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‘A small act of patriotism’: Canada’s anti-Maga hats go viral
Ontario premier’s ‘Canada is not for sale’ cap emerges as an unlikely expression of unity amid Trumpian threats
www.theguardian.com
‘A small act of patriotism’: Canada’s anti-Maga hats go viral
Ontario premier’s ‘Canada is not for sale’ cap emerges as an unlikely expression of unity amid Trumpian threats
Doug Ford in the ‘Canada is not for sale’ hat, which its creators called a ‘creative rebuttal’ to Donald Trump’s threats. Photograph: David Kawai/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Leyland Cecco
Sat 18 Jan 2025 06.30 EST
Few items of clothing have come to exemplify American far-right nationalism in the 21st century as much as the red “Make America Great Again” hats worn and sold by Donald Trump. But this week, the beloved – and reviled – headwear appeared to have met its match.
Before a high-stakes meeting with Canadian leaders in preparation for American tariffs, the Ontario premier, Doug Ford, strode into the summit wearing a hat emblazoned with a defiant message: “CANADA IS NOT FOR SALE”.
Canadian leaders are still scrambling to come up with a response to the threat of a trade war with the country’s closest ally if Trump makes good on his promise to inflict punishing tariffs on all Canadian goods and services.
And in the depths of a national crisis, the novelty hat has emerged as an unlikely expression of unity.
Canada’s provincial leaders in disarray over response to Trump tariff threats
Read more
For the hat’s creators, “it’s been a wild and surreal few days”.
Liam Mooney, who runs a design firm in Ottawa with his fiancee Emma Cochrane, said the hat came about as a direct rebuttal to a viral Fox news segment in which the host Jesse Watters taunted Ford about Trump’s threat to annex Canada.
“If I were a citizen of another country and I was a neighbour of the United States, I would consider it a privilege to be taken over by the United States of America,” Watters told the Ontario leader.
Mooney and Cochrane were “shocked” at the hostile interview and spent the next few hours coming up with the “creative rebuttal” to the Trumpian threats.
The result was a cap with a Canadian-designed typeface and a simple but firm message. “It was a small act of patriotism to respond to these big threats and this big bluster,” said Mooney.
Online sales grew steadily, but the momentum surged after Ford wore his cap to a meeting of regional leaders on Wednesday – and later posted a link to the online store.
Since then, the couple have sold more than 45,000 hats. More than 150 have been purchased in the United States.
The Conservative Ontario leader’s appearance with the hat prompted praise from his political rivals in Canada, including the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and the foreign minister, Mélanie Joly.
“I WANT THIS HAT!!!!!!!!” the country’s former Liberal environment minister Catherine McKenna posted on X. “And thank you Doug Ford for being a leader on #TeamCanada.”
Even the Manitoba premier, Wab Kinew – a progressive often at odds with Ford – quipped that he loved it: “Great hat, I hope they make that in an orange.”
(Mooney, keen to capitalize on the moment, said he had spent hours trying to ensure Kinew receives a hat that matches the colours of his leftwing New Democratic party.)
The threat of a devastating trade war has forced Canada’s political leaders to set aside policy and ideological rifts, with most projecting a unified front.
“Canadian pride is something we can really lean on right now. And there are few things that unite Canadians more, for better or for worse, than our neighbour to the south,” said Kinew after the premiers met with Trudeau.
But the need for a unified front has taken on fresh urgency after the rightwing premier of the oil-rich western province of Alberta appeared to go rogue, refusing to sign on to a joint communique from other leaders and the prime minister.
Danielle Smith did not join the Ottawa meeting in person, instead joining virtually; she was also absent from the press conference with Trudeau and the other premiers.
Canada remains the largest supplier of energy to the US, shipping roughly 60% of its crude oil – nearly all of which comes from Alberta. Federal ministers and provincial leaders including Ford have weighed blocking energy exports – including natural gas, oil and electricity – as a retaliatory measure. Federal ministers have also suggested Canada could impose tariffs on exports of critical minerals to the United States, including uranium, potash, germanium, zinc, nickel, copper and graphite.
Smith, whose provincial economy is tied to oil exports to the United States, has come out forcefully against the idea.
“Until these threats cease, Alberta will not be able to fully support the federal government’s plan in dealing with the threatened tariffs,” she wrote online. “Alberta will simply not agree to export tariffs on our energy or other products, nor do we support a ban on exports of these same products. We will take whatever actions are needed to protect the livelihoods of Albertans from such destructive federal policies.”
The position has divided Conservative leaders, with Ford, who oversees a C$1tn economy, expressing mounting frustration over Smith’s refusal to entertain the idea of halting energy exports.
“That’s her choice. I have a little different theory: protect your jurisdiction but country comes first,” he told reporters, warning “we cannot have division” in the country.
“You can’t let someone hit you over the head with a sledgehammer without hitting him back twice as hard.”
'We will not hesitate': Canada prepares to hit U.S. with billions in tariffs
WASHINGTON - Ottawa is ready to retaliate if U.S. president-elect Donald Trump slaps Canada with devastating tariffs, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised Friday — and his ministers say Republicans in
'We will not hesitate': Canada prepares to hit U.S. with billions in tariffs
- Kelly Geraldine Malone The Canadian Press
- Jan 17, 2025 Updated 18 hrs ago
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly attends a first ministers meeting in Ottawa on Wednesday, Jan.15, 2025. Joly will provide an update on Canada's efforts to stop punishing U.S. tariffs this morning following meetings in Washington on border security, trade and investment Thursday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
RJB
WASHINGTON - Ottawa is ready to retaliate if U.S. president-elect Donald Trump slaps Canada with devastating tariffs, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised Friday — and his ministers say Republicans in Washington don't fully understand the likely impact of the duties on both countries' economies.
"We will not hesitate to act," Trudeau said at a meeting of the newly formed Council on Canada-U.S. Relations in Toronto. "We will respond and, I will say it again, everything is on the table."
The incoming president has promised to apply 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs on imports from Canada when he returns to the White House on Monday.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is in Washington this week and met Thursday with Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune, as well as Republicans Lindsey Graham and James Risch, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She said tariffs would launch a "trade war" between Canada and the U.S.
"If we need to retaliate, we will do so," Joly told reporters Friday. "The Americans would be starting a trade war against us and this would be the biggest trade war between Canada and the U.S. in decades."
Canada has multiple options for retaliatory tariffs ready to go depending on what Trump ultimately does, said two federal government sources with knowledge of the tariff response plan. They were not authorized to speak publicly about details of the plan.
If Trump sets the tariffs at 25 per cent, Canada’s response would be to impose counter-tariffs worth roughly $37 billion, and possibly follow up with another $110 billion in tariffs. If the duties are lower, Canada's tariff response would be more modest.
No decision will be made until Ottawa sees the wording of Trump's executive order imposing the tariffs.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, who was in Washington this week, said Thursday that Trump's tariff plan isn't even clear to Republican senators and congresspeople.
Wilkinson said he’s heard of three tariff options being considered: 25 per cent tariffs, 10 per cent tariffs and a lower duty that ratchets up over time.
There's been disagreement among the premiers on how Canada should respond if Trump follows through on his threats. Most premiers presented a united front following a meeting with Trudeau in Ottawa earlier this week.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith broke from the pack by refusing to consider possible levies on oil exports.
Former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, who confirmed her intention to run for the Liberal leadership on Friday, has suggested a dollar-for-dollar tariff response. Trudeau has said he supports the principle of a proportional dollar-for-dollar response.
While Canada has been planning its tariff response for weeks, Republicans only recently returned to Capitol Hill, said Joly.
Joly said she still hopes duties can be avoided by making the case that tariffs would damage both the Canadian and American economies.
"When I talk about the tariffs themselves and their impact, people in Washington are surprised," Joly said Friday. "And when I mention the impacts of a Trump tariff tax on Americans, they are not only surprised, they are very worried."
Goods worth $3.6 billion cross the Canada-U. S. border every day. A Canadian Chamber of Commerce analysis said 25 per cent tariffs could shrink Canada's gross domestic product by 2.6 per cent and America's by 1.6 per cent. It would also disrupt the automotive, agriculture and energy sectors, among others.
"Americans are just waking up to this possibility," Joly said.
Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), told The Canadian Press her organization is “very concerned” about the impact of tariffs on jobs.
“We think that this is an all-hands-on-deck moment where government, business, labour needs to come together to navigate how we're going to respond,” Bruske said, adding that workers' voices need to be included in those conversations.
She the sectors most vulnerable to tariffs include manufacturing, mining, the energy sector, agriculture and forestry.
“These are the jobs that are really the backbone of our economy across the country and the different provinces and regions,” Bruske said, adding that job losses in those areas would have spinoff effects on other sectors like retail, education and health care.
She called for a “strong social safety net" so that "if there are job disruptions ... workers can continue to be able to function in the communities that they live in.”
When asked about potential retaliation measures, Bruske said it’s too early to tell what they could look like. She said counter-tariffs could work but a trade war would hurt workers on both sides of the border.
Bruske said the CLC is working with the labor movement in the U.S. to identify opportunities for collaboration.
“Workers are feeling more and more pressure being able to make ends meet and an additional challenge in terms of potential job losses is just one more thing for people to worry about,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 17, 2025.
Canada Prepares for Trump Tariff Threat With Three-Stage Plan
Canadian officials are preparing retaliatory measures if the new U.S. administration imposes tariffs on Canadian imports.
Canada’s Plan for a Trade War: Pain for Red States and Trump Allies
Canadian officials are preparing retaliatory measures if the new U.S. administration imposes tariffs on Canadian imports.
Listen to this article · 6:53 min Learn more
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Toronto on Friday. He will huddle with cabinet ministers on Monday and Tuesday in case the United States imposes tariffs.Credit...Arlyn Mcadorey/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press
By Matina Stevis-Gridneff
Reporting from Ottawa
Jan. 17, 2025
Orange juice from Florida. Whiskey from Tennessee. Peanut butter from Kentucky.
Canada is preparing for an all-out trade war with its closest ally and one of its top trading partners, and the list of American goods that could be affected is long.
Canadian officials are preparing a three-stage plan of retaliatory tariffs and other trade restrictions against the United States, which will be put into motion if President-elect Donald J. Trump makes good on his threat to impose a blanket 25 percent tariff on all Canadian goods imported into the United States.
Canadian officials will wait until Mr. Trump has made his move — which he has said will be on his first day in office, Monday — and then start with imposing tariffs. They would mostly affect consumer goods worth 37 billion Canadian dollars ($25.6 billion), according to two senior government officials familiar with the plans.
They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of plans meant to remain private for now.
Goal: Maximum political pain
The Canadian officials said their choice of goods was meant to be precisely targeted and aimed at political impact. They specifically want to focus on goods made in Republican or swing states, where the pain of tariffs, like pressure on jobs and the bottom lines of local businesses, would affect Trump allies.
Canada’s government hopes that those allies, including governors or members of Congress, would then pick up the phone and call Mr. Trump, intervening in favor of de-escalation.
Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign minister, who spent Thursday and Friday in Washington, met with a slew of Republicans to make her country’s case, including Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, and the Senate majority leader, John Thune of South Dakota.
Ms. Joly said she hoped her outreach to senior Republicans would persuade them to intervene to avert or limit a trade war and its negative impact on consumers and jobs on both sides of the border.
“My job here is to be able to talk about facts, and that comes before any threat of counter tariffs from our side,” Ms. Joly said in an interview with The Times on Thursday. “Because then the senators might say, ‘Well, why are we doing this? Why are we imposing tariffs? It’s affecting my own constituency.’”
But, she added, Canada was ready to forcefully defend its interests if necessary. “Never underestimate Canadians,’’ she said. “We fight very hard, and we’re very courageous. We are willing to be surgical and appropriate to have an impact on American jobs.”
Image
“Never underestimate Canadians,” the Canadian foreign minister, Mélanie Joly, said. “We fight very hard, and we’re very courageous.”Credit...Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press
Bracing for Mr. Trump’s first day in office and what it might bring for Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet will be huddled together on Monday and Tuesday in what some are calling their “U.S. war room,” in order to be able to respond swiftly if U.S. tariffs are announced.
The detailed list of goods is closely held, but it includes dozens of consumer goods from various categories, such as food and beverages, as well as other types of daily products, including dishwashers and porcelain goods like bathtubs and toilets.
Depending on what Canadian goods Mr. Trump chooses to impose tariffs on, and the level of those tariffs, Canada’s second move would be to expand its own tariffs to more American products, impacting 150 billion Canadian dollars’ worth of imports from the United States.
As part of its strategy, the Canadian government is also looking at other measures that would restrict the export of Canadian goods to the United States, such as export quotas or duties to be shouldered by the American side. That type of measure would be reserved for particularly sensitive Canadian exports that the United States relies on, such as hydroelectric power from Quebec used to provide energy across New England.
Tariffs work more like a tax on goods and are usually passed on to consumers. They make imported goods more expensive, and that often means consumers stop buying them, ultimately hurting the foreign companies exporting them.
Trade restrictions like export quotas aim to limit the availability of an exported good, and are particularly effective when an importing nation doesn’t have easily accessible or sufficient alternative sources for that good.
Back from the brink
No matter how Canada’s counter tariffs or export restrictions are deployed, the goal will be the same: to pressure the Trump administration to step back from the president-elect’s vow to launch a devastating trade war on the United States’ neighbor.
The trading relationship between the two countries is enormous, with nearly $1 trillion in goods exchanged every year. Canada fluctuates with Mexico as the United States’ biggest trading partner depending on the price of oil.
Some cross-border industries are so integrated that tariffs would suddenly pose a major regulatory headache for many companies. A single vehicle, for example, crosses the U.S.-Canadian border up to eight times before it is fully assembled. Tariffs would immediately disrupt auto assembly lines across the United States and in Ontario, the auto industry’s heart in Canada.
And Canada exports vital commodities to the United States. Some 80 percent of Canada’s oil and 60 percent of its natural gas are exported to the United States. More than half of the oil imported into the United States comes from Canada.
A third and final level of escalation if a trade war between the U.S. and Canada escalates and which the Canadian government is eager to avoid would restrict the export of sensitive commodities worth hundreds of billions of dollars, including oil and gas, potash, uranium and critical minerals. All are exports that are crucial to the United States
Alberta, Canada’s oil-exporting powerhouse, has said it does not support measures that would impact its key industry. The rift between the province’s leadership and the rest of the country could become more consequential if Canada decides oil must be used as leverage against the United States.
Canada’s planning for a potentially prolonged U.S. trade war also includes supporting domestic industries, according to one of the senior officials.
The government is preparing for the possibility of financial bailouts for Canadian businesses that are badly hit by the U.S. tariffs, most likely on a case-by-case basis, the official said.
While mass bailouts or blanket funding for entire industries may not be on the table, the official said it would be unthinkable to allow a tariff war with the United States to wipe out thousands of jobs and businesses without the government stepping in to mitigate the blow.
TaxCollector13459
2018 Coli Rookie of the Year
TaxCollector13459
2018 Coli Rookie of the Year
Yep
That was the gameplan for Greenland in ww2 too
To deter hitler iirc
Alotta commerce passes through there
William the Conqueror would probably be afraid of that Nam smoke as well
TaxCollector13459
2018 Coli Rookie of the Year
Donald Trump in fiery call with Denmark’s prime minister over Greenland
US president insisted he wants to take over Arctic island
www.ft.com
Danish prime minister clashes with Trump over Greenland
US president tells Mette Frederiksen he is determined to take over Arctic island
