On July 27, Angus Reid released results of a poll of 1,790 randomly selected Canadians, said to be representative of Canadian society; the upshot of the findings — fewer than 1 in 10 Canadians (7%) say we should capitulate to the Trump administration’s demands to avoid tariffs. A strong majority want to respond with counter tariffs, with 34% keen to match US dollar tariffs, and 28% preferring to respond in a more limited fashion.I wonder how many of the respondents work in Canada’s directly affected major industry sectors, like the auto, steel, cement, aluminum, tool and die, or forestry industries? Or were most of the respondents in the ‘elbows up’ category, comfortably set in their lives, retired from or working in the public service where retirees get a defined pension at 70% of their salary, or were they people in other comfortable settings, like Mom and Dad’s basement?“Elbows Up” was the Liberals’ popular election campaign theme, signifying an aggressive hockey-style push back to Trump tariffs and mocking statements about us becoming the fifty-first State.Canada’s economic collapse is imminent. There’s a loss of entrepreneurs, the wealthy, the skilled, and the educated, as a StatsCanada infographic recently detailed.The poll on tariffs leads Canadians down the garden path by addressing lightweight trade issues, not the harsh reality ahead if we don’t make a deal.The poll touched on three sticking points on the US side: Canada’s ban on US-made vehicles, Canada’s dairy supply management, and the ban on US brands in liquor stores in Ontario and British Columbia.Nowhere in the framing of the poll does Angus Reid explain that Canada relies on the US for some 76.45% of its trade (2024) and that millions of jobs are at stake. Doesn’t that put the liquor and dairy issues in better perspective?.Many Canadians have been persuaded by Prime Minister Carney’s sonorous tones claiming “We’re moving fast — to build more, trade more, and sell more to the world.” His jet-setting global expeditions to find new trade partners look impressive, and people believe that selling into new markets is an easy switch. After all, everyone says “Canada has what the world wants.” Sure. But at what price? And how much does it cost to ship it to them across thousands of kilometres of oceans on either side of us, compared to hopping over the border?As revealed by analysis of Eugene van den Berg in Friends of Science Society’s Open Letter to Carol Rogers (Sr. Deputy Governor) Bank of Canada, “between 2001 and 2024, the number of partner countries increased from 37 to 103. Canada increased the number of destinations; it did not expand the value range at the top end. More countries are now sharing smaller slices of the export pie — diversification by count, not by value.”In other words, we greatly diversified our trade partners, and we made less money.In a January 23 interview with Politico, following Prime Minister Carney’s much-lauded, but misstated speech at Davos, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “In the context of the United States, I’ll point out the Canadian economy is smaller than the economy of Texas.”So-called “Elbows up economic patriotism” is about as smart as hitting oneself in the head with a hammer. One has to ask why pollster Angus Reid, which claims to be nonpartisan, is again, as they did in their wildfire/climate change poll, asking polling questions without including vital context.You may argue that it is an opinion poll, and opinions should not be swayed by pollsters framing questions with facts. However, opinion polls are influential in setting public policy, so should we not have more informed opinions than completely uninformed ones?The gist of the Angus Reid poll on trade makes Canadians sound like a defiant David standing up to an American Goliath over national cheese, cars, and booze, when the trade situation and our geography are much more like a marriage of two people that is going through an unhappy phase. They both have a lot invested in each other’s past and present — but the couple is fighting about the dishes in the sink, rather than addressing the neighbourhood decline in security and taking action to protect their mutual interests..Senior manufacturing and trade advisor to President Trump, economist Peter Navarro explains the US perspective in this podcast.Indeed, the US sticking points mentioned in the Angus Reid poll are one thing, but from the get-go of Trump tariffs, the larger issues in this more ‘dangerous and divided world’ that the US raised were those of fentanyl, illicit drug trades, money laundering, criminal gangs, and Canada admitting unvetted terrorists. With few exceptions, like Alberta’s improved border patrol, Canadians passed all that off with “elbows up” bravado — but these issues are destroying Canada as much as they are also impacting the US. Just three days before Angus Reid issued their cheese poll results, a joint cross-border operation and police raid resulted in the seizure of 1.7 tonnes of illegal drugs and weapons in Ontario!Likewise, the Trump administration has abandoned climate change activism completely, while Canada’s Prime Minister is still trying to make the case for ‘decarbonized oil.’ The US is Canada’s largest oil and gas customer. Seems like a no-brainer that our largest and most proximate trading partner, whose people share language, culture, and history with us, should be the country we should make our best efforts to find an immediate win-win negotiation, reasonably align policies, and stand together in this dangerous and divided world.That doesn’t mean we have to kow-tow; it also doesn’t mean we have to be rude and belligerent. Or silly.The reality of the numbers above should wake up every Canadian to what’s truly at stake.But let’s do a poll about dairy supply management.Elbows down.
