OPINION: Farmers have more than Trump to worry about

There is a lot of talk about tariffs and our Canadian politicians are blaming President Trump for everything.

There is much to worry about but we’re not pointing our fingers in enough places. Canadians should be as concerned about their own governments.

Trump laid out his concerns. He said that Canada does not pay its fair share of NATO expenses while benefitting from U.S. protection by air and sea. Also, the U.S. blames Canada for allowing drug cartels to operate within our borders and make fentanyl, which is then shipped to the U.S. (fentanyl kills more than 70,000 Americans each year). In Canada, more Canadians were killed by fentanyl than there were killed in the Second World War (45,000).

If Canada doesn’t make an effort to stop the manufacturing of illegal drugs then we will have to blame our government for tariffs. Recall that it took Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to persuade our do-nothing prime minister to appoint a drug czar to secure our border as Trump.

But there might be other reasons for tariffs as Fraser Institute senior research fellow Jock Finlayson noted that only a small amount of fentanyl comes from Canada. In a recent column, Finlayson outlined three other reasons:

1. President Trump could see tariffs as a way to raise money for cash-starved U.S. treasury;

2. He might see tariffs as a way to move industrial production and capital back to the U.S. to rebuild American manufacturing;

3. He might see tariffs as a way to encourage Canada to de-couple from the Communist-run China and slow the rise of a global Chinese threat.

In any event, Canada has an uncooperative leadership to deal with this. Polls show that Prime Minister Trudeau is the most disliked man in Canada and for good reason. Everything he touches turns to disappointment and resentment. It’s so bad that late last year Conservative MP Lianne Rood (Lambton-Kent-Middlesex) stood up in the House of Commons and took more than four minutes to list 68 Liberal scandals under Trudeau. Trudeau is not standing up for the little guy by throwing tariffs right back at American goods that Canadians buy, meaning Canadians pay the tax.

Speaking of tax, there’s the hated federal carbon tax to consider. That tax is a bigger burden than tariffs as every Canadian pays. It also makes Canada uncompetitive with the U.S. in farming and much of everything else. Oddly, while all eyes are on the tariffs there is little action on trade barriers between provinces.

So, who are we kidding by coming out swinging? We look courageous on the first punch but Canadians are going to get tired pretty quickly from the tariff bruising. What happened to diplomacy?

As for Liberal prime minister-to-be Mark Carney, a student of the World Economic Forum, he sounds much like a man who wants to finish the job of destroying our country. Will he end the hated carbon tax? No, he will replace it — the old bait and switch. Sure, he says he’s running away from the carbon tax and that’s because it’s an election loser. He’s got a replacement tax he says we’re going to love. This is the guy who said the carbon tax was the right thing to do but is too low. So, he plans to wrap it up and introduce it as something else.

Will Carney negotiate with the U.S. to end tariffs? Can he even be trusted? Carney says he’s going to start a fight with everyone including Canadians who get in his way. He will use emergency powers, which was the War Measures Act (now called the Emergencies Act) because apparently we are living through a national security crisis and he needs to sledgehammer his plans into existence.

Said Carney in Kelowna, B.C. on Feb. 12: “(Something) my government is going to do is use all of the powers of the federal government, including the emergency powers of the federal government, to accelerate the major projects that we need in order to build this economy and take on the Americans.”

He says he is going to use it, not think about using it. We need our military at the border to defend it from what? American truckers? Will he lock Canadians down to protect us from global warming? Or will he use emergency powers to suspend an election he knows he can’t win? This man is a global warming fearmongerer who would be a menace to the country.

If Canada wants to avoid the most pain, our leaders must recognize that the United States has the upper hand. But where is the diplomatic finesse? Carney is about to grab power. Global warming, not tariffs, is his main concern. There is so much to feel uneasy about.

Patrick Meagher is editor of Farmers Forum and can be reached at editor@farmersforum.com