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The Trump and Zelenskyy Row has Canada on Edge
As if it couldn’t get any worse
The intense exchange between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy made for great, reality TV. JD Vance added to the brawl and to my mind instigated the whole brouhaha. The leader of the free world and his deputy ganged up on a world leader whose country is embroiled in a war with a tyrant.
The Trump administration has the world scrambling. For Canada, the scrambling began before Trump took office. For decades, America’s northern border has been free of ridicule and inspection. The US focussed on it’s southern border, with all the illegal immigration and fentanyl nightmare.
Trump decided that Canada was not immune to attack. He cited lack of military spending, a porous border, fentanyl access, and unequal trade. While Trumps rants are demonstrably exaggerated at best and false at worst, that’s irrelevant. He said them, and whether he believes them or not, the receiver, Canada, believes he may act.
Trump has said that he plans on imposing tariffs on Canadian imports to the States. Numbers bandied about are 10%-25%. Before Trump took office, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paid him a visit in Mara Lago to make a case that tariffs would hurt both countries. He specifically stated that Canada’s economy…
