From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Ireland Owens

Some Canadian premiers are calling on the government to respond strongly to tariff threats from President-elect Donald Trump, Canada’s Finance Minister said Wednesday, according to Reuters.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with premiers as well as other government ministers Wednesday to discuss Trump’s vow to impose tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico when he returns to the Oval Office, according to Reuters. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday that Canada could stall energy exports to the U.S. in response, Reuters reported.

Under the previous Trump administration, Canada responded to U.S. tariffs by placing tariffs on various goods including bourbon, cherries and Harley Davidson motorcycles, Reuters reported.

“A number of premiers offered strong support for a robust Canadian response that included some of the premiers proactively naming critical minerals and metals that their provinces produce, and which are exported to the United States,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

The president-elect has embraced tariffs, previously calling them the most “beautiful” word and proposing sweeping tariffs across various industries. Trump threatened in November to impose 100% tariffs on any BRICS nation that abandons the U.S. dollar and vowed in September to impose 200% tariffs on John Deere products if the company relocates its manufacturing operations to Mexico.

Trudeau met with the president-elect in Mar-a-Largo in November after Trump threatened to impose a 25% tariff on all imports from Mexico and Canada unless both countries do more to control their border with the U.S. to prevent the flow of illegal drugs and illegal immigrants into the states. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also hinted at retaliation if Trump imposes tariffs on her country.

There has been a surge of illegal migrant crossings at the northern border under the Biden-Harris administration. There were 18,944 encounters at the northern border in August alone, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). There have been 198,929 total encounters at the northern border in the 2024 fiscal year, compared to 189,402 total encounters at the northern border in fiscal year 2023, the CBP data shows.

Bank of Canada Gov. Tiff Macklem said Wednesday that Trump’s proposed 25% tariff on imports could cause disruption to Canada’s economy, according to The Wall Street Journal. Over 20% of Canada’s gross domestic product is linked to trade with the U.S., the WSJ reported. U.S. goods and services trade with Canada amounted to an estimated $908.9 billion in 2022, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

“It’s going to be difficult for businesses to take decisions against that background,” Macklem said. “There is a risk that [business] investment is weaker.”

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Jason Cohen

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed sadness Tuesday about Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump defeated Harris with 312 electoral votes and won the popular vote with just under 50% of the total, according to the Cook Political Report. Trudeau, at an Equal Voice Foundation event, said women are “under attack” in the wake of America’s 2024 presidential election results, according to the National Post, a Canadian newspaper.

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“We were supposed to be on a steady, if difficult sometimes, march towards progress. And yet, just a few weeks ago, the United States voted for a second time to not elect its first woman president,” Trudeau said. “Everywhere, women’s rights and women’s progress is under attack. Overtly, and subtly. But I want you to know that I am, and always will be, a proud feminist. You will always have an ally in me, and in my government.”

Over 25% of Canadians view Trump positively, while only 23% view Trudeau positively, according to a recent Abacus Data poll shared with the Toronto Star.

The Canadian government is beefing up its border security apparatus after Trump in November threatened to levy a 25% tariff on all products from Canada and Mexico unless they do more to limit the flow of illegal immigration and drugs entering the United States. Trudeau subsequently met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence and his government has described the additional steps it is taking to bolster immigration enforcement.

“We got, I think, a mutual understanding of what they’re concerned about in terms of border security,” Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc, who accompanied Trudeau to Mar-a-Lago, said of the meeting in an interview with Canadian media. “All of their concerns are shared by Canadians and by the government of Canada.”

“We talked about the security posture currently at the border that we believe to be effective, and we also discussed additional measures and visible measures that we’re going to put in place over the coming weeks,” LeBlanc continued. “And we also established, Rosemary, a personal series of rapport that I think will continue to allow us to make that case.”