Ottawa’s 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles, imposed in October 2024, was sold as tough, smart, and necessary. It was none of those things. It was a headline grab that protected an industry that barely faces Chinese competition here — because Canadians don’t buy Chinese EVs. Yet this symbolic move lit a real trade war. And the damage is falling on farmers, fishers, and packers who had nothing to do with it.Start with the facts. The stated aim was to shield a young domestic, heavily federally government-subsidized EV sector from Chinese rivals. Automakers cheered. Economists warned prices would rise and “climate goals” would suffer. Both were predictable. What was not inevitable was Ottawa’s choice to swing a hammer when a scalpel was needed.Beijing hit back hard. In March 2025, China slapped 100% tariffs on Canadian canola oil and meal, and even peas. In August 2025, it added a crushing 75.8% tariff on canola seed—the very product that anchors our prairie farm economy. That move “will have a devastating impact on the price points for Saskatchewan’s canola industry … This hit will stop a significant amount of trade that is flowing into China today,” Premier Scott Moe said. .RUBENSTEIN: Moral relativism haunts the CBC’s coverage of the war in Gaza.He’s right. Canola is a $43 billion industry that supports 200,000 jobs. Ottawa just put a target on its back.The pain doesn’t stop on the Prairies. China also slapped 25% tariffs on Canadian pork in March. Canada shipped an average of 262,000 tonnes of pork to China each year. That includes products like offal that fetch real value in that market but much less elsewhere. Manitoba producers are staring at price shocks and long-term market loss..Then there’s seafood. A 25% hit on lobster, crab, shrimp, clams, and more has coastal communities on edge. For some processors, up to 95% of live lobster sales go to China. The Fisheries Council of Canada has warned of an existential threat to indigenous and coastal fishing operations. In plain language: families on the wharf could lose everything because Ottawa chose to protect a market share that didn’t exist.Alberta’s Premier Danielle Smith tried to reassure rural leaders in March, “There are going to be some products impacted, but the bulk of what we export is not.” .EYRE: Yann Martel on Jesus, MAGA, and ‘fiction and the politician’.That was before the August reversal on canola seed. Now, nobody can pretend this is contained. The bill has arrived.Ask yourself: what public good did this tariff deliver? Not consumer relief, EV prices tend to rise when you raise barriers. Not climate progress as costlier EVs mean slower adoption. Not trade stability, we’ve invited a broader fight with a major buyer of our food. And certainly not national unity. As Moe put it, “Our federal government cannot sacrifice a $43 billion canola industry that is largely based in Western Canada to protect a fledgling electric vehicle industry, largely based in Eastern Canada.”.This is the core failure. Ottawa chose symbolism over strategy, and politics over prudence. If there were real volumes of Chinese EVs flooding Canada, you could make a case — use targeted safeguards, anti-dumping duties tied to evidence, and true reciprocity. But when the sales are negligible and the distribution networks barely exist, a blanket 100% tariff is performative. It invites retaliation while protecting almost nothing.There was a better path. First, fix our own house: speed permits for mines, charging, and manufacturing; cut red tape; and lower energy and project costs that make Canadian plants uncompetitive. Second, build coalitions to address China’s subsidies in rules-based forums. .TIFF pulls Israeli October 7 documentary, deems it to be not in festival's ‘best interest’.Third, deploy precise tools — product-specific duties based on investigations — rather than a political sledgehammer. Finally, if Ottawa insists on a trade confrontation, then it must also stand up for a serious support package for the sectors taking the hits, not press releases and promises.Here’s the blunt truth: we don’t buy Chinese EVs, but China buys our canola, pork, and seafood. Ottawa picked a fight on a hill that doesn’t matter and abandoned the ground that does. That is not tough. It is reckless.Scrap the EV tariff. Start talks to unwind the retaliation. Put emergency relief in place for canola, pork, and seafood right now. And next time, try evidence before ideology. Western Canada — and the families who feed this country — deserve a government that knows the difference.
