Trade War

 

Trade war is now underway. Trump’s announcement of tariffs on Canadian goods is very destructive to the Canadian economy. I know tariffs are on other countries as well, but frankly, I don’t care – I don’t live in those countries. Trudeau’s hubris and rank stupidity have led us to this point. We’ve been a terrible security partner to the United States, quietly living under their nuclear umbrella whilst shirking our NATO commitments, leaving our borders open for smugglers of all descriptions to cross unimpeded. Canada can no longer even participate in NATO exercises because we don’t have enough functional equipment to field a pretend army to play.

We have a government that has us in a Munchausen by proxy relationship. The government demonstrates its love for its citizens by weakening them, and driving them into poverty and then death… In Canada today, 1 death in 20 is assisted suicide.

The circus clowns of the Liberal government will naturally retaliate in some way. They’d gladly sacrifice jobs in Alberta’s oil patch in the desperate hope of saving a shift at the GM plant in Oshawa. In reality, those jobs are already lost. The notice of plant closure is probably already in the mail, but UAW hasn’t received it yet.

GM is in big trouble right now – they’re going to be forced to recall nearly a million trucks that have engines that may randomly grenade and need replacement. Chrysler/Stellantis is openly trying to sell their Brampton Assembly plant, BYD appraisers have toured the plant, but even without this trade war, I don’t think that deal will fly. Canadian wages are too high, and productivity too low for the Chinese overlords to tolerate. So I think they’ll pass on North America until the uncertainties have settled down. Europeans like electric cars more, anyhow.

If you haven’t been following auto industry news, GM’s L87 V8 engine, particularly the 6.2 L version, can suddenly self-destruct — throwing piston rods that can destroy the engine block. Nearly a million trucks and SUVs are at risk…  GM is currently not producing enough engines to meet the demand for warranty replacements and assembly lines… I’d say it’s a simple solution: close the assembly lines— they have a 6-month supply of cars at dealers already… Push all your engines into the recall program, and satisfy your existing customers ASAP.

Some dealers still have 2023 models they want to move.

I honestly expect the Canadian auto industry to be decimated by the end of the year. Not by this trade war but by simple economics. Canadian plants are too expensive to operate. The auto industry simply has too much capacity; the least productive of that capacity gets killed first… Now in the upcoming election, Trudeau can blame Trump for the failure of the auto industry, and run against Trump instead of Poilievre. This is his best possible chance of holding onto official opposition status.

Published in General
This post was promoted to the Main Feed at the recommendation of Ricochet members. Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 187 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    I “Like” this post, but even you as the author knows, and might even share the feeling, that of course it’s hard to like such a pessimistic conclusion about car manufacturing in Canada.

    • #1
  2. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    OccupantCDN: His best possible chance of maybe holding onto official opposition status.

    Let’s hope he has no chance.

    • #2
  3. E. Kent Golding Moderator
    E. Kent Golding
    @EKentGolding

    Trump!  Because he fights….Canada!

    • #3
  4. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    E. Kent Golding (View Comment):

    Trump! Because he fights….Canada!

    Our longest border is with Canada.  All they had to do was agree to properly police it and prevent drugs and illegals from entering the US.  Not a big ask for an “ally”.

    • #4
  5. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    OccupantCDN: The government demonstrates its love for its citizens by weakening them, and driving them into poverty then death… In Canada today 1 death in 20 is assisted suicide.

    It’s way cheaper than providing that “free health care” .

    • #5
  6. E. Kent Golding Moderator
    E. Kent Golding
    @EKentGolding

    Kozak (View Comment):

    E. Kent Golding (View Comment):

    Trump! Because he fights….Canada!

    Our longest border is with Canada. All they had to do was agree to properly police it and prevent drugs and illegals from entering the US. Not a big ask for an “ally”.

    If we wanted the border policed,  couldn’t we police it?     Just saying that we have bigger problems ( Russia, China, Iran … ) than Canada.    Although it certainly is safer to fight Canada.

    • #6
  7. DonG (¡Afuera!) Coolidge
    DonG (¡Afuera!)
    @DonG

    OccupantCDN: GM’s L87 V8 engine particularly the 6.2 L version… Can suddenly self destruct

    That sounds very expensive in terms of parts and effort.   $10k for the engine and 19.8 hours says Google.   Also, big engines are already in big demand.   I would expect a recall action to be stalled until parts supply is available.  In the meantime, GM will pay for repairs after failure. 

    • #7
  8. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    E. Kent Golding (View Comment):

    Kozak (View Comment):

    E. Kent Golding (View Comment):

    Trump! Because he fights….Canada!

    Our longest border is with Canada. All they had to do was agree to properly police it and prevent drugs and illegals from entering the US. Not a big ask for an “ally”.

    If we wanted the border policed, couldn’t we police it? Just saying that we have bigger problems ( Russia, China, Iran … ) than Canada. Although it certainly is safer to fight Canada.

    Canada is a major source of Fentanyl.  More Americans die every year from Fentanyl OD then died in Vietnam.  yeah, we can police our border.  It would help if Canada cooperated.  Again, an ally, particularly one who is wholly dependent on America for its security would eagerly cooperate.

    • #8
  9. Muleskinner, Weasel Wrangler Member
    Muleskinner, Weasel Wrangler
    @Muleskinner

    DonG (¡Afuera!) (View Comment):

    OccupantCDN: GM’s L87 V8 engine particularly the 6.2 L version… Can suddenly self destruct

    That sounds very expensive in terms of parts and effort. $10k for the engine and 19.8 hours says Google. Also, big engines are already in big demand. I would expect a recall action to be stalled until parts supply is available. In the meantime, GM will pay for repairs after failure.

    That’s what happens when you let Chinese steel into your supply chain. IIRC Trump’s previous tariffs against Chinese steel included Canadian and Mexican auto manufacturers because he claimed they were importing Chinese steel to get around US import restrictions.

    Edit: Meant to say “inferior Chinese steel,” as almost none of the alloys are up to standards.

    • #9
  10. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    OccupantCDN:

    In Canada today 1 death in 20 is assisted suicide.

     

    Wow.

    I’m praying for Canada.

    • #10
  11. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Kozak (View Comment):

    OccupantCDN: The government demonstrates its love for its citizens by weakening them, and driving them into poverty then death… In Canada today 1 death in 20 is assisted suicide.

    It’s way cheaper than providing that “free health care” .

    It’s an option in that “free health care.”

    Remember when they lit up Sarah Palin for saying “death panels?” Good times.

    • #11
  12. Nohaaj Coolidge
    Nohaaj
    @Nohaaj

    Interesting video.  

    How disappointing to hear so many of Canada’s liberal leaders spew their venom about “Trump the convicted felon and sexual abuser” and how they will stand up to this bully.  Good Luck with that.

    Canada used to be such a nice place… 

    on a side note, what does Jasmine have tatted on the inside of her arm?  

    • #12
  13. GPentelie Coolidge
    GPentelie
    @GPentelie

    E. Kent Golding (View Comment):

    Kozak (View Comment):

    E. Kent Golding (View Comment):

    Trump! Because he fights….Canada!

    Our longest border is with Canada. All they had to do was agree to properly police it and prevent drugs and illegals from entering the US. Not a big ask for an “ally”.

    If we wanted the border policed, couldn’t we police it? …

    We can only police our side of the border, of course. But I’m pretty sure we would be happy to police their side as well. I’m also pretty sure, however, that they’re not going to be happy with the bill we’d send them for our services.

    • #13
  14. Red Herring Coolidge
    Red Herring
    @EHerring

    Tariffs are the diplomatic nudge. I hope Canada and Mexico come to terms, on Trump’s terms, so he can drop them. If not, let them continue.

    • #14
  15. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    Gary McVey (View Comment):

    I “Like” this post, but even you as the author knows, and might even share the feeling, that of course it’s hard to like such a pessimistic conclusion about car manufacturing in Canada.

    Yes, Canada from World War 2 on has been a branch plant economy of the United States.

    Canada now has much higher energy prices because of the Carbon Tax, higher taxes in general, at every level of government. This makes us very noncompetitive. 

    • #15
  16. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Percival (View Comment):

    Kozak (View Comment):

    OccupantCDN: The government demonstrates its love for its citizens by weakening them, and driving them into poverty then death… In Canada today 1 death in 20 is assisted suicide.

    It’s way cheaper than providing that “free health care” .

    It’s an option in that “free health care.”

    Remember when they lit up Sarah Palin for saying “death panels?” Good times.

    The second the Soviet Union fell, we should have turned the whole country over to actuaries. 

    • #16
  17. Randy Weivoda Moderator
    Randy Weivoda
    @RandyWeivoda

    Kozak (View Comment):
    Canada is a major source of Fentanyl.  More Americans die every year from Fentanyl OD then died in Vietnam.  yeah, we can police our border.  It would help if Canada cooperated.  Again, an ally, particularly one who is wholly dependent on America for its security would eagerly cooperate.

    It shouldn’t have to come to this, but it may be time for radical measures.  Perhaps Americans could stop looking to get high on illegal drugs all the time.  I know, I know, it shouldn’t be necessary.  We ought to be able to count on foreign drug smugglers to only bring in safe illegal drugs, but sometimes one must deal with the cards one is being dealt.

    • #17
  18. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):

    Kozak (View Comment):
    Canada is a major source of Fentanyl. More Americans die every year from Fentanyl OD then died in Vietnam. yeah, we can police our border. It would help if Canada cooperated. Again, an ally, particularly one who is wholly dependent on America for its security would eagerly cooperate.

    It shouldn’t have to come to this, but it may be time for radical measures. Perhaps Americans could stop looking to get high on illegal drugs all the time. I know, I know, it shouldn’t be necessary. We ought to be able to count on foreign drug smugglers to only bring in safe illegal drugs, but sometimes one must deal with the cards one is being dealt.

    We should have legalized ***hard drugs***, 40 years ago. The government makes it and sells it at cost. You put a shock collar on them and tell them they have to stay within three blocks.  That is the only way you’re going to keep the Mexican cartels from having so much money they can do whatever they want. Now it’s too late to legalize drugs. 

    I keep seeing people talk about our special forces wiping out the cartels. If the military can do it and Mexico is OK with it, I wish we would.

    • #18
  19. Nohaaj Coolidge
    Nohaaj
    @Nohaaj

    RufusRJones (View Comment):
    I keep seeing people talk about our special forces wiping out the cartels. If the military can do it and Mexico is OK with it, I wish we would.

    I think we would have the same success at wiping out the drug cartels as we have had in wiping out radical Islam.

    It is a game of “whack-a-mole”.  Put one sector down, and another pops his head up.  For Radical Islam, they are bred with hate, so they continue and will continue.  With illegal drugs, the financial and power incentives will always breed another gang to step into the vacuum. 

    That doesn’t mean you stop whacking the moles, just understand that it is a perpetual game. 

    • #19
  20. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    I am nine minutes through that video and it’s amazing how many of those guys can talk about Trump’s stupid “legal” issues, and I mean really stupid.

    • #20
  21. Quintus Sertorius Coolidge
    Quintus Sertorius
    @BillGollier

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):

    Kozak (View Comment):
    Canada is a major source of Fentanyl. More Americans die every year from Fentanyl OD then died in Vietnam. yeah, we can police our border. It would help if Canada cooperated. Again, an ally, particularly one who is wholly dependent on America for its security would eagerly cooperate.

    It shouldn’t have to come to this, but it may be time for radical measures. Perhaps Americans could stop looking to get high on illegal drugs all the time. I know, I know, it shouldn’t be necessary. We ought to be able to count on foreign drug smugglers to only bring in safe illegal drugs, but sometimes one must deal with the cards one is being dealt.

    This…it is now the mantra of both the left and the right to defer responsibility to an outside actor…its racism…its guns…or its Canada’s fault…its Mexico’s fault…(am I really living the South Park Movie??)…..can’t be our responsibility that we are taking the drugs or we have allowed the situations to develop that lead to the drug usage…not our responsibility…much better to just blame and yell at someone else…it makes great theatre and stuff for message boards.

    Of course there are measures Canada and Mexico could take but there are measures we also could take ourselves and much better ways to try first  of getting Canada and Mexico on board than just tariffs..and yelling…as I said in a previous post…there are places for tariffs..this is not one. I really hope Canada and Mexico put 100% tariffs on our goods and then shuts down their borders from Americans going…it would be kind of funny to be honest….would serve us right going immediately to 150MPH without trying to work out a solution with our closest allies…again…yes Canada and Mexico have not been perfect but Trumps is a new administration…try some diplomacy for 6-8 months and see where that gets you while at the same time addressing the issues here and I don;’t know…patrol our borders for drugs….

    • #21
  22. GPentelie Coolidge
    GPentelie
    @GPentelie

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):
    It shouldn’t have to come to this, but it may be time for radical measures.  Perhaps Americans could stop looking to get high on illegal drugs all the time.  I know, I know, it shouldn’t be necessary.  We ought to be able to count on foreign drug smugglers to only bring in safe illegal drugs, but sometimes one must deal with the cards one is being dealt.

    Any parents who take the approach that it’s not really their responsibility to do their very best to prevent their drug-addicted kids from having any “friends” smuggle drugs into the house, and that instead their kids should just find the strength within themselves to resist the temptation even when that occurs, are engaging in an abhorrent dereliction of their duties. Doubly abhorrent when accompanied by a big heaping dollop of Snide on the Side.

    Same goes for the government of a nation-state (i.e. with enforceable borders and stuff) who takes that sort of approach in regards to their drug-addicted citizens.

    Ugh.

    • #22
  23. Gossamer Cat Coolidge
    Gossamer Cat
    @GossamerCat

    Red Herring (View Comment):

    Tariffs are the diplomatic nudge. I hope Canada and Mexico come to terms, on Trump’s terms, so he can drop them. If not, let them continue.

    That is my fervent hope.  For 100 days, I am giving Trump the benefit of the doubt on all his actions with the hope that they eventually solve more problems than they cause.  

    But I very much appreciate this OP from one of our neighbors to the north and hope that there is a sizable population who understands that for Trump it is business, strictly business.  Although they did boo the US National Anthem at a hockey game last night.

    • #23
  24. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    OccupantCDN (View Comment):

    Gary McVey (View Comment):

    I “Like” this post, but even you as the author knows, and might even share the feeling, that of course it’s hard to like such a pessimistic conclusion about car manufacturing in Canada.

    Yes, Canada from World War 2 on has been a branch plant economy of the United States.

    Canada now has much higher energy prices because of the Carbon Tax, higher taxes in general, at every level of government. This makes us very noncompetitive.

    I think the Carbon Tax sealed the fates of the US affiliated Canadian auto plants. 

    • #24
  25. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    I just finished the video. Alberta has most of the oil. A barrel of oil has at least 12,000 man hours of labor in it, plus all of the products we have to have from it.

    Importing deflation from the Chinese mafia was the stupidest thing we ever did. They don’t have any oil and they don’t have any food. Blah blah blah they will become a democracy, blah blah blah. What good is it to trade with Russia?

    Having said that all of the countries should have just not traded with China and Russia, opened up the oil spigots, and adopted all of the Austrian economics concepts. Follow this with compact nuclear reactors. Let the actuaries in every country give the government a colonoscopy.

    Problem solved.

    acTUaRIaL sCIenCE iS bOrInG

    Government Is How We Steal From Each Other™

    The Ludwig von Mises Institute Is Right About Everything™

    • #25
  26. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    RufusRJones (View Comment):
    A barrel of oil has at least 12,000 man hours of labor in it, plus all of the products we have to have from it.

    What does this mean?  What goes into producing it?  Because that can’t possibly be true, unless a man hour of labor is valued at less than a penny/hour.   ($80.00/12,000 = .$0067)

    • #26
  27. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Quintus Sertorius (View Comment):
    …..can’t be our responsibility that we are taking the drugs or we have allowed the situations to develop that lead to the drug usage…not our responsibility…much better to just blame and yell at someone else…it makes great theatre and stuff for message boards.

    The government sells hard drugs at cost. We let people kill themselves with these drugs. Problem solved, except  now the cartels have too much money.

    • #27
  28. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Miffed White Male (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):
    A barrel of oil has at least 12,000 man hours of labor in it, plus all of the products we have to have from it.

    What does this mean? What goes into producing it? Because that can’t possibly be true, unless a man hour of labor is valued at less than a penny/hour. ($80.00/12,000 = .$0067)

    Look it up. It’s between 12,000 man-hours and 25,000 man hours. 

    • #28
  29. DonG (¡Afuera!) Coolidge
    DonG (¡Afuera!)
    @DonG

    Kozak (View Comment):

    If we wanted the border policed, couldn’t we police it? Just saying that we have bigger problems ( Russia, China, Iran … ) than Canada. Although it certainly is safer to fight Canada.

    Canada is a major source of Fentanyl.  More Americans die every year from Fentanyl OD then died in Vietnam.  yeah, we can police our border.  It would help if Canada cooperated.  

    Part of Trump’s order is that it allows the customs folks to inspect all packages and require manifests for all packages instead of the current limit of items valued >$800.   Canada doesn’t want us inspecting 100% of packages (too slow) and will work to block illegal entry of humans and drugs.   China will not be happy, because they consider a million ODs to be an American problem.   Canada and Mexico can no longer act as compliant pass-throughs for CCP drugs.

    • #29
  30. DonG (¡Afuera!) Coolidge
    DonG (¡Afuera!)
    @DonG

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    Miffed White Male (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):
    A barrel of oil has at least 12,000 man hours of labor in it, plus all of the products we have to have from it.

    What does this mean? What goes into producing it? Because that can’t possibly be true, unless a man hour of labor is valued at less than a penny/hour. ($80.00/12,000 = .$0067)

    Look it up. It’s between 12,000 man-hours and 25,000 man hours.

    nonsense.    I would believe that a barrel of oil can save 10,000 hours of labor, but that a producing a barrel of oil takes 10K hours of work.

    • #30
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.