PJ The Belt - August 19, 2026


Canada is NOT Ready For what Trump Will Do Tonight..


Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

162.17

Word count

957

Sentence count

60


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.200 It's tariff day today in Canada. As you all know, 50% tariffs will be imposed on Canada tonight at midnight if a deal isn't reached.
00:00:08.800 And here's something I think a lot of Canadians need to hear, because for the past year we've been fed this incredibly simple story, actually.
00:00:15.740 Apparently, Donald Trump woke up one morning after winning the election. He looked at Canada and said,
00:00:20.960 You know what? I'm going to start a trade war today. That's basically the story, if you listen to the CBC.
00:00:27.600 poor, innocent Canada, led by liberal Mark Carney, was just sitting here minding our
00:00:32.600 own business, and that evil orange man south of the border randomly decided to attack us.
00:00:38.060 Except there's a problem.
00:00:39.900 That's not the whole story, of course.
00:00:41.800 And with this new 50% tariffs now hours away, maybe it's time we actually talk about why
00:00:47.060 the American administration is so angry with Canada.
00:00:50.600 Because Trump's position on trade has been pretty consistent over the years.
00:00:54.260 If you want access to the American consumer, the largest, richest consumer market on earth,
00:00:59.340 then American companies should get fair access to your market too.
00:01:03.140 That's the deal.
00:01:04.380 And you can hate Trump, you can love him, you can have whatever opinion you want about him.
00:01:10.320 But that principle right there, it's not really radical or unreasonable.
00:01:14.100 What's radical is pretending Canada has always practiced some perfect version of free trade.
00:01:20.480 We haven't.
00:01:21.740 Take dairy, for example.
00:01:23.860 Canada operates what we call a supply management system that controls how much milk, cheese,
00:01:29.360 eggs, and poultry get produced.
00:01:31.140 And they use tariff rate quotas to control import competition.
00:01:34.400 And if you're an American dairy farmer trying to sell into Canada beyond those quotas, some
00:01:40.000 of the over-quota tariffs are insane.
00:01:42.580 We're talking rates that can run into the 200-300% range, depending on the product.
00:01:47.960 But apparently, that's not protectionism.
00:01:50.380 No, no, that's just Canada being Canada or whatever.
00:01:54.700 When Trump uses a tariff, it's an international emergency on the CBC.
00:01:59.100 But when Ottawa protects an industry behind a wall of quotas and massive over-quota tariffs,
00:02:04.360 we give it a nice bureaucratic name like supply management.
00:02:08.740 Very sophisticated, I must say.
00:02:10.960 I call it the Quebec Dairy Cartel.
00:02:13.320 And yes, I'm being deliberately provocative here.
00:02:15.920 But look at how the system actually works.
00:02:18.420 The government helps control supply, import access is restricted, and consumers are insulated from the full force of foreign competition, therefore paying more for the same product.
00:02:31.460 You can defend that system if you want.
00:02:33.760 Canadian farmers, especially those from Quebec, certainly do.
00:02:36.800 But then at least you've got to be honest about what it actually is.
00:02:40.580 Don't build a fortress around parts of your own market and then clutch your pearls when
00:02:45.220 the American president says, fine, we'll play that game too.
00:02:49.340 And dairy isn't the only complaint.
00:02:51.700 Trump administration is currently pointing to Canadian restrictions involving American
00:02:56.100 alcohol, of course, dairy, vehicles, lumber, as justification for this latest round of
00:03:02.660 tariffs.
00:03:03.800 Remember the American booze that disappeared from Canadian shelves during this whole trade
00:03:07.800 war?
00:03:08.740 Exporters of American wine and spirits have been getting hammered recently.
00:03:13.540 Now, put yourself in the position of an American farmer,
00:03:16.840 one maker, or factory worker.
00:03:19.200 You watch foreign governments protect their politically sensitive industries,
00:03:24.160 and you watch American products get caught in retaliatory measures.
00:03:28.260 And then you're told that America is somehow the bad guy
00:03:31.800 for finally saying enough is enough.
00:03:34.340 That's why I think people misunderstand Trump's entire trade strategy.
00:03:38.060 This isn't just about Canada.
00:03:40.120 Trump's basic argument has been that for decades, Republicans and Democrats, both administrations
00:03:47.220 alike, were too willing to accept trade arrangements that would disadvantage American manufacturing
00:03:54.360 and workers.
00:03:56.200 And Joe Biden certainly was an example of that.
00:03:58.740 These issues go back through multiple presidents, multiple decades, but Trump is the one who
00:04:04.800 is willing to walk into the room and say, if you put a wall around your market, don't be shocked
00:04:09.860 when America does the exact same thing. And that's exactly why Mark Carney's strategy deserves
00:04:15.240 scrutiny here. Because if you're Mark Carney, you're not negotiating with some abstract economic
00:04:20.940 theory. You're negotiating with a country whose economy is over 10 times the size of yours and
00:04:27.000 the country that buys most of the products your country produces. And your plan is what exactly?
00:04:31.960 keep poking at them until they become more accommodating? Brilliant. Right now, Canadian
00:04:38.240 negotiators are in Washington trying to stop the 50% tariffs from landing on roughly $28 billion
00:04:44.960 in Canadian exports. And reporting says that the two sides still have significant differences.
00:04:50.700 That's not Twitter. That's not online. That's real businesses, real paychecks, and people who
00:04:57.140 couldn't care less about whether Mark Carney gets to give another tough guy speech about
00:05:01.020 standing up to Trump. And this is where I get cynical, because politically, who benefits from
00:05:07.140 this fight continuing? Trump is a very convenient villain for the liberals. Every time negotiations
00:05:13.400 break down, Carney gets to walk in front of the cameras, wrap himself in the Canadian flag,
00:05:18.360 and tell Canadians that he's defending the country. Okay? But at some point,
00:05:24.600 defending Canada has to produce results for Canadians, right? So now the pressure is on
00:05:29.260 Mark Carney not to deliver another speech, not to find another way to blame Trump. Make a deal
00:05:35.300 because if this tear is hit and Canadian workers start paying the price, eventually somebody's
00:05:40.320 going to ask a very uncomfortable question. Was Mark Carney actually trying to end this fight
00:05:45.120 or did his government become so politically invested in fighting Donald Trump that they
00:05:50.420 forgot who was going to pay for it? And I have a feeling we're about to find out.