The Trump tariffs

Laner said:
The hysteria you are witnessing in Canada at the moment is to be expected. We are at once encouraging each other to arm up (laughable, since the government has just about banned any firearm in the country now, even .22 plinkers) and also asking where the tough guys are so we can take it to the mean Americans. Of course it's all spurred on by the Canadian media, who are on the payroll of the federal government. The government has decided to once again play the 'Who Hates Trump the Hardest' game as it has been so successful in the past.

And it's working. The same 90% of Canadians who ran out and got vaccinated then proudly declared the unvaxxed to be gulagged, are about the exact same number that are currently in shrieking hysterics about tariffs (of which they know nothing, but reddit is on the hecking warpath and the guerilla war is going to be destroy the US invaders!)
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Thanks for your response. It's interesting to hear from Canadians other than the online ones on normie sites who are absolutely losing it right now and preparing for War of 1812 II.

I don't think I'd ever thought about Canadian tariffs on US goods in my life before all this started, let alone whether or not they're somehow "unfair." If someone had mentioned tariffs to me a few months ago, I think would have just shurgged and said "whatever" and gone back to my business.

I have no idea how all of this is going to work out, but it seems like it could ultimately be beneficial for both countries. Canada does more trade with other cusotmers they find more reliable than the US, here in the US we bring more manufacturing back home, something it seems to me that we've sorely needed for a long time. The president even mentioned in a speech that before income tax the federal government was mostly funded through tariffs. If we could have more of that and less income tax, that would probably great.
 
scary_robot_music said:
Thanks for your response. It's interesting to hear from Canadians other than the online ones on normie sites who are absolutely losing it right now and preparing for War of 1812 II.

I don't think I'd ever thought about Canadian tariffs on US goods in my life before all this started, let alone whether or not they're somehow "unfair." If someone had mentioned tariffs to me a few months ago, I think would have just shurgged and said "whatever" and gone back to my business.

I have no idea how all of this is going to work out, but it seems like it could ultimately be beneficial for both countries. Canada does more trade with other cusotmers they find more reliable than the US, here in the US we bring more manufacturing back home, something it seems to me that we've sorely needed for a long time. The president even mentioned in a speech that before income tax the federal government was mostly funded through tariffs. If we could have more of that and less income tax, that would probably great.
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Part of the reason why Canada is so non competitive is that many our industries have become arrogant on their business being supported indefinitely. Since we tariff American products so heavily, that money gets used to prop up industries. Those industries gain power and lobby, therefore ensuring their cut. But long term it's productivity killer for most industries.

Some it makes more sense. I work in the steel industry, and we tariff US steel 25% - 50%. Americans happily pay 35% tariffs on our aluminum, especially now since they are saving that just with currency. But under normal currency exchange, that tariff is still happily paid as it means the Americans don't have to invest in massive power projects to run their operations. On the west coast of Canada, we have probably the best alum production in the world. It was dialed back under Trump's first term when Ottawa decided it was better to let China flood our market with cheap metal in order to piss Trump off, then it would have been to work with the Americans to come up with a plan. In the process we pissed the Americans off and also destroyed our domestic steel production.

Canada has been lead by emotion for a decade now. This is why our populace is also overly emotional and dependent.
 
I lived in Canada for 7 years and would never tell anyone I was American because it was clear they hated Americans, and this was even during the Obama administration. Canada managed to instill in me zero empathy for them once I got back to America. I never had economic opportunity there, and I was glad to be gone before they lost their minds with covid, my wife, who is Canadian, was nervous to visit with New York plates on her car, and we agreed it's not a good idea to drive our car there now with our Southern plates.
 
thinkreadwritecode said:
I lived in Canada for 7 years and would never tell anyone I was American because it was clear they hated Americans, and this was even during the Obama administration. Canada managed to instill in me zero empathy for them once I got back to America. I never had economic opportunity there, and I was glad to be gone before they lost their minds with covid, my wife, who is Canadian, was nervous to visit with New York plates on her car, and we agreed it's not a good idea to drive our car there now with our Southern plates.
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It's always been that way, I'm 20 minutes from the border and the strange smug superiority they always showed toward Americans was very off putting and nonsensical. Especially considering that all of them who live so close to the border only live there because they rely on the USA to bolster their economy in every way.

Many years ago I once was playing blackjack across the border in the open pit and this attractive girl came and sat at my empty table striking up a conversation with me, she was middle eastern and had an accent an immigrant for sure, it eventually came up that I was an American and she started telling me all about how she doesn't like the USA thinking I would agree with her. I proceeded to tell her that the only reason she lives here in Canada 20 minutes from the USA is because her family couldn't get into the USA so they had to settle for Canada, the dealer started laughing hysterically she took her monopoly money chips scoffed and walked off with her face red. Not my only experience like that, I've had the same thing in Mexico with canadian tourists and with cab drivers in Toronto, for some reason they all think trashing on the USA is fair game but when it comes to their country everything is sacred. God forbid you should say a bad thing about Trudeau but they will bag on Trump all day long to you, again for some reason believing that you should agree with them. It's almost like an inferiority complex they are trying to compensate for.
 
FrancisK said:
It's always been that way, I'm 20 minutes from the border and the strange smug superiority they always showed toward Americans was very off putting and nonsensical. Especially considering that all of them who live so close to the border only live there because they rely on the USA to bolster their economy in every way.

Many years ago I once was playing blackjack across the border in the open pit and this attractive girl came and sat at my empty table striking up a conversation with me, she was middle eastern and had an accent an immigrant for sure, it eventually came up that I was an American and she started telling me all about how she doesn't like the USA thinking I would agree with her. I proceeded to tell her that the only reason she lives here in Canada 20 minutes from the USA is because her family couldn't get into the USA so they had to settle for Canada, the dealer started laughing hysterically she took her monopoly money chips scoffed and walked off with her face red. Not my only experience like that, I've had the same thing in Mexico with canadian tourists and with cab drivers in Toronto, for some reason they all think trashing on the USA is fair game but when it comes to their country everything is sacred. God forbid you should say a bad thing about Trudeau but they will bag on Trump all day long to you, again for some reason believing that you should agree with them. It's almost like an inferiority complex they are trying to compensate for.
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It's probably Canada's biggest weakness. We have become so good at telling people what they want to hear as a mask for politeness, that we assume the same when we go off on nonsensical rage towards someone like Trump. I experience it all the time among other parents. They spit absolute vitriol towards someone, just expecting that I feel the same way. Never do they even stop for a moment to think that some people have different views and are actually quite insulted by their hatred.

Canada is going to have to find out the hard way that national identity isn't found in collective hatred for any one man.
 
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