On February 1st 2025, President Trump ratified an Executive Order that pledged to impose a tariff of 25% on all goods from Canada and a 10% tariff on Canadian energy.
Immediately, countless Canadian politicians and pundits started to attack Trump and propose various modes of economic retaliation to combat his tariffs.
Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario, declared that Canada must “…match [Trump’s] tariffs dollar-for-dollar, tariff-for-tariff, and make sure that it hurts the Americans as much as it hurts Canadians.” Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, himself threatened to impose a retaliatory tariff of 25% on a plethora of American goods and firmly reiterated his own intent to match Trump’s tariffs “…dollar-for-dollar.”
Thankfully, after various tense negotiations and two urgent phone calls with Prime Minister Trudeau, President Trump agreed to delay imposing any tariffs on Canada for 30 days, and all of North America collectively exhaled.
Unfortunately, the tariffs that President Trump has pledged to impose upon Canada are not the result of some economic disagreement or an imbalance in the market.
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Rather, they are the economic symptom of a far greater disease.
For over a decade, Prime Minister Trudeau and his Liberal government have remained steadfastly unable to secure the Canadian state, and, as a result, Canada has become a national security risk to its closest ally and the world’s most powerful nation: the United States of America.
More importantly, until Canada remedies its own dire national security issues and makes itself a more dependable neighbor and ally to the United States, President Trump’s tariffs will inevitably endure, regardless of any economic remonstrations or reprisals.
Over the past ten years, the Trudeau government has failed to safeguard public safety and effectively combat crime in Canada.
For instance, all species of crime have skyrocketed in Canada since the advent of the Trudeau government. Violent crime has surged by 39%, homicides have hit a 30-year peak, and “Canada’s Violent Crime Severity Index is at its highest point since 2007…” Furthermore, throughout its 2024 Report on the Criminal Justice System, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute repeatedly criticizes the dilapidated condition of Canada’s criminal justice system and actually concludes that Canada’s criminal justice system appears to have “…given up on its core responsibilities.”
Moreover, throughout the Trudeau era, Canada has started to display one of the hallmarks of a failing state and has rapidly become unable to secure its own respective borders, as a result of the Trudeau government’s severely inadequate migration policy and summary inability to effectively regulate the flux of international migration into Canada.
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For example, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) itself has confirmed that the Trudeau government’s inadequately restrictive migration policy and contingent inability to secure Canada’s borders have permitted countless Islamic radicals and extremists to migrate within Canada. In fact, countless terrorist leaders and people with intimate connections to terrorist organizations, such as Samidoun and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), have actually been permitted to migrate within the Canadian state during Trudeau’s time in office.
More importantly, due to the fact that Canada’s borders have become entirely permeable and porous, all of the crime that has become so endemic throughout Canada over the past decade has summarily started to penetrate within the U.S. and spill over into American society.
The Trudeau government’s shameful inability to maintain public safety and effectively combat crime in Canada has permitted various criminal organizations to transform the Canadian state into a global hub for the export of countless illegal narcotics and substances, such fentanyl. For instance, since 2022 alone, domestic fentanyl production has skyrocketed in Canada by more than 300% and police in Canada recently “…seized enough chemicals to produce 96 million doses of fentanyl” after a successful raid on the largest fentanyl lab yet discovered in Canada.
Unfortunately, it is clear that the slew of Canadian political pundits and politicians who have reflexively condemned President Trump’s tariffs and proposed that Canada must retaliate with economic penalties of its own are entirely misguided.
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The tariffs that President Trump has imposed upon Canada are not the result of some economic disagreement or an imbalance in the market. Rather, for over a decade, Prime Minister Trudeau and his Liberal government have remained steadfastly unable to secure the Canadian state, and as a result, Canada has become a national security risk and burden to the U.S.
Therefore, although Justin Trudeau was able to successfully plead with Trump and delay the incoming tariffs by 30 days, until the Trudeau government has successfully secured the Canadian state, President Trump’s tariffs will unquestionably endure and Canada’s economy, as well as its historic relationship with the U.S., will inevitably suffer.
William Barclay is a political theorist and private consultant, as well as a Contributor for Young Voices. William’s work has been published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Palgrave-Macmillan, The Hill Times, and the Journal of Liberty and International Affairs, among others. Follow him on Twitter/X @WillBarclayBBC.
