By Cheryl Jahn

Tariffs damaging

Mar 4, 2025 | 3:24 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – It was an on-again, off-again threat from U.S. President Donald Trump. But now it is a reality. Hefty tariffs have been imposed on all things Canadian crossing the line.

“Donald Trump believes that a negotiating style that has worked effectively for him in developing real estate deals is to be very aggressive, negotiate from a position of strength, and then push forward his agenda,” says Charles Scott with UNBC’s School of Business. “And he will deliberately take extraordinary statements, crazy steps, if you will, as a way to shake his opponent into being more receptive.”

An Angus Reid poll released today, there has been a six- to eight-point increase in support for three policy responses to the tariffs, including 66 per cent support of a blanket 25-per cent tariff on the U.S. goods, 70 per cent in favour of targeted tariffs on key U.S. imports, and 65 per cent support for a ban on critical Canadian exports to the U.S.

“We do have this reputation for being nice and pleasant and cordial in our relations with our allies,” says UNBC Political Analyst Gary Wilson. “But when an ally turns on you in this way, I think there’s kind of a bit of a visceral hatred for that person or that government. In this case, it’s the United States.”

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But the markets took another beating this morning. Shares of Target and Best Buy fell after the retailers warned of higher prices for consumers due to tariffs. The S&P 500 dropped 1.7 per cent, the Nasdaq fell 1.5 per cent and the Dow slid 722 points, or 1.7 per cent.

“How long can Donald Trump and the Stock Exchange in New York take it? Because that seems to be one thing that he is very sensitive to,” says Chris Beach, Political Science Instructor at CNC. “Maybe if these tariffs and a prolonged trade war between Canada and America wreak havoc on the markets and the stock exchange, Donald Trump may not have the stomach for it.”

So if the trade war began to look like a bad idea to the US President, could he back off? Even though it was an Executive Order he signed?

“I think at this point he can if he chooses to do so. He may not choose to do so and just push on through. I think there’s both a short-term and a long-term goal here. The short term, obviously, is to inflict as much pain as he can on these other countries, countries like Canada,” says Wilson. “But the long-term goal, I think, is to encourage businesses to relocate to the U.S. and bring jobs back to the U.S. And that’s the more dangerous goal, I think, for Canada.”

But with that in mind, Wilson says there may be some good to come of this.

“It will certainly change trade [practices], the way that we think about security and the military and our own defence. We can no longer rely, I don’t think, on certainly on this administration.”

Canada is immediately imposing 25 per cent retaliatory tariffs on 30 billion dollars worth of American products and will expand that to cover another 125 billion dollars in US goods in 21 days.