The Conservative leader said he would also double the size of the Canadian Rangers and acquire more polar icebreakers
OTTAWA — The deal that was supposed to delay a Canada-U.S. trade war appeared to be cracking on Monday, as officials watched to see whether President Donald Trump would be making good on his threat of imposing 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
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While aboard Air Force One on his way to Sunday’s Super Bowl, Trump announced he would be unveiling the trade levies Monday and they would include steel and aluminum imports coming from Canada and Mexico.
The president was set to begin signing executive orders at 5:30 p.m. ET, according to a report by Fox News.
Trump’s timing was a situation Canadian officials had hoped to avoid.
Exactly one week ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reached an agreement with Trump to delay the U.S’s imposition of 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian imports, except 10 per cent on energy resources, until early March. Businesses, premiers and anxious Canadians reacted with relief.
Trump and Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum, came to a similar agreement.
Speaking in Windsor, Ont., NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh likened the situation to riding a “roller-coaster.”
“He says there’s a 30 day pause, and now he’s announced more tariffs,” he said.
Canada is one of the U.S.’s biggest sources for both steel and aluminum, with Ontario being the biggest steel producer. Quebec is the country’s largest aluminum producer.
Industry leaders had flashbacks to 2018 when Trump imposed 25 per cent tariffs on imports of Canadian steel and 10 per cent for aluminum products, which he brought in as Canada, the U.S. and Mexico were locked in negotiations for a revised free trade agreement.
“The reality of crippling tariffs on steel and aluminum is a devastating blow,” said Sean Strickland, executive director of Canada’s Building Trades Unions, representing some 600,000 workers.
“These tariffs aren’t just harming our industries — they’re undermining our workers’ livelihoods and directly threatening Canadian jobs.”
The Canadian Steel Producers Association called Trump’s threat “deeply concerning,” saying the 2018 tariffs “saw massive disruptions and harm on both sides of the border.”
“While the target of Canadian steel and aluminum is completely baseless and unwarranted, we must retaliate immediately,” its CEO, Catherine Cobden, said in a statement.
“We are urgently demanding that the Government of Canada act again with resolve and purpose to combat this threat and ensure any measure taken against our sector is met with retaliatory measures and action to offset the devastating impacts tariffs would have on our sector and our workers.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in Paris attending an event on artificial intelligence, but has said that should the U.S. make good on its threat of imposing tariffs, as Trump has threatened to do on all Canadian imports, the federal government would retaliate.
In the wake of Trump’s plan to impose 25 per cent universal tariffs, Trudeau announced Canada would slap tariffs on $155-billion of U.S. goods. That plan was shelved after the leaders reached their deal.
Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called on the Liberals to match the U.S.’s steel and aluminum tariffs, saying all revenue should be sent to the affected industries.
Any surplus from tariff revenues should be used to finance a tax break for Canadians, Poilievre said.
On Monday, Poilievre announced plans to build a new permanent Arctic military base in Iqaluit to be called CFB Iqaluit should he become the country’s next prime minister, as a way to assert Canada’s Arctic sovereignty amid growing threats from Russia and China.
“We cannot count on the Americans to do it for us anymore,” he said during a press conference in the territorial capital.
Besides trade, Trump and his officials have long complained about Canada and European countries being laggards when it comes to their defence spending.
Poilievre promised on Monday that a future government of his would build the new military base within two years, which he vowed would be financed by “dramatically cutting foreign aid,” and he would also provide four new icebreakers, two for the Canadian Coast Guard and two for the Navy.
A Conservative government would also double the size of the Canadian Rangers, he said.
Poilievre in recent weeks has shifted his message to talking about more Canadian border security and tariffs from speaking over the past two years mainly about the cost of living and scrapping the consumer carbon tax.
He also took aim at Trump’s repeated comments about Canada becoming the U.S.’s “51st state,” which the president reiterated over the weekend.
“Canada will never be the 51st state. We are proud sovereign and independent country.”
Singh told reporters in Windsor, Ont., he agrees Canada should reinforce its military presence in the Arctic, saying NDP MP Lori Idlout, the lone member for Nunavut, has raised before. He also promised that should his party form government, it would build a new Canada Border Services Agency training centre to not only create more jobs, but stop guns from entering Canada from the U.S.
Trump has said his tariffs against Canada and Mexico were tied to ongoing concerns about the flow of migrants and fentanyl into the U.S. Despite announcing several new measures, including a six-year $1.3 billion plan to boost border security and appoint Canada’s first fentanyl czar, Canada officials say less than one per cent of the migrants and fentanyl entering the U.S. comes by Canada.
Singh said Monday that when it comes to the incoming threat of steel and aluminum tariffs, Canada should respond with “dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs.” He also called for tariffs on Tesla’s, owned by Trump employee and billionaire, Elon Musk.
“That is a type of fight that we have to bring to defend our country, to defend our workers. And then, on top of that, I want supports in place for the workers impacted — in this case, starting with steel and aluminum — but we need a package in place for all the workers and all the sectors that might be impacted,” Singh said.
“We can’t scramble after workers lose their jobs … we need that package in place now, so it’s ready to go if any worker gets hit.”
-With files from Antoine Trepanier and Catherine Levesque
National Post
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