EDITORIAL – Sorry, Donald Trump, but your 30 days don’t buy forgiveness

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

IT’S NOT OKAY, President Donald Trump. The fact that you have paused your trade war on Canada for 30 days doesn’t mean everything is fine between us. It isn’t.

You complain that Canada “has treated us very badly.” In truth, it’s you who has been treating Canada very badly, and we aren’t going to forget it any time soon.

The entire rationale behind your 25-per cent tariffs, which you may yet impose on us, is ridiculous. You say the threat was because of a leaky border. Then you say it’s because (supposedly), American banks can’t do business in Canada. Then you say it’s because we don’t spend enough on defence. Then you say it’s because of a trade deficit. Then you say it’s because Canada should become the 51^st U.S. state. What will it be tomorrow?

In your social media statement today (Feb. 3, 2025), you returned to your well-worn and debunked claims about the border, saying that we’ve agreed “to finally end the deadly scourge of drugs like Fentanyl that have been pouring into our Country, killing hundreds of thousands of Americans, while destroying their families all across our Country.”

In fact, though, 43 pounds of fentanyl “poured” across the border from Canada to the U.S. last year. Forty-three pounds. Compared to almost 22,000 pounds on your southern border.

Canadians want to fix the fentanyl crisis, too. We want fentanyl to stop pouring across our border from the U.S., and we want to stop illegal immigrants from sneaking across our border from your country.

So, if you want us to appoint a “fentanyl czar,” and strike a new Canada-U.S. joint strike force to combat fentanyl and organized crime, put more helicopters in the air and increase coordination with you, no problem. We were working on it anyway, but if you want to claim we’re doing it because you threatened us, go ahead.

We know the real reason for your “pause” is the drop in your stock markets, criticism from economists and maybe the realization that massive tariffs will hurt you as much as us. If anyone deserves credit today, it’s our prime minister, provincial premiers, business leaders who rallied to the cause, and us little people who have vowed to stop buying anything from you.

But when you say you’ll continue to seek what you call “a final Economic deal with Canada,” it sounds an awful lot as though you will continue to ignore our free-trade agreement whenever it suits you. If you want some kind of new economic deal, it had better come with a denunciation of your stupid talk about annexing Canada.

But we wouldn’t believe you anyway. You can’t be trusted. There’s no longer any doubt about that. So your 30 days get you 30 days and nothing more, because we still aren’t going to buy from you, anymore.

And we just might keep booing you at hockey and basketball games in recognition of the fact you’ve badly injured the historically friendly and cooperative relationship between our two countries, possibly for a long time to come.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.