Eric Ham: Canada not out of the woods on U.S. tariffs

U.S. President Donald Trump arrives at the White House on Marine One, April 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Eric Ham is based in Washington, D.C. and is a political analyst for CTV News. He’s a bestselling author and former congressional staffer in the U.S. Congress and writes for CTVNews.ca.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s highly anticipated “Liberation Day” spared Canada from the debilitating tariffs inflicted on many nations both large and small. Ottawa’s leaders breathed a huge sigh of relief!

Being passed over by the punishing tariffs, combined with the positive response to a recent phone between Trump and Prime Minister Carney had many hopeful America’s biggest trading partner would be spared from future financial and economic attacks.

Canada’s euphoria over the omission, however, was short-lived as the Commander-in-Chief is now back to threatening America’s northern neighbour with even more tariffs on goods beginning with import duties on Canadian lumber coming into the United States.

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The short-lived reprieve quickly dulled the Great White North into thinking the mercurial president might turn his attention elsewhere.

Yet, Trump is now back to his fixation on maximizing the pressure on Canada even if it means tremendous losses for American consumers, businesses, and above all, the markets, in his relentless quest to make the northern nation a state.

Since the president made his announcement of across-the-board import duties, the U.S. market alone has lost more than US$6 trillion in value, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Investment bank JPMorgan has already warned that the tariffs are likely to push the United States and the world into a global recession.

Consumer spending is already slowing down while consumer confidence is rapidly plummeting. U.S. stock futures continued their rapid decline putting the S&P 500 on the precipice of a bear market.

Trade war front and centre

Investors are speaking with a loud and unified voice by soundly rejecting the president’s tariff regime. However, through all the economic turmoil, rejection, and political fallout, Trump is doubling down on greater market turmoil as he pushes for even more economic pain, not less, on Ottawa.

Now, as Canada looks ahead to a tightening election, the trade war that many hoped was in the rearview, is now once again, front and centre.

Carney, which has seen his lead over conservative Pierre Poilievre shrink, must quickly pivot to offence as he fights to stave off a spirited political challenge to his power, all the while, mustering the skill and savvy to ward off a pending trade offensive by the White House.

A move that will almost certainly plunge the country into an even deeper financial crater. Rapidly dwindling public approval numbers; a wholesale rejection by the global markets; and growing recession projections have not deterred Trump from his quixotic maneouvres nor has it diminished his desires to inflict maximum damage on America’s longstanding friend and ally.

Specifically, a dogmatic yet puzzling desire to force Canadian leaders to bend to his will and submit to American subservience. If Canada thought “Liberation Day” meant freedom from unceasing and ominous attacks from an all-powerful, wholly unshackled and unrestrained president, such thinking evinces a short-sightedness that could prove fatal in the ongoing trade war against an unyielding foe.

Meanwhile, federal party leaders vying for the PM spot are quickly scrambling to shore up support from key communities adversely impacted by rapidly falling markets and a bruising trade war with its much larger and influential southern neighbour.

Trump’s unrelenting assault

The pain and consternation being felt throughout the nation, specifically its economy, is real. Though politicians are feverishly fighting to rise to the moment, Trump’s unrelenting assault is testing the resolve of both leaders and voters.

Now, as the world reels from Trump’s self-inflicted wound that’s sending the global economy into massive freefall, nations, investors, and the markets are responding. China quickly retaliated with increased tariffs of its own.

Billionaire investors, led by Trump ally, Bill Ackman, are lashing out at the White House and the European Union is offering an olive branch as Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission announced a willingness to negotiate an end to the tariffs.

Canada’s leaders are offering a salve to the millions of its consumers, workers, and retirees but now is the time to be strategic and use the pain and turmoil to either strike back or strike a deal.

Trump and his MAGA GOP Party are at its weakest political standing, which invites an opening. Leaders vying for power and votes in the upcoming election would do well to take advantage.

If Canada thought the economic terror being unleashed on it by Trump would end with massive global tariffs on the rest of the world, the country now knows better.

The world’s lone superpower is leveraging its enormous weight and influence to show it can single-handedly destroy markets and economies across the landscape.

No doubt, the unfolding collapse portends the potential catastrophic consequences facing America’s northern neighbour if national leaders underestimate the president’s appetite and tolerance for more economic carnage.

This reckless and errant policy went forward unchecked and absent any resistance from within. Again, another testament to the untold power in the hands of a zealous authoritarian bent on dominating at any cost.

Clearly, Canada’s short-lived jubilation was fool’s gold and now, like the markets and the global economy, the nation has plunged back to reality.