Trudeau’s Saturday Night Fever dream

He resigned, prorogued parliament, stalled an election: by what authority can he announce tariffs?

Justin Trudeau’s Saturday night press conference announcing retaliatory tariffs was like a surreal fever dream – our own Saturday Night Fever.

Did I dream it, or did Justin Trudeau announce he “intended to resign” on January 6^th? By what logic does he now have the authority to drop a fiscal bomb into the Canadian economy while proroguing Parliament and delaying a democratic election?

Last night, I tuned in to CPAC at 8:00pm then fell asleep waiting for him to show up. Somewhere after 9pm he sauntered in and began his remarks with no French/English interpretation; given that this might have been the most important peacetime announcement ever made by a Prime Minister in Canadian history, this surely represents an egregious violation of someone’s language rights.

Justin Trudeau announced on February 1^st that Canada would launch retaliatory tariffs against the United States of America. These tariffs aren’t paid for by any government, but by taxpaying consumers and businesses that engage in cross-border trade. EVERYONE is going to be paying more for EVERYTHING imported, whether they live in the United States or Canada. Citizens are going to get beaten with the bat of tariffs because governments can’t come to an agreement.

It’s almost impossible to comprehend what harm this will do Canada’s Trucking industry.

Tariffs represent a “modest source of government revenue.” In other words, a kind of a tax, which we get to pay and government gets to spend. Yippee.

So while they’re tariffing, collecting and spending, we’re paying more for goods AND paying their salaries while they spend. It’s the ultimate win/lose negotiation, with governments winning and consumers losing.

As a Dale Carnegie coach, the most important and challenging session we deliver is “How to Disagree Agreeably.” I taught it to executives and CEOs; Midas mechanics and hair stylists. Salespeople and managers. Teen-agers and Senior citizens. Find the common ground between you, and start working with that. Nobody benefits in a scorched-Earth scenario; grow up, and do better.

Justin Trudeau has worked hard at offending Donald Trump for a decade now: Trudeau seldom passes up an opportunity to crap on Trump, whether it be by insulting him in a press conference, or chiding Americans who did not vote for Kamala Harris.

And now, big surprise, things are not going well between the US and Canada. Who could have seen this coming?

Congratulations to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation for suing the Canada Revenue Agency, blocking it from implementing Trudeau’s capital gains tax because it had not been approved by Parliament.

I hope CTF or a similar organization will sue to prevent Trudeau from implementing the 25 per cent tariff on American goods.

Perhaps, if Parliament was sitting, our elected representatives would have the chance to debate the issue of tariffs and come to an agreement on what should be done: maybe Canada should retaliate. Maybe Canada should clean up its act and stop shipping fentanyl across the border.

Maybe Canada should identify more tactful and diplomatic human beings to go talk to the Trump administration. Maybe we could all just get along.

I’m not even going to pre-suppose the outcome should Parliament be given the chance to debate these economically disastrous tariffs; I just think we should have the debate.

This man has already announced his resignation. He prorogued Parliament to shut down debate. His shaky 2021 mandate has been maintained only by the unethical support of Jagmeet Singh.

Justin Trudeau has no right to make or announce this momentous decision, fraught as it is with consequence.