Melissa Chen
One of the most toxic fallouts from the Trump years is this reflexive need a lot of people have to automatically side with anyone going up against him. Mark Carney is banking on that and exploiting it hard. He knows the press will paint Trump as the irresponsible, blustery provocateur in the collapsing Canada-US trade talks, so by going all-out against Trump he scores easy political points. The truth of the matter is that the playing field has been uneven and unfair between Canada and the US for decades. Canada imposes lofty tariffs - sometimes nearly 300% - on American cheese and milk once a tiny quota is filled, and they even give the Europeans better access than they give the Americans. Provinces yanked American wine and spirits off the shelves in government liquor stores. They hit US cars with extra tariffs and quotas. Softwood lumber has been a long-running game too. But the biggest problem is the Chinese back-door scam: steel, auto parts, and EVs from China get lightly processed or just relabeled in Canada, then shipped into America under USMCA rules so they dodge the tariffs Trump put on Beijing. That lets China keep flooding the North American market, undercutting American (and Canadian) workers, and basically laundering its way around the sanctions and trade barriers meant to stop its cheating. The Trump admin wants to end the free ride and make Canada shut down the transshipment loophole that China is exploiting. Carney walking away from a near-done deal and playing the victim just keeps Canada in bed with Beijing while American (and Canadian) workers pay the price. And he’s hoping you don’t look beyond the headlines and find out the truth