Rattled by Trump's tariff threat, Canada's leaders point fingers at each other

Canadian political leaders can'tcontrol the fact that Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. Neither can they stop him from threatening to take illogical stepsthat could hurt American businesses and consumers almost as much as they would hurt Canadians.

But Canadian political leaders can control how they respond to those threats and actions. And Canadians can judge how serious those responses are.

Trump is vowing to imposea 25 per cent tariffon all goods entering the United States from Canada and Mexico unlessbothcountries stop what he calls an"invasion" of drugs, "in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens" into the United States.

While the number of migrants crossing America's northern border hasincreased in the past year, the human and drug traffic moving from Canada to the United States is still atiny fractionofwhat's moving acrossAmerica's southern border with Mexico.

Regardless, stopping unwanted people and things from entering the United States is primarily the responsibility of the United States just as it was primarily Canada's problem to solve when thousands of people started crossing from the United States into Canada at Roxham Road.

And while the imposition of new tariffs undoubtedly would cause major problems for Canadian businesses and pose a serious threat to the national economy, it also wouldcause problems for American companies and raise prices for American consumers particularly if the U.S. tariffs invite retaliation from Canada and Mexico.

"The fact is, we need them and they also need us," Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Tuesday. "We sell them oil. We sell them electricity. We sell them critical minerals and metals."

The premiers concede andPoilievre stumps

Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, appealed for calm in a social media post on Monday night.

"We've got to learn how to deal with these tactics," he wrote. "Patience."

Volpe represents an industry that has much at stake and his counsel might be wise not least because Trump's threat might be merely the opening gambit in a larger negotiation.

But the political cycle does not allow for patience.

"The federal government needs to take the situation at our border seriously," Ontario Premier Doug Ford tweeted less than an hour and a half after Trumpissued his threaton Monday night.

WATCH: Premier Ford says Trump's tariff promise threatens Ontario's economy

Ford says Trumps 25% tariff threat will hurt Ontarios economy

22 hours ago

Duration 4:26

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump announced plans to add a 25 per cent tariff to goods crossing into the country from Canada and Mexico. In response, Premier Doug Ford called the move insulting and said Prime Minister Trudeau has agreed to meet with him about the levy.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning, Ford said it was "unfair" and even "insulting" for Trump to speak of Canada and Mexico in the same sentence. But he stillseemed to concede that the president-electhad a point.

"We need to do better on our borders," the premier said.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith offered a similar concession. The incoming administration,she said, "has valid concerns related to illegal activities at our shared border."

Perhaps the premiers believe that accepting Trump's logic is a clever countermove. And pointing a finger of blame or responsibility at the federal government which has jurisdictionoverborders is just something that comes naturally to premiers.

But even while federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre hadnothing good to say about the Liberal government, he waswilling to describe Trump's threatened tariffs as "unjustified."

In Poilievre's estimation, the return of Trump means Canada needs a leader with "brains" and a "backbone." And that leader needs to have a "plan" specifically, a "Canada first" plan.

While declaring that it's time to put partisanship aside, Poilievre described a plan that largely aligns with things he's been demanding for months such as the repeal ofthe federal carbon taxand an end to plans for a cap on greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas industry.

WATCH: Poilievre would retaliate against Trump's tariffs 'if necessary'

Poilievre would retaliate against Trump's tariff threat 'if necessary'

22 hours ago

Duration 0:52

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he would retaliate 'if necessary' against Donald Trumps threat of imposing a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods. When asked if Canada should have less reliance on America as a trading partner, Poilievre said it was a nice idea but one that is unrealistic.

It's not obvious that any ofPoilievre'sideaswould causeTrump to withdrawhis threat. Instead, Poilievre's argument seems to be thatimplementing his prescribed policy changes would make the Canadian economystronger and somewhat better able to withstand whatever actions Trump takes.

In other words, the Conservative leader seemed to want to say that Donald Trump's returnisanother reason why Pierre Poilievre should be prime minister.

Singh wants a 'fight,' Trudeau vows to act 'methodically'

Questioned byreporters, Poilievre did allow that he would, if necessary, consider taking retaliatory actions against the United States.

But the loudest rattler of sabres on Tuesday was Jagmeet Singh.

"The only thing a bully responds to is strength," the NDP leader said in question period.

Singh said the prime minister should "fight like hell" and called on the government to establish a "war room."The prime minister seemed unpersuaded.

"I don't think the idea of going to war with the United States is what anyone wants," Trudeau responded.

Trudeau said that while his government would "stand up" for Canadians,it would do so "seriously" and "methodically ... without freaking out like the leader of the NDP seems to be."

WATCH:'I don't think the idea of going towarwith the U.S. is what anyone wants': Trudeau

'I don't think the idea of going to war with the U.S. is what anyone wants:' Trudeau

19 hours ago

Duration 1:26

Responding to NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government is engaging in 'constructive ways' with the incoming administration of Donald Trump rather than 'freaking out' about the U.S. president-elect's 25 per cent tariff threat.

If war is off the table, it only remains to be seen what else Canada and Canadians might decide to do instead.

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlancpointed tothe work already being done with American officials to monitor the border and told the CBC's Power & Politics that he believes Canada has a "good story" to tell in that regard.

The prime minister is convening a first ministers' meeting on Wednesday; both Trudeau and Freeland talked up the importance of a "Team Canada" approach. Freeland acknowledged that Canada responded to previous Trump tariffs with "targeted" tariffs of its own.

All of this is largely in line with what the Trudeau government did during Trump's first term.

Stopping briefly to speak with reporters on Tuesday morning, Trudeau said he and the president-elect had a "good call" on Monday night.

"We obviously talked about laying out the facts, talking about how the intense and effective connections between our two countries flow back and forth. We talked about some of the challenges that we can work on together," he said.

"This is something that we can do.Laying out the facts, moving forward in constructive ways. This is a relationship that we know takes a certain amount of working on and that's what we'll do."

"Laying out the facts" might seem like a futile even naive gesture right now. But it's not obvious that anyone else has anybetter ideas.