{"id":1020261,"date":"2026-08-24T03:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T03:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1020261\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T03:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T03:40:12","slug":"canadians-ready-to-go-elbows-up-as-they-brace-for-trade-war-with-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1020261\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadians ready to go elbows up as they brace for trade war with U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A banner reading ‘Buy Canadian’ is held aloft by a pair of hockey sticks in front of a house in Winnipeg, in March, 2025.Ed White\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Vinyl records from Target, and cauliflower in the wintertime. These are a few things the Kawas family of New Westminster, B.C., plans to go without this year \u2013 part of the price of defending Canada\u2019s sovereignty. <\/p>\n

After negotiations toward a new Canada-U.S. trade<\/a> deal broke down Friday night, Canadians businesses were bracing themselves for the impact of new U.S. tariffs<\/a> of 50 per cent on US$20-billion worth of Canadian exports, including wood products and wine. But many members of the Canadian public were also feeling ready to participate in what has become a full-on trade war.<\/p>\n

They included Edward Kawas, a software engineer with VRIFY in Vancouver and a married father of two. On Sunday, Mr. Kawas praised the decision by Prime Minister Mark Carney to abandon a lopsided negotiation with the Americans. \u201cI thought the [proposed] deal sounded terrible, and was hoping that Carney would back away,\u201d Mr. Kawas said. \u201cI started dancing when I saw the news.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the weekend, Mr. Carney characterized the situation between the two countries as war: \u201cYou are at war when you get attacked,\u201d he said. \u201cWe got attacked.\u201d Mr. Carney promised retaliatory tariffs, beginning Sept. 8, against American exports to Canada.<\/p>\n

The move found Mr. Kawas in a defiant, elbows-up mood. He said his household has avoided American products since U.S. President Donald Trump was re-elected in late 2024, and they intend to double down. \u201cWe offered everything and got nothing in return,\u201d Mr. Kawas said of the negotiations. <\/p>\n

Trump revives annexation comments as governors warn tariffs on Canada will harm Americans<\/a><\/p>\n

He counted off items to avoid including vinyl records for his daughter, from Target in the U.S., and produce. \u201cOften the only cauliflower is American,\u201d he said. \u201cBut sometimes we\u2019ll just have to do without. And I\u2019m telling the kids \u2013 we aren\u2019t going to be buying all the things you see in those videos.\u201d<\/p>\n

This weekend, B.C. Premier David Eby and Ontario Premier Doug Ford both articulated support for Mr. Carney\u2019s position, while the premiers of Quebec, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island all called for residents of those provinces to buy local. <\/p>\n

This reflects a deepening of consumers\u2019 behaviour of the past few years. One highly visible example has been tourism. During Mr. Trump\u2019s second term, Canadians\u2019 trips to the U.S. dropped 25 per cent from 2024 to 2025; figures for this June showed only a slight reversal<\/a> of that trend. <\/p>\n

At the same time, Mr. Trump\u2019s newly imposed tariffs are likely to batter Canadian businesses, particularly manufacturers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there will be an impact on Canadians, regardless of where they live or what they do for a living,\u201d said Rick Porayko, 64, of Winnipeg. \u201cIf we can\u2019t sell steel, we may no longer employ truck drivers. There\u2019s a big ripple effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Business leaders brace for lengthy trade war after talks break down<\/a><\/p>\n

But Mr. Porayko, who is retired from the aerospace industry, said he is prepared to take some financial pain. <\/b>\u201cI think our taxes will go up; we\u2019ll have to pay for social services,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019m ready to do that. I\u2019m ready to do my part so we don\u2019t capitulate to the <\/b>United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen Kathnelson, 72, a retired publishing executive in Vancouver, said that \u201cit\u2019s going to be challenging for many people.\u201d Mr. Trump \u201cis a vengeful and mercurial individual,\u201d he said, \u201cand I\u2019m sure the situation is going to escalate.\u201d Mr. Kathnelson said his household \u201cwill be able to manage the economic shocks\u201d and supports Ottawa\u2019s decision to stand firm, especially given U.S. demands to constrain Canadian trade with other nations. \u201cThat was a point from which we could not retreat,\u201d Mr. Kathnelson said. \u201cWe are a sovereign country.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Mont-Tremblant, Que., Antoine Lefaivre described this standoff as \u201cthe moment of truth\u201d for the U.S.-Canada relationship. \u201cWe\u2019re either going to stand up to this bully or we\u2019re going to stand up for ourselves, he added. Mr. Lefaivre said he and many neighbours are concerned for the economic shocks to come. \u201cQuebec is particularly going to be hard hit, and small to medium-sized manufacturers are going to get hammered.\u201d <\/p>\n

But the U.S.-Canada relationship is compromised for years to come, \u201cand we might as well dig in our heels,\u201d he said. Mr. Lefaivre, 72, is a retired strategist in the health care industry who spend much of his career working with and for Americans. He said Mr. Trump\u2019s attacks on Canada generate \u201ca sense of betrayal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sort of personal, you know? It\u2019s very hurtful because we were so close. It\u2019s condescending, it\u2019s belligerent. I think [many] Quebeckers feel much the same way.\u201d He said Mr. Trump\u2019s hostility has deepened his own patriotism. This summer, \u201cI got a Canadian flag and hung it up on my dock,\u201d Mr. Lefaivre said. \u201cIt took me 72 years to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a report from The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A banner reading ‘Buy Canadian’ is held aloft by a pair of hockey…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1020262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[2148,2138,671,104,2132,692,2147,2131,2143,2144,2140,2133,2130,79,407,746,2142,2137,2159,2134,2135,454,2139,1165,728,2149,108,2154,2155,50,2157,2152,2156,2150,2153,2136,85,2146,80,2145,2151,1458,158,1164,2141,1154,107,2158],"class_list":["post-1020261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1020261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1020261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1020261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1020261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}