US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Photo: AFP
Donald Trump's tariffs will cause huge damage to the Canadian economy and the countries' relationship, but the reasons behind the move remain both spurious and obscure.
US President Donald Trump's trade war against Canada is fodder for America's flabbergasted late night comedy hosts, but north of the border, no one is laughing.
Known universally for just being ... nice, Canadians have gone from anxious to angry as America slaps 25 percent trade tariffs on its imports - a move that could send Canada into recession.
In the Ontario province alone, an estimated half a million jobs could go.
"People are really angry in this country at the United States," says the host of CBC's Front Burner podcast, Jayme Poisson.
Canada fought side by side with US troops in Afghanistan, and more recently sent planes to fight fires in California.
Jayme Poisson, host of CBC's Front Burner podcast. Photo: Supplied
"We see ourselves as America's longest and closest friend, and the rage that has bubbled up in this country over it is really palpable."
Poisson talks to The Detail about the likely effect the tariffs will have on the country, the confusion over the reasons behind the move, and how it has inspired a burst of patriotism from the Canadian people.
They're boycotting American products, cancelling their holidays to the US, and booing the Star-Spangled Banner at hockey and basketball games; all things that have tacit approval from their Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trump has now given auto manufacturers a month-long reprieve from the tariffs after pleas from the three big American car companies.
So far he hasn't looked like he will move on the rest of Canada's US exports, but as Poisson says, the situation is unpredictable.
"There's a lot of uncertainty ... it just kind of feels like whiplash to be in it. It's like chaos all the time."
Trump claims the tariffs are needed to counter illegal immigrants and fentanyl from pouring across the border.
The facts don't stand that argument up. Less than one percent of US fentanyl imports come from Canada, and only 1.5 percent of border patrol interactions with migrants take place on the Canadian border.
However, by using those "security" issues as a reason, Trump can get around the terms of a trade agreement that he himself signed with Canada in his last term of office.
Trudeau, whose fire has possibly been helped by knowing he only has days to go in office, says the fentanyl excuse is "completely bogus; completely unjustified; completely false".
Poisson says the small amount of fentanyl coming in is "not nothing", but the government in the last several weeks has taken measures including appointing a "Fentanyl Czar", getting more boots on the ground at the border and choppers in the air, and getting the police to work on related projects.
"So we've really done a bunch to try and address this concern. Fentanyl is a huge issue in this country as well, but it is really unclear to Canadians here what this is really all about, because the President will talk about fentanyl, and then he'll talk about what he calls 'an unfair trade deficit'. Yesterday he was complaining that American banks don't have enough access to the Canadian market. He has then also talked often about annexing our country and making us the 51st state.
"So what is this really about? What is it that they ultimately want from us, I think is the big question."
The 51st state suggestion is one that has united Canadian politicians in opposition.
The fightback has also given Trudeau's Liberal Party a major boost. At the beginning of January, the Liberals were down at the polls by 30 points, but the gap has now vanished, and some surveys even have them ahead. That could be partly because the leader of the Conservative opposition, Pierre Poilievre, has been compared to Trump, talking recently about cutting foreign aid, calling people names and lashing out at the media.
Meanwhile Poisson says in the long run this tariff move could help Canada diversify its trading partners, but with 77 percent of its exports currently heading to the US, the short-term pain will be immense, with economists predicting it could shave four percent off the country's GDP.
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