Donald Trump’s tariffs have done what decades of US economic dominance did not: make Canadians question their economic subordination. Conversations about economic self-determination are emerging — and no one is saying “sorry” this time.
Donald Trump’s imposition of a 25 percent tariff of Canadian goods, coupled with his threat to annex Canada as the fifty-first state, is one of the most antagonistic actions of the first months of his second presidency. The basic message has been clear: “We don’t need you” — but if Canada agrees to annexation, it will gain the benefits of US military and economic protection. Otherwise the country will be hung out to dry under the weight of punitive trade barriers, despite the existing free-trade agreement Trump himself negotiated.
Trump’s negotiating method remains unchanged from his days as a real estate and casino mogul: threaten to use all the economic and political tools you can muster to get others to accede to your demands, strike the best possible deal with those who yield, and move on to the next transaction. Neither his past business bankruptcies nor his electoral defeat by Joe Biden altered this approach. The weaker an opponent is perceived to be, the more aggressive the threats. In Trump’s eyes, Canada poses little challenge to US economic dominance.
While many Canadians once worried about their country’s growing economic and cultural dependence on the United States — especially in the years leading up to the free-trade agreements of the late 1980s — these conditions have since become an accepted reality for most. By many measures, Canada is now more economically and culturally dependent on the US than any other country, a fact Trump and his allies fully understand and are willing to exploit.
Trump vs. Canada
Trump’s enthusiasm for tariffs overlooks both their negligible impact on trade balances under President William McKinley and McKinley’s eventual reversal on the policy. It also ignores the real cost burden tariffs placed on the American people during Trump’s first presidency. While restorative tariff threats may appeal to his nationalist base, their implementation risks igniting a global protectionist trade war — a scenario few corporate capitalists favor and one that would disproportionately harm ordinary people.
Trump’s recent provocations have generated a moment of reckoning for many Canadians. National pride has been stung, and concerns over independence have risen to levels rarely seen. There is a widespread popular sense that radical action is needed. “Buy Canadian” campaigns have sprouted up across the country. Unifor president Lana Payne, speaking for Canada’s largest private-sector union, asserts that Trump “declared economic war on Canadian workers and our country. There is no turning back. As a country, we must use . . . every single available lever to build a strong, resilient, and diverse economy.”
Proposals for export bans, restrictions on US ownership, and measures targeting US oligarchs’ operations are gaining traction both in policy circles and on the streets. In Trump’s wake, more Canadians are realizing that continued economic dependence on the United States is both an economic dead end and an imminent threat to political sovereignty.
Since the 1970s, powerful capitalist forces have pushed global market expansion while weakening welfare states. But nation-states remain central to social identity in much of the Western world. For most people, national belonging is an integral part of personal identity, anchored in shared language, history, and culture, often tied to a specific territory. The United States has long cast itself as an ethnic melting pot, a single exceptional nation, while suppressing diverse national identities within its borders. At its best, however, its foundational narrative strives for a civic nationalism, where membership is based on shared political principles rather than ethnic, religious, or cultural homogeneity. Canada, at its best, strives for a similar vision of civic nationalism.
https://jacobin.com/2025/03/canada-trump-tariffs-annexation-sovereignty