The first meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not end the way the latter may have wanted it to.
The threat by Donald Trump to impose heavy tariffs on Canada has clearly shaken Trudeau, and he felt it would be apt to call on the President-elect at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
During the meeting that was held on November 29, Trudeau spoke about the proposed tariffs that Trump threatened to impose on Canada. Trump said that he would increase tariffs to 25 per cent on all imports from Canada.
Trudeau told Trump that this decision should be re-considered, and if it were to go through, then it had the potential to kill the Canadian economy.
Trump instead joked with Trudeau that if Canada cannot survive without fleecing the United States to the tune of $100 billion every year, then maybe it would be best for Canada to become the 51st state of the United States. He also suggested that if this happened, then Trudeau could be the governor of that state.
Trump will pile on to Trudeau’s miseries
Justin Trudeau, who is facing his worst ratings back home, had hoped that Donald Trump would not win the elections. However, Trump won with a huge mandate and now has control over the presidency, the House and the Senate.
During his campaign, Trump had repeatedly attacked Trudeau. He had spoken about how Canada was ripping off the United States, and if elected, he would make the country pay for it.
With Trump in the hot seat now, Canada would have to brace up for trade disputes and this would send the country reeling into a recession. This would be bad news for Trudeau, who is facing a tough time at home. His ratings are at the lowest, and his winning chances are as thin as ice in the elections to be held next year. Moreover, he is already running a minority government and is at the mercy of Jagmeet Singh, a pro-Khalistan politician. The trade war would make his chances of winning even more slim.
Canada would be the worst hit by Trump’s tariffs as 75 per cent of the country’s exports go to the United States. For Trudeau to save his face ahead of a tough election against his Conservative opponent, he would need to ensure that his country is not slapped with tariffs as Trump has proposed.
Adding to Canada’s misery is the economic slowdown. The situation has become worse as Trudeau has miscalculated relations with both Bharat and China.
During the campaign, a line that one heard the most from Trump was ‘drill baby drill.’ This means that he is very serious on boosting energy production in the US. If the tariffs go through, it would be very bad news for Canada as it is the 4th largest producer of crude oil.
What is in store for Canada’s economy
If the planned tariffs go through, then labour productivity would fall by nearly 1 per cent. If other countries also plan on following suit, then this would set off a trade war, and the real income would drop by 1.5 per cent annually.
Trump, in his previous term, had to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and the trilateral deal with Canada and Mexico. He had said that trading partners were taking advantage of his country. At the end of it, both Canada and the US imposed sanctions on each others’ products. This led to the US-Mexico-Canada deal.
In October of this year, Trump said that in 2026, he would use an existing clause in the deal to start renegotiating the treaty. I will have a lot of fun doing this, he said. Trump also said that Canada would have to spend more on defence.
All this would eventually erode investor confidence, and many of them would fear putting their money in that country.
Trump not a fan of Trudeau
Trudeau’s rushed visit to Mar-a-Lago was a sign of extreme desperation as he was well aware of what awaited him in the days ahead. He has already cut a sorry figure with many countries in the world, especially Bharat, after he made reckless allegations about New Delhi being behind the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistan terrorist.
In 2018, when Donald Trump was president, he walked out of the G-7 Summit in Quebec. Outside the Summit, he made no qualms about what he thought about Trudeau. He told media persons that Trudeau was weak and dishonest.
In 2022, Trudeau insisted that all truck drivers crossing the border should be vaccinated against COVID-19. This invited Trump’s ire, and he went on to call Trudeau a far-left lunatic.
For Trudeau, the worries are not only because of Trump. Elon Musk, who holds a very important place in Trump’s scheme of things too, is not a fan of Trudeau. Recently, he had predicted Trudeau’s downfall when the elections were held in October in Canada. He will be gone in the upcoming elections, Musk had said on X in reply to a user seeking his help to get rid of Trudeau.
Musk had in 2022 compared Trudeau to Adolf Hitler when the latter had invoked emergency powers to arm his government with more power to respond to the truckers protesting the vaccine mandates at that time.
Trudeau’s government had, in 2023, made it mandatory for online streaming services to formally register with the government for regulatory controls. Musk termed this shameful and said that Trudeau was trying to crush free speech in Canada.
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