Recall Parliament and debate Canada’s response to the U.S. tariffs
This is an opinion column. Canadians deserve accountability at this critical moment.
Recall Parliament. Canadians are facing a threat to our standard of living in a way that the country has not seen in almost one hundred years. This is not the time for Canada’s Parliament to be prorogued.
Justin Trudeau and his Liberal backroom operatives are governing without a mandate. Trudeau and his wallflower cabinet ministers are charting a course for the country without debating the merits of alternative approaches – and, more disturbingly, without engaging Canadians and sharing much of their behind-closed doors deliberations (assuming there are substantive deliberations taking place). This is the Liberal operatives dictating policy as they see fit, without due process, much like they did through the COVID pandemic when Trudeau would emerge daily from Rideau Cottage to pronounce the government’s next initiative.
Consider that through January the Trudeau Liberals have been deliberately agitating President Donald Trump and the new American administration. Instead of working with U.S. officials to arrive at acceptable solutions for the countries’ border disputes, the Liberals have been in media insulting Americans and trumpeting that Canada is prepared to immediately pounce with retaliatory tariffs. They have intentionally provoked the tariff and trade crisis. They have also picked a fight with the province of Alberta indicating they are ready to sacrifice the oil and gas sector in a trade war (a move that would gut both the province’s and country’s economy). According to plan, Trudeau is purposely steering Canada into the crash, trusting that the impact will provide an opportunity for the Liberals to maintain their grip on power in a divided Canada.
The Liberals fueled the tariff and trade tensions for their own partisan gain.
And while the orchestrated Liberal leadership race is generating a distraction, Trudeau and his unelected backroom, along with his hand-picked “Council on Canada-U.S. Relations”, are forging ahead to cripple the country’s economy and to mortgage Canadians’ future in responding to the Americans’ trade and tariff war. If initial CBC reports are accurate from “an anonymous spokesperson not authorized to speak for the government” in the weeks ahead the Liberals will be executing a huge relief plan that will print money and dole out billions of dollars the government does not have, effectively furthering indebting Canadians for generations.
But, Canadians need to ask by what authority are the Trudeau Liberals plotting the country’s course of action? With Canada’s present political and economic predicament, how is it that the Trudeau Liberals are advancing their agenda without being accountable to Canadians?
Today Canadians are being governed by unelected and unelectable people.
Our current political situation is reflective of a mutated and dying democratic nation. Or perhaps it is a sign that Canadians are apathetically comfortable with the Liberals autocratic management of the nation as it navigates this watershed moment. It could be the case that, as the end result of Trudeau’s Lost Decade, the country’s parliamentary democracy has been undermined to the point that Canadians no longer recognize the essence and significance of responsible government.
So, permit me to state that the essence of responsible government is a functioning Parliament with timely, earnest debate. The significance of a Parliament is to provide accountability between those who govern and those who are governed.
If Canada is still a democratic nation it is essential that the Canadian parliamentarians – those elected by the people – debate our options, decide our direction, and be accountable to the Canadian citizens for the results of the decisions made.
There is no authority or accountability with a prime minister who does not hold the confidence of parliament or his caucus, and has indicated he is resigning and will not face the public in the impending election.
There is also no authority or accountability in the rats nest of unidentifiable backroom political operatives in the prime minister’s office, or with the partisan allies assembled on the Council on Canada U.S. Relations, including former NDP and Liberal premiers.
Fast forwarding to mid-March, I hasten to add that there is no authority or accountability in an anointed globalist like Mark Carney, who will enjoy dictatorial power with no checks and balances. The Liberal caucus is a hollow eunuch and the House of Commons has become a circus tent with barking trained seals, led by the pensioned-off and unprincipled Jagmeet Singh.
Although Liberals may be dead men walking, they continue to bewitch Canadians. The Liberals have been systematically deconstructing the nation and today Trudeau-Freeland-Carney-and-the-whole-lot-of-them are hollowing out what is left of the country after their “Lost Decade” in Ottawa.
A tariff war with the country’s leading trading partner is the Liberals’ last act of sabotage before they turn out the lights on Canadians.
Still, if only we had a means to have a national debate on what the government’s response should be, there are alternatives. National organizations, policy thinktanks, and industry experts have all provided helpful suggestions to consider when acting on the Americans’ concerns for border security and the flow of illegal drugs and criminal immigrants.
For the most part, legacy media has (again) not done its job in providing Canadians with facts and expert analysis. CBC and mainstream media cannot get beyond reporting on the Liberals’ diversionary sideshows, or regurgitating government talking points. Again, there are alternatives to the Liberals’ confrontational approach:
Our strategy for dealing with the Trump tariffs needs to be negotiation ~ Jack Mintz of
Canada Can’t Afford to Play Trade Chicken With the US ~ Marco Navarro-Genie of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
Trump, taunts and trade – Canada’s response is a decade out of date ~ Ross McKitrick of University of Guelph
Canada’s Debt is Too High to Handle the Next Economic Crisis ~ CD Howe Institute
Premier Smith is right that restricting oil exports is a bad idea. Here’s a better option ~ Trevor Tombe of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary
Want to remain strong and free, Canada? Six steps to becoming an energy and resource superpower ~ Heather Exner-Pirot of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute
Our energy policies have made us more vulnerable to Trump’s tariffs ~ Elmira Aliakbari of the Fraser Institute
There is a lot of truth that can be found in a National Post column Tariffs should get us thinking differently, but Ottawa lacks the mental capacity by John Ivison, who writes: “This government’s instinctive reactions have helped to get us into this mess — and are unlikely to get us out of it.” Ivison provides the arguments of Joseph Steinberg, an U of T associate professor of economics, who has calculated that should Canada retaliate with tariffs “dollar-for-dollar”, this “would hurt the Canadian economy five times more than it would hit the Americans. The inconvenient truth is that we are more vulnerable to trade disruptions.”
Perhaps legacy media would have highlighted Alberta’s alternative tact if it had not been subsidized by the Liberals to vilify Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Alberta’s suggested approach is decidedly different and it is only now getting some recognition for its reasonableness, as we brace for the inevitable impact. Ten days ago, the premier was in Washington D.C. reporting back to her premier colleagues and advising them not to be confrontational with talk of retaliatory actions. Her counsel was to enter into open discussions with American elected representatives and trade officials and probe what is possible to mitigate the disputes.
Alberta presented a six point plan. It was designed to “preserve and strengthen our economic and security partnership with the United States, and to avoid the future imposition of tariffs”.
Focus on diplomacy and refrain from further talk of retaliatory measures, including export tariffs or cutting off energy to the U.S.
Negotiate ways to increase what Canadians and Americans buy from one another. Finding ways to increase trade in both directions is critical to achieving a win-win for both countries.
Double down on border security… deploy the necessary resources to secure our shared border from illegal drugs and migration.
Announce a major acceleration of Canada’s 2 per cent of GDP NATO target.
Crack down on immigration streams and loopholes that are known to permit individuals hostile to Canada and the United States to enter our country.
Immediately repeal all federal anti-energy policies (production cap, Clean Electricity Regulations, Impact Assessment Act [Bill C-69]) and fast track Northern Gateway and Energy East projects pre-approvals.
These negotiation suggestions went unanswered by the Trudeau Liberals, ignored by “Team Canada” operating out of the prime minister’s office in Ottawa.
Someone else who has been wholly ignored by the Liberals is Pierre Poilievre – given there is no Parliament, there is no necessity to answer to the Leader of the Conservatives. For weeks, the Conservatives have been calling for the government or the Governor General to recall Parliament so that Canadians can have the benefit of a national debate on the country’s path forward.
Poilievre has taken to news interviews and social media to get his alternative approach to the U.S. tariff threats into the public. The Conservatives are offering solid suggestions and Poilievre outlines the approach in a CTV Atlantic News interview from this past weekend.
“President Trump is a deal maker. He wants to win. But we are both going to lose as Americans and Canadians if we get into a trade war. I would say how do we position the decision for him so that he understands that Americans can only win if he allows open, unbridled free trade with Canada.
So, I would retaliate and I would target products and services that a) we don’t need, b) we can make ourselves, and c) that we can buy elsewhere, so we maximize the impact on Americans while minimizing the impact on Canadians.
Second, I would pass immediately an emergency “Bring It Home” tax cut on work, investment, making stuff in Canada, energy and home building, so that we can stimulate more economic growth.
Three, we need to become more self-sufficient. That means knocking down barriers, more interprovincial free trade. We have freer trade with Americans today than we do with ourselves. We have to knock down those barriers – build pipelines, LNG liquefaction facilities so that we can export our stuff to the world without having to go through the Americans. If they are going to be an unreliable trade partner, we have to find ways of selling more to ourselves and more to the rest of the world.”
When asked whether he sees the trade action being a dollar-for-dollar retaliation, Poilievre stated, “Yes, I would say so. It has to hit hard. We have to be very pinpoint and surgical to make sure we are maximizing impact on the American side while minimizing impact on our side.”
The full interview – which also touches on resource development, transfer payments, and carbon taxes – can be seen here. In viewing this news clip, Canadians will readily realize the importance of a parliamentary debate where opposing views can be aired and debated.
In the best interests of Canadians, Liberals need to put a stop to their political games and bring Canada’s elected representatives back to Ottawa to debate how the country needs to respond to the American tariffs and forthcoming trade negotiations.
For example, yesterday American Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick made a public statement directed at Canada, “Shut your border and end fentanyl coming into this country. If they execute this there will be NO TARIFF.”
Yet, in Ottawa, there’s been silence. It is as if the Liberals are not interested in coming to terms with the Americans.
Last evening on X, Premier Smith posted a public appeal of Trudeau and the Liberals, “Federal Government needs to appoint a credible Border Czar to work directly with the U.S. Administration on securing our shared border from Fentanyl dealers and illegal migrants,, and we need it announced before February 1 this Saturday.” Smith continues, “Not only is this the right thing to do to protect Canadians, it’s the single most important thing we can do to avoid the imposition of tariffs on Feb. 1. Let’s get this done now.”
Why is it that a senior member of the new U.S. Administration felt he needed to make a public statement on the tariff issue between the countries? And why is it that a premier was the only public reply? Why the silence from “Team Canada”? Is it not absurd to think Canadians are within 72 hours of having significant tariffs on the country’s goods and the Liberals have not provided an adequate response to the initial requests about border security – and now are MIA?
In the best interest of Canadians and our country, Parliament must be recalled. Let’s have a thorough discussion about the available options, a debate on the government actions, and some accountability to Canadians.
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