U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to impose crippling tariffs should Ottawa and Beijing sign a trade deal is unacceptably coercive and mimics China’s behaviour. The speech was a political victory for Carney, garnering him a wave of positive media coverage both within and outside Canada. Trump then escalated the situation on Saturday with a social media post threatening to impose 100 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports should a Chinese-Canadian trade deal be signed. Relatedly, it sometimes feels as if Carney wants to simply annoy Trump without any further plan, even though the costs of angering him are painfully predictable. Fear of Trump saved the Liberals from electoral oblivion last year, so it’s not a stretch to imagine that it is being politically misappropriated, again.

Source: National Post January 25, 2026 11:59 UTC