Preston Manning: Canadians deserve better than a tariff ‘war’

Responding to the Trump tariffs with dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs is the most predictable and unimaginative course of action that Canada’s federal government could possibly pursue. Canadians deserve better — much better.

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Economists have long maintained that nobody wins tariff wars and that they invariably result in higher prices. Thus, it is consumers, on both sides of the border, who will be the ultimate victims of any Canada-US tariff war — “war” being the term chosen by our prime minister as his government once again mobilizes fear to secure Canadian support for his government’s actions.

So, what are some positive, less predictable, and more imaginative alternatives?

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How about expanding Canada’s negotiating and advisory team to include some wiser and more experienced heads offering fresh perspectives?

How about pursuing a strategy that incorporates appeals to Trump’s political base to secure amelioration of his tariff policies?

And how about calling for a ten-week truce in the tariff war to give consumer interests and commons sense a chance to bring their influence to bear?

You scoff? You’ve swallowed the elbows up mantra? So, allow me to elaborate.

A better negotiating and advisory team should include a few key executives from the resource sectors that have leverage with Trump; characters experienced with the bluff and bluster of dealmakers like Trump; and a few political advisors who understand populism — maybe people like Premiers Scott Moe and Danielle Smith — for advice on how to get to a populist leader via his followers.

These additions will not likely be bilingual nor have the dress and mannerisms of a central banker. But they will add perspectives and influence largely absent from Carney’s present circle.

A better strategy would be one that focuses on appealing to U.S. consumers — whose cost of living is not declining as Trump promised — rallying them to demand a modification of Trump’s tariff policies. This could include Canadian spokespersons and persuaders going to Main Street, USA and the talk shows and podcasters who speak directly to Trump’s followers — appealing to them to demand a relaxation of Trump’s tariff policy toward Canada.

This strategy would more vigorously seek to amplify the advice and support of Canadian allies in Congress — like Senator Susan Collins from Maine (a U.S. state bordering New Brunswick and Quebec) who has repeatedly called the tariffs on Canada a “mistake.”

It would especially involve encouraging U.S. consumers and voters to urge Trump to “do a McKinley” — the 25th U.S. president whom Trump professes to admire. While a strong advocate of tariffs, McKinley also quietly negotiated “reciprocity agreements” with U.S. trading partners that took much of the economic sting out of them.

And why try for a ten-week truce? Trump’s behaviour, as illustrated by his on-again-off-again offensive against Iran, often includes “pauses” which would be helpful to both sides in this dispute. Why ten weeks? Because that would take us to the November 3rd midterm elections in the U.S. when consumers and voters, unhappy with their increased cost of living, will have a chance to express their unhappiness with the tariff wars and to put pressure on the president to change course on tariffs before a less friendly Congress forces him to do so.

Finally, Canadians should find relief from the frenetic reports emanating from the tariff-war front by taking a longer and more encouraging view of Canada-U.S. relations. Five to 10 years from now, both Trump and Carney will be gone. Their attempts to force artificial conceptions of Canadian identity — from Canada as a 51st state to Canada as a quasi-European post-national state — will be mere footnotes in some political science journal.

The massive and relentless forces of geography and history which have shaped the North American continent and relations between Canada and the U.S. from the very beginning will reassert themselves. And the coming generation of Canadians and Americans will take up the task of building an economically and physically secure North America through co-operation and mutual respect of each other’s interests, rather than endangering that security through tariff threats and declarations of “war.”

National Post

Preston Manning is a former leader of the Opposition.

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