Right in the centre - Tariffs a bad choice on both sides of the border

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Published on Thursday, March 13, 2025

By Ken Waddell

Neepawa Banner & Press

The Federal Liberal Party of Canada leadership race ended in the afternoon on Sunday, March 9. By the look of the results, the race actually ended before it started.

The predicted winner, Mark Carney, received over 85 per cent of the vote. Over 400,000 people signed up to vote but just over 150,000 people actually voted. It is my understanding that a person doesn’t have to pay a membership fee, they only need to register to be a member and to vote in the leadership race.

Mark Carney promised throughout the short campaign and in his speech on Sunday that he would stand up to Trump, repeal the carbon tax and unite the country. It sounds good except for the fact that Carney has been Justin Trudeau’s financial advisor for years and until recently has been a big promoter of the carbon tax. Carney’s approach has been that the government has to punish purchasers of gas by taxing it heavily in an effort to get car and truck drivers to use less, to save the planet from burning up.

It’s very flawed logic because Canada produces a very small percentage of the world’s greenhouse gases, especially compared to China for example. In addition China uses every fuel available to them to burn to create energy heat buildings and power plants. We, in Canada, have been taxing our people to solve a problem that may not exist and even if it does, we aren’t doing much to make it worse. 

The Liberal policies that have limited our economy will continue under Carney who may well be named prime minister by the time you read this column.

One of the absolutely worst Liberal policies has been to commit $50 billion to three EV car battery plants when we don’t even produce an electric car in Canada. Canada has also placed a tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, I believe it’s 100 percent and that does two things. It makes them just as expensive as US built EVs and it angered the Chinese government to the point that China will apply a 100 per cent tariff to just over $1 billion of Canadian canola/rapeseed oil, oil cakes and pea imports, and a 25 per cent duty on $1.6 billion worth of Canadian aquatic products and pork. The tariffs on canola and pork could have a devastating effect on Manitoba farmers and the economy.

Hopefully, Carney will seek to mend the errors of his and the Liberals ways. Nobody wins in a tariff war. Recently, Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa Member of Parliament, Dan Mazier said, “Canada putting tariffs on products coming into Canada is like a person punching themselves in the face.” The federal Liberals are just as dumb as Trump because he said US citizens won’t bear the expense of the tariffs, the countries will. That’s not true, tariffs raises the price of products the consumer.

We also need to get rid of all the trade barriers between provinces. I think there are still restrictions on sending meat from one province to the other if it is processed in a provincially inspected plant. Small scale breweries have an awful time getting their products into liquor stores in another province.

Trump shouldn’t put tariffs on goods from other countries and neither should Canada.

Neither should we play silly protectionist games between provinces.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are the writer’s personal views and are not to be taken as being the view of the newspaper staff.