J. Richard Wright
Special to The Lake Report
Tariffs are the last thing Canada should be considering in response to Donald Trump’s deliberate and schizophrenic harpooning of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement talks in Washington. Consider how the U.S. exempted materials they need such as potash, energy and critical minerals from their tariff schedules.
It is time for Canada to have the courage to take control of the Mad King’s prerogatives by simply — without drama — increasing the price on all these resources the U.S. obviously wants and needs.
After all, immediate price increases are the easiest and quickest way to send a message south. If gas prices can go up and down at the drop of a hat, surely a pot of potash or a wheel barrel of lithium can be similarly revalued.
How to get around contracted prices, you ask? Contracts, trade agreements, established business norms seem to matter little to the Trump organization, so why should Canada not develop new export costs it must pass on to its customers in the U.S.? Sorry America.
Follow this by the imposition of an export tax on the price of electricity, aluminum and any other Canadian product the U.S. deems necessary for its well-being.
For instance, since Canada is the largest exporter of aluminum to the U.S., failure to buy from Canada means it won’t be long before automotive, aircraft and weapons manufacturing plants (among many others) either pay up or have to close down.
For those that would argue the U.S. would buy their aluminum somewhere else? It’s really not that simple to replace 2.8 million tons of aluminum imports via South America, Europe or Asia, when other countries already have customers for their products.
And, it is reported that to support the amount of aluminum the U.S. needs, it would require them to built the equivalent of five Hoover dams to produce enough electric power to run their new smelters. Not to mention efficient shipping means and corridors already in place, and the realities of just-in-time supply and inventory.
Interruptions in manufacturing lines are not only costly but also destabilizing. And manufacturers who do not deliver on time to their customers are often subject to financial penalties.
In fact, these interruptions may be so severe that some CEOs might be so inclined to call the White House and demand to know what they are smoking in there, because it’s obviously not smoke from our Canadian wildfires.
Meanwhile, Canadian manufacturers and retailers are not financially penalized nor restricted in any way by self-imposed tariffs.
If Canadians think back to Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s brief flirtation with courage at the beginning of this tariff war in March 2025, his surcharge of 25 per cent on electricity exported to US states Michigan, New York and Minnesota quickly got the attention of U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Ford was immediately summoned to Washington, D.C. where, sadly, (if predictably) he lost his nerve, collapsed and reversed the surcharge expeditiously.
We have seen the lack of courage in the U.S. Congress and Senate to control the administration so many times it hurts. So, it falls to Canada to check Trump’s bizarre behaviour towards what used to be their closest friend and ally.
After all, as we have seen demonstrated, time and again under Donald Trump, the U.S. likes to dish it out, but is reluctant to accept financial pain itself.
And once Trump gets back on his meds, perhaps we can all sit down and enjoy a cup of tea by Lake Canada.
J. Richard Wright is a local TV and radio drama writer and novelist with three novels — The Plan, Torngat and Final Approach Menihek — available for sale on Amazon or for loan at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Public Library.
