Carney hasn’t been doing nothing. He’s been aggressively pursuing expanded trade with other nations. Obviously this can’t match the volume of potential trade losses with the US, but it’s not nothing either. He was on the verge of concluding a not great but not terrible deal with the US when their negotiators threw in multiple poison pills at the last minute. That wasn’t successful, but again it wasn’t doing nothing.
I’m curious what you think the Carney government ought to be doing that it isn’t doing, other than reiterating that he should convince Trump of things that Trump can’t be convinced of.
Removing the regulations that kill industry in Canada as a start. Remove arbitrary taxes such as carbon that result in higher prices for consumers and make Canadian industries less competitive. You can’t fight a war with one hand behind your back.
He campaigned on having done it to lower consumer costs to Canadians, but also he did this to take away PP’s “axe the tax” slogan from being a factor in the upcoming election (which it wasn’t, Trump insanity and trade became issue number 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the election right upto today).
Its wild to not even mention he had already done this.
And that was all of them, right? Does a consumer tax make industry less competitive? Eventually as people have less money to spend. So, what was I referring to? Could it be the industrial carbon tax? Could that make industry less competitive?
Lower taxes tend to make society in general poorer, and industries less competitive since fewer people can afford their products. The engine of the economy is the consumer, not industry. We’re just constantly beaten over the head with the idea that giving more money to the wealthy will improve the economy because the wealthy want t that way; not because it works.
As exemplified right now, by Trump making sure that more and more wealth is diverted to the already wealthy (especially himself) and regulations slashed, while the economy goes to hell as a result. Canada following the US into the same pit won’t help it in any way.
To fix your analogy, the master mechanic needs parts that only the manufacturer makes. He tells you the car needs a $500 throatwobbler and the manufacturer has them in stock and can deliver within a week. When he calls to order the part, the manufacturer calls the mechanic “very nasty”, changes the price to $10,000, and doesn’t think he even wants to sell it to the mechanic. That’s who we are dealing with.
We have to keep in mind at all times, that in Trump World no deal, from nuclear disarmament to a handshake, can stand if it is good for both sides. If it’s good for both sides and he is one of the parties then that means he is the loser. And he will not ever let himself be the loser. In every transaction there has to be a winner and a loser. So anything that both sides are happy with has got to be scrapped and redone until he can grind his heel in the face of the other party. Or pull their arm out of its socket. Which is the same thing.
Exactly. He’s pathologically bad at negotiating. He can bully the other side into submission, he can con people, but put him in a negotiation where neither of those tactics work and the other side can’t be forced into giving him everything in return for nothing, he blows it up every time because he can’t accept anything else.
Seems to me that with Trump it’s more about control & domination. Trouble is, he disregards any long term consequences. Or, just plain doesn’t care might be more like it. Like corporations seeking quick profits over long term gain & stability. It generally backfires over time.
Narcissism is all about deluding oneself that you’re the smartest, most powerful person in the room. And narcissism progresses with age—don’t expect matters to improve.
Interesting article that lays out what’s been happening in easy to understand terms. Many legitimate news sources offer similar articles, none of them rosy. No country can go it alone. Not for long. The average citizen will suffer. There’s proof of this in every authoritarian & dictator run country.
Despite the BS, the world is one big place that’s reliant on cooperation. The Trump administration has destroyed the countrys’ global relations.
We don’t know how much data is being hidden and it may take a number of more years but US is on a ride to the bottom unless changes are made pretty soon.
Maybe it’s something psychological. I don’t think he’s ever had friends. Sure, he’s had lots of acquaintances along on his shenanigans over the years. Never been on a team or spent time in a group as an equal. Not the makings of a healthy mind. The food chain
Not only must he get everything and you get nothing, he must see you groveling for that nothing, and then praising him for being the toughest most smartest negotiator ever.
Maybe we need to hire a professional flop artist, whose job would be to go on TV and cry about how bad a deal Canada is getting, but there’s nothing else we can do because of our pathetic weakness. Maybe an Alberan politician?
The article you linked to is an important one. It outlines how Trump’s tariffs benefit large corporations and Republican-supporting companies and states, and so provides insight into the method of his negotiating madness (and vice versa.) The tariff policies also dismantle progressive taxation, essentially taking even more money from those leaking less and funneling it upward.
As for the claims that auto jobs and plants are going to leave Canada and never return, that is likely true. They have also left the US, never to return. Exhibit A: Detroit. The problem with manufacturing is much larger than a trade agreement with the US, and cutting a deal to save the few remaining auto jobs in eastern Canada is the sort of “regional favoritism” western separatists deplore.
There’s no question that press releases and even some capital will flow in response to particular zigs and zags of government policies. That does not greatly affect the larger trends, and those trends do not bode well for large-scale manufacturing in the US and Canada. And consistent, long term policies to develop sustainable (in an economic as well as environmental sense) manufacturing and resource industries are of little interest to governments and corporations, both of whom seek profits, not jobs.
And of course policy to put on life support the auto industry, like resource extraction industries, begs the question, in the actual sense of assuming that which must be proved, that these industries should be saved. But that’s another question altogether. (In unison: “But that’s another question!”)
There is no zig, but continued zag. Canadian government policies have driven over a trillion dollars from Canada and the trend continues. Investment flees to other locations when it is more profitable and less risky. Even with the project office projects take undue time to be approved. That means the benefits of the investment are delayed if ever achieved. Kinder Morgan left the TMX because a court overturned the project approval because the government didn’t fulfill its duty to consult with natives. If the government can’t follow its own laws what rational actor would invest in such a place?
Carney’s response should be to open Canada for business which includes small, medium, and large companies. Rather than going to have to beg other countries to trade with us, we should create the environment where they come to us. None of which requires ‘caviar dreams’ escapades across the globe.
Sounds like Carney isn’t the cause for Trump’s dishonesty and hostility to Canada. Nor even Trudeau. In fact by this account of yours Trump is implacably hostile to Canada.
Wow. Trillions. That kinda sounds like snake oil. You are saying that Canada could be benefiting in the Trillions except Canadian polices are killing this.
Your bestie-friend-in-the-world Trudeau had the federal government buy the Trans Mountain pipeline. Something the you regularly give him credit for because you appreciate his commitment to resource and energy development.
These are empty slogans. What would you have Carney do?
Unifor national president Lana Payne was a member of Canada’s trade team and she pretty much outlines why everything broke down:
(last minute) goalposts were changing on the Canadian negotiators,
concessions that the US was demanding continued to mount,
(there were) disastrous implications for key parts of our industrial economy
in the last hours, particularly the last day and a half, you had other folks from the White House interfering
all until it became untenable for Canada to sign
According to Carney, himself, the last minute demands included needing to get approval from Washington to make other trade deals with other countries (most likely China was named) like Canada was a vassal state of the US. It’s hilarious how much the White House injected last minute poison pills.
Apparently also including demands that Canada impose Trumpian Tariffs on our imports from the rest of the world.
Carney later added that there had also been discussion of the United States encouraging Canada to match its tariffs on other countries.
So yeah, in addition to tying ourselves even closer to a United States that is openly hostile to us, and trying to destroy our economy, we’re expected to also cut ourselves off from other trade. Drive up prices for Canadians just like what’s happening in the US right now. And of course, those other countries would retaliate with their own tariffs, driving down our exports. This is utterly unacceptable, and highlights exactly why we can’t deal with Trump. If we signed this, we might as well just give up and be that 51st state.
And the thing is: Trump has made this crystal clear. It’s not a hidden agenda. He’s said it out loud, repeatedly. This is what he wants; to destroy Canada economically and take it over.
Period. Full stop.
You can’t negotiate with this.
I’m just surprised that Trump did not order Hegseth to murder our Canadian negotiators in their hotel room.