Trade War Madness

Trump, tariffs, and the pearl-clutching of almost everyone

Trump vs. Poilievre

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“The world needs our resources and our expertise. If you Mr. Trump, don’t want them, the rest of the world does.” — Pierre Poilievre, March 27, 2025

By

James Pew

“Knock it off.” That is Poilievre’s message to Trump concerning the so-called “trade war.” Honestly, I think Poilievre should take his own advice. I don’t think he can though. Rightwing parties, in all Western nations, with the sole exception of the U.S., are strategically unable to be honest. They must perform all kinds of popular pantomimes, hide their conservative values, and they cannot act on principle. Not if they want to win in general elections. In the current Canadian election, you absolutely must be seen as adversarial to Trump if you are to have a hope in hell of winning.

While someone like me, who is constantly yelling at the radio, or the newspapers, when I read or hear about the stupidity that passes for political analysis in mainstream Canada, would love a principled leader (like Maxime Bernier) to tell it like it is, to stick to conservative values, to defend the traditions of the Western world, this is just not going to happen anytime soon in Canada.

Let me take this opportunity to dress down the entire edifice of Canadian elites. The ones of today and of the past half-dozen decades. From the business leaders, to politicians (including Poilievre), to the media (the absolute worst), they have all shown that principles are not something they prioritize. I’m not even sure if the majority of Canadians care. I know readers of this newsletter do, but there aren’t enough of us. The country is literally full of low-information, unprincipled partisans. Many are unstable emotional wrecks. Things that should be approached logically, sensibly and analytically, are almost always treated instead with histrionics.

What responsibility does the media (Canadian, American, and other media around the world) hold for both creating and escalating what should more accurately be considered trade negotiations, maybe even a trade dispute, not “trade war” !? This is exactly what Trump wants (at least I think it is, there is no way to really know). He is a master provocateur. He is playing the media, and as a consequence, the public too. The media are reacting in the way Trump and everyone else expects. I think far too many of us secretly love the drama; things are getting exciting, instead of boring as usual. The whole mess, which really should be a major bore of a story involving trade policy wonks, diplomats and business leaders, has been artificially amplified and exaggerated into an existential economic crisis. Pearl-clutching on the fainting couch has been the anticipated response of literally all involved, most importantly, Trump himself (again, this is little more than an educated guess). And the public eats it up (no guessing about that).

All of this is not to insincerely or callously downplay the very serious implications on Canadian businesses and workers. I absolutely put Canada first. Although, I see no sense in engaging in anything that can be construed as a “war,” against a nation we rely on economically and that protects us militarily in a world that grows more hostile by the day. It is the Chinese Communist Party and expansionist Islam whom I see as existential threats to Canadians (and the West). And, while I do not agree with or appreciate Trump’s rhetoric and actions towards Canada one bit, I cannot help pondering the situation Canada’s past leaders have placed us in, which makes us utterly reliant on American economic and military strength — is that not our own fault? Everything Trump is doing in the world, or at least everything he thinks he is doing, is meant to bolster the two things Canada relies on most: the American economy and military. This reality makes Canadian fightin’ words directed at America ring hollow.

Paradoxically, since the failure of Canada’s elites has rendered the country unable to stand on its own, anything Trump can do to strengthen America (including hurting Canada unfortunately) is in Canada’s overall best interests. What a tragic circumstance for any sovereign nation to find itself in. This would not have been the case, if over the lost Trudeau decade, and many decades before that, the country had been led by nation-builders engaged in ambitious nation-building. In the modern period, we have failed at nation-building. Maybe not miserably, but the overall effort has been inadequate. The post-national era of Trudeau being the height of this failure, and the absolute depths of our current despair. And now, sadly, pathetically, we are at the mercy of the orange one.

Exactly how have elites failed Canada?

In the post-truth paradigm, mainstream journalists are not celebrated for their abilities to investigate, analyze, and identify what is true or sensible. On the contrary, they prefer sensational headlines and histrionic melodramas that generate clicks (media impressions). Clearly, this is not the case with independent sources (like this newsletter), but not enough Canadians subscribe to those sources (don’t they know Woke Watch Canada is free?). And what is worse, the average Canadian appears for the most part, to take their cues from the mainstream. I can’t believe that any Canadian is buying into the grotesque “elbows up” nonsense presented to them in the most cringeworthy political ads I’ve ever witnessed: Mike Meyers and Mark Carney hanging out at the hockey rink. Yuck! How easily some poor hapless Canadians are led.

In this election, political leaders, like they always do, are putting way too much stock in the polls. It is the Canadian way: polls over principles. This means regular Canadian conservatives always feel compelled to decode the words and actions of conservative politicians, we cannot take what they say at face value. Their words are always carefully curated in an effort to hide the values held by their base. They do this because they know that society's institutions have generally been colonized by the cultural left. It’s not an excuse, although it is their strategy. Polls matter. It doesn’t matter if I agree with it or not, I fully admit that it might be the best strategy. But damn it….get off the shed!!

Sadly, Maxime Bernier doesn’t really have a chance of winning the election. Because of this, or in spite of it, he can ignore the polls, he can (and does) speak from a place of principle. But this does not fly in Canada. When a mainstream Canadian hears a principled conservative politician, they hear Trumpism, or “far-right” something or other. In the past, as was the case with Erin O’Toole, Conservative politicians placed their values completely in the backseat as they attempted to cater to the sensibilities of non-conservatives. Nothing enrages real conservatives more. Erin O’Toole certainly found that out.

Poilievre is far better than O-Toole. What I like best about him, and I admit that some of this might be an image his campaign planners have created, is his long-held and consistent views, particularly concerning open-markets and economics generally. However, not always, but mostly, he shies away or expresses himself in too vague of terms on cultural and social issues for my taste. And even worse, he voted for Leah Gazan’s genocide motion, and along with O’Toole, voted in favour of federal bill C-6.

The latter was a controversial bill concerning conversion therapy. Critics of C-6 pointed out many potential problems arising mainly from the vague language found in the bill. Parents rights advocates, like myself, were concerned the bill would criminalize parents who discourage their children caught up in the social contagion of gender transitions like “non-binary.” Sixty-three conservatives voted against the bill, and none of them were supporters of the practice of conversion therapy (as the liberal media insinuated), their concerns were over the free speech implications and echoed parents rights advocates.

There was an interesting piece in the National Post on Tuesday by Christopher Nardi and Stephanie Taylor about a 2022 sermon given by Sarah Fischer, the conservative party’s current communications director. Fischer criticized both Erin O’Toole and Stephen Harper for their lack of adherence to principles, and for their sidelining of conservative values. As Taylor and Nardi summarized, the sermon asked, “How much can a political party sacrifice its fundamental ideas in exchange for winning elections? And what is the point of getting in power if you don’t implement things you believe in?”

I digress. Maybe I’m wrong about the trade war stuff. Maybe Trump is going to sink Canada. If that is so, my view that this was very much a predictable outcome caused by generations of poor and negligent Canadian leadership will not change. Canada is in a serious predicament. Like I wrote above, I do not appreciate Trump’s tactics. I do not necessarily disagree with him in spirit, although I am not even close to understanding what he is really doing. I do however, at least I think I do, detect a faint outline of a reasoned and rational critique of Canada which generally does speak to an unfairness not in the interests of America. If that is the case, or even if it is not exactly the case but exists somewhere within the same planetary system as the case, then I feel we should be taking an approach which seeks to prioritize and understand the details. As in, get right down and dirty into the thick of it. Explore and negotiate the minutiae and the technical particulars.

Imagine if instead of approaching Trump with all of this warmongering defiance, as both Liberal and Conservative leaders have, we went the clinical route. If instead we bombarded Trump and his people with trade wonks and technicalities. Imagine if we did this without any of the adversarial war rhetoric, and instead approached the Americans like the true friends we claim we are. Would true friends throw away their centuries long friendship over the rhetoric of one fleeting leader? I don’t think so, and right now I’m at odds with almost everyone as I buy none of the fake adversarial nationalism, and support even less of it. I’ll keep my elbows down where they are, thank you very much. But just imagine if Canada had taken this more moderate but technical approach. It would have meant that leaders who embodied what years ago this author was taught was “adult,” were truly in charge, like they used to be.

Adults would at one not so distant past teach and preach principles. They used to take the high road. They would downplay melodramas, not meltdown into histrionic excesses. Fainting couches were rarities, and pearls were displayed not clutched. The adults who ruled the world of my youth were pragmatic but also seemed to recognize and value the wisdom of things. They were better than us. But here we are, desperately in need of pulling up our socks and remembering where we came from, who we really are. But Trump Derangement Syndrome prevents us. Or has so far. What a dishonourable damn shame that absolutely does not need to be.

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Thanks for reading. For more from this author read, The Law in B.C. takes a backseat to indigenous "narratives"

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