures, Mr. Trump threatened even more punishing tariffs and in social-media posts repeated his taunts of Mr. Trudeau as “governor.”
In his speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, the President complained about trade deficits with Canada and Mexico. “We pay to Canada and Mexico of hundreds of billions dollars and the United States will not be doing this any longer,” he said.
But late in the day there were signs of a slight opening to avert an all-out trade war. Two senior government sources said Ontario Premier Doug Ford had a tough conversation with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who indicated there is room for a deal. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources who were not authorized to discuss bilateral talks with the Trump administration.
Mr. Lutnick has been going back and forth with Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, but one federal source said it’s unknown whether these talks will reach a positive conclusion. The Globe is not identifying the source because they are not authorized to speak about negotiations with the Americans.
The U.S. Commerce Secretary also went on Fox Business to say he’s been on the phone with Canadians and Mexicans and that a compromise might be possible on border security and fentanyl that could be announced as early as Wednesday.
“The President is listening because you know he is very, very fair and very reasonable,” Mr. Lutnick said. “So I think he is going to work something out with them. It’s not going to be a pause. Not any of that pause stuff but I think he is going to figure it out. You do more and I’ll meet you in the middle.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said she has phone call scheduled Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio but indicated she has little faith in what Mr. Trump’s cabinet secretaries say.
“To be blunt, the only person who really does a deal is the President,” she told CBC’s Power and Politics. “At the end of the day, none of them know what the President wants.”
The list of U.S. products to be hit by Canada include fruits and vegetables, beef, pork, electronics, aluminum, trucks and certain pulp and paper products and electric cars, a clear aim at Mr. Trump’s friend, Elon Musk, and his Tesla cars.
Mr. Ford also said he tore up a $100-million deal with Mr. Musk’s Starlink internet provider and said American companies will be banned from procurement contracts. Ontario’s LCBO removed U.S. liquor from its stores. And Mr. Ford also warned U.S. lawmakers in New York, Michigan and Minnesota that Ontario might put a 25-per-cent surcharge on electricity flowing into the states and potentially cut the flow off entirely.
Canada will also challenge what Mr. Trudeau called “illegal” tariffs with the dispute resolution mechanism at the World Trade Organization and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Mr. Trudeau vowed to put in emergency relief measures to help Canadians who lose their jobs and business because of U.S. tariffs.
The government will expand employment insurance benefits, making them more flexible and provide direct support to businesses, he said. Ottawa will also set up a remission process to provide Canadian tariff relief to companies that cannot source goods domestically or from outside the United States.
The Prime Minister said Canadians aren’t angry at the American people, but added: “This is a trade war, yes.” He said Canadians might still boo the American national anthem at sporting events.
Asked whether Canada would impose 25-per-cent tariffs on oil and natural gas exports to the U.S., Mr. Trudeau said he wants to preserve national unity. Every effort must be made to ensure Alberta and Saskatchewan do not carry a heavier load than other provinces, he said.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who has publicly objected to any proposal to target oil exports and attacked the federal government for not ruling it out, said on Tuesday that she fully supports Ottawa’s retaliatory policy and urged the President to get back to the negotiating table.
“I don’t know why the President is behaving this way because it’s illegal,” she told CNBC Tuesday.
Quebec Premier François Legault said his province will face difficult times if the trade war persists. Quebec will offer companies up to $50-million in liquidity loans to help them cope with Trump tariffs, he said.
British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador halted all procurement from the U.S., while Newfoundland, Manitoba and B.C. along with Ontario pulled all U.S. alcohol products from provincial store shelves.
Calls to resist the U.S. tariffs came from a cross-section of Canadian business and union leaders.
“Now is the time to double down on protecting our economic sovereignty and security,” Chamber of Commerce president Candace Laing said, while Unifor national president Lana Payne said: “Trump has seriously misjudged the resolve and unity of Canadians, and he has misjudged how damaging this trade war will be for American workers.”
The Prime Minister criticized Mr. Trump for imposing the measures on the false premise that Canada isn’t doing enough to stop the flow of fentanyl into the U.S.
The Trump administration has asserted that fentanyl from Canada has exacerbated the opioid crisis in the United States, but the data Mr. Trump has cited – which already show that less than 1 per cent of the fentanyl intercepted by U.S. border officials was seized in the northern region – is exaggerated. The Globe and Mail reported last week that the data include large seizures of fentanyl that came from Mexico and has nothing to do with Canada.
Even still, Canadian officials have pointed to recent efforts to shore up the border. Mr. Trudeau noted that Canada earmarked $1.3-billion to strengthen the border with new helicopters, more boots on the ground and the appointment of a fentanyl czar.
As a result, he said, fentanyl seizures in the northern region of the U.S. dropped 97 per cent between December, 2024, and January, 2025, to a near-zero low of 0.03 pounds seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The data do not indicate whether that fentanyl came from Canada.
Mr. Trudeau indicated that he might not immediately step down as prime minister after the Liberal Party chooses a new leader on Sunday. He said he would turn over the reins to a new leader “reasonably quickly” but added “there is a lot of things to do in a transition like this particularly in complicated time in the world.”
In a message to Canadian workers, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said countertariffs must be imposed, first on products Canada makes itself, then products it doesn’t need and finally on products that Canada can buy from other countries. All proceeds from tariffs should be put toward reducing taxes and to supporting workers affected by the trade war, he said.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called for the immediate return of Parliament. Mr. Trudeau prorogued Parliament until March 24 so the Liberals could hold a leadership contest without fear of being defeated. The new leader will be elected Sunday and it’s likely an election will be called soon after.
In a letter to the other leaders, Mr. Singh said Parliament should quickly approve a comprehensive package that includes expanding eligibility and enhancing benefits under the employment insurance system; emergency funding for infrastructure projects such as housing construction; and support for retaliatory tariffs.
The letter points out that while all parties are preparing for a federal election to be called soon, these steps should be taken immediately by Parliament before the expected campaign begins.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet rejected the suggestion that Parliament should be immediately recalled. He said there is time to hold a federal election and then the new government can decide how best to reallocate the new federal revenue that will come in from retaliatory tariffs.
He also suggested that Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Ford should tone down their political rhetoric.
“There is a new language that could be interpreted as provocative,” he said, adding that such talk may make for good domestic politics but could hinder efforts to negotiate with the United States.
With reports from Stephanie Levitz, Bill Curry and James Bradshaw
This article was first reported by The Globe and Mail
