The Real Reason Why Trump's Going After Canada Again

As you have likely heard, there are nearly a thousand wildfires burning across Canada right now, and it's a major challenge.With the majority currently out of control, large amounts of smoke polluting the air that many people breathe, three million hectares of land has already been destroyed.So, Generally, this would be a moment for Canada's neighbour to step in and offer their help and support.And so it is that America's President Trump vowed to send immediate assistance and added that maybe it was time for him to rethink his opposition to action on climate change.I'm kidding, obviously.Of course, he threatened to tariff Canada, or to charge it anyway for the costs of pollution drifting across the US border.

And he tweeted again over the weekend, going on about what was called the climate fraud.So no reconsideration there.Canada, he said, was sending filthy air into the US.conjuring up an image of Canadian windmills being used like giant fans to redirect all the smoke over towards Washington DC, which...If you had a referendum, a lot of Canadians might even get behind, on the ground that it's time the stink went the other way for a change.But of course, it's rather more prosaic than that, which is that pollution does not respect borders.

And yes, a number of American cities really are in pretty dire straits with it.Trump seized on the event to claim that Canadians were guilty of willful negligence.Now, MAGA Republicans, of course, learned this line from Californian wildfires of past recent years, and decided that all such events are caused not by hot, dry weather, but exclusively by Liberals refusing to manage forests properly to reduce the likelihood of such fires.Other Republicansup behind the attack.So, for example, four US lawmakers from Michigan sent an open letter to the Canadian government demanding immediate action.

Pretty sure they're already taking such action.But anyway, in a reference to Trump's 51st state theme, the representatives from the country that caused a worldwide energy crisis, remember, with its misjudged adventure into Iran, said this.Sovereignty comes with responsibility, and the responsibility to prevent a foreseeable disaster from crossing into another country's airspace has not been met.But as always, you have to remember, these are not universal principles to which they hold themselves equally accountable.As always, it is simply grasping at whatever stick is available to be used to beat the other side with.And that is rather the point.

Yes, in the past, Canada has sent firefighting support to US wildfires, including those in California.And the United States has done, in the past, likewise, to support Canada when it had similar problems.But now, every single event that comes along is examined for one quality in particular by the resident of the White House, and that is, does this give me additional leverage over someone else that can be used to pressure them to give me something more than I was previously going to get?And particularly for the countries most exposed to the US economy, can that impact be scaled up to be as large as possible?And particularly for any countries and or leaders who have actually stood up?President Trump or otherwise displeased him?

Can this leverage be used in order to punish them, to bring them to heel, to break their will to resist?And that, as far as we can tell, is why it was inevitable that President Trump would refuse to reconfirm the US -Mexico -Canada trade deal, so that it would last on until 2042.It suited Trump and his trade team to have such questions constantly hanging in the air, always up for new threats, new pressure, grabbing concessions, and then very soon coming back for more.Hence Trump's accusations of incompetence leading to the pollution of American cities.Very easy to make such a charge and to pretend it has absolutely never happened the other way round.Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney responded that such fires are exacerbated by the advance of climate change and it was likewise the responsibility of both countries to act on the issue.

MAGA voices on social media Only some of whom are likely Russian and other malign bots simply seeking to ramp up the discord.They were seizing on the moment to argue that if Canada can't control its forest fires, then it should absolutely become America's 51st state, because that will put the fires out in a manner not entirely explained.Others claimed that part of the problem was that Canada didn't pay US firefighters if they come to help with Canadian wildfires, while Canadians get well paid for doing the same for the United States.

That is simply not true, of course.Under the official Canada -US reciprocal forest firefighting arrangement,since 1982, the receiving country reimburses for sending countries costs, including salaries, benefits, hazard pay, travel, accommodation, equipment, supplies and so on and so on, but it feeds the growing grievance culture in the most prosperous and successful country in the world, that everyone rips them off.They do so badly by every single interaction they ever have with somebody else.Such a mindset is not overly troubled by facts and reason, as we've seen once or twice before over the past decade.And so, of course, Trump started posting about adding the cost of damage to the US from that pollution to Canada in the form of tariffs.

This would be somewhat startling if you believed he should act according to consistent principles.His administration has, after all, spent rather a lot of its time reducing air pollution regulations across the United States, including just a few days ago, handing out exemptions under the Clean Air Act to a range of petrochemical facilities.The implied argument is that it's just peachy for Americans to be breathing in petrochemicals.possible cancer -causing chemicals and other pollutants, so long as they come from good old American companies.American pollution being as wholesome as apple pie or something.Still, it's not obvious how Trump could use tariffs for such a purpose, since the Supreme Court robbed him of his magic zap.

POW tariff superpowers, his use of that particular lever relies on much slower and more explicitly trade -related measures.But of course, the threats, and the search for other mechanisms, and the public criticism, it all adds pressure and gives him ammunition to return to his theme of the 55state, because he never accepts he's lost an argument, he will always come back to the attack vectors that he's identified.As recently as last month, Trump was responding to news that Canada appeared to have entered a technical recession, largely thanks to his actions of course, by posting 51st state on social media.This came soon after, and possibly as a riposte to, Mark Carney had called for a new partnership between the US and Canada to work together on areas of mutual strength and complementarity.It's a sort of rational proposal that you make principally to draw attention to the fact that the other side is incapable of behaving rationally.

Because Donald Trump is not interested in great deals that would benefit both sides.He's like a shark that at the slightest sniff of blood in the water suddenly has his senses a -tingling because its predator instincts have been activated.And that is why the US -Canada trade talks are pretty much stalled.The US wants one -sided concessions, but yet, even when it gets them, it simply shrugs, as though, sure, that was their birthright always, and looks for more.Conservatives in Canada are starting to seize on this, of course, and to use it as a stick to beat Mark Carney with, which, I mean, fair enough, I suppose.That's kind of their job.

But the truth is, whatever Canada does right now will never be enough, because the Trump team is wired to just push for more and more.McCarney gave him a concession early on, shelving the proposed digital services tax.Trump's trade guru, Jameson Greer, said ofthat act, simply this, I'm glad they did that, but they don't really get credit for doing something bad and then undoing it.And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you get one -sided deals.Anything the other side does that is to its own advantage and not yours, those are objectively bad things.

Anything you want, however self -serving, well, that's just honourable and fair.The price for a deal with that mindset is to lose any shred of self -respect.

And the downside is that, even if you do that, the deal never holds anyway.

Not unless, like China, You forced an equal deal by demonstrating you have at least as much powerful leverage over the United States as it believes that it has over you.Take a look at the recent fracas over the Gordie Howe International Bridge between Ontario and Michigan.Canada paid for it after the US refused to split the cost, and then Trump demanded 50 % of the profits from it.Originally there was a deal with Michigan where Canada's costs and debt would be paid off from the profits first, and then profit sharing would begin.But with the latter Trump deal, Reportedly, because the text has not been published by either side, although it has been seen by Bloomberg, that does not include such a provision.So the US gets half right from the beginning.

And it tells you all you need to know about dealing with the United States that then Trump's Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, went public to boast about the deal, positively gloating about it, describing it as, yes, you guessed it,the art of the deal.Now, is that the final outcome?Mark Carney repeated in public that such revenue would not be split before the $64 billion cost mind had been repaid.Given Trump's tendency to sign vaguely worded concoctions and then to seek to retrofit a maximalist interpretation onto it, it could well be the whole thing is to unravel over disputed interpretations.And we may find that out soon because it's imminently due to be opened.

Carney spokeswoman Audrey Shampoo said that officials in both countries are working to finalise the specific legal and administrative deals of this arrangement.Well, that's a process we've seen before, over and over again.But however that turns out, yes, the attitude, the crowing, it's very much the mindset of the administration that will not change until the people change.And that's a problem for anyone else the administration believes it has leverage over.So, a problem for Mexico.and a problem for the European Union and the United Kingdom, and a problem for many other countries in South America, as well as Japan and South Korea and the list goes on, and probably even that island inhabited solely by penguins, because nothing is too stupid in the era we've entered to be entertained as the new political reality.

And anyway, those birds spend all their time plotting out a rip -off for United States of America, so they got it coming to them.