Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said Canadians appear to be “stuck” in an outdated mindset when it comes to its dependence on the United States due to the country’s pushback on new tariffs announced by President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, Ontario quickly reversed its decision to impose a 25 percent surcharge on electricity exports to Michigan, New York, and Minnesota after Trump threatened to double steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada in response to the electricity surcharge.
Trump also demanded Canada reduce its hefty tariffs on U.S. dairy products and other “abusive threats,” saying he is prepared to increase tariffs on automobile exports from the country in response.
Pappert said Canada’s response to Trump’s tariffs shows that the country continues to embrace a “globalist ideology” that believes in the U.S. providing the country with economic and defense support at its own loss.
“They’ve been stuck in this old world way of thinking, they think it’s still the 1990s. Most of the planet seems to still think it’s the 1990s where America is dumb and we’re going to pay your bills and float your defense and if you need some money, we’ll create a nice little trade imbalance that way we can lose money and Canada can get some money because it’s not fair that America is doing so well,” Pappert explained on Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“This bizarre globalist ideology was defeated last November. It’s never coming back if we have anything to say about it, and Canada is going to have to get with the program,” Pappert added.
Pappert further said the majority of Canadians supporting its new prime minister’s pushback against Trump reminds him of when Canadians went along with draconian COVID-19 lockdown measures implemented during the pandemic.
“[Canadians] seem a little bit like lemmings. We saw this during COVID-19 where Trudeau comes out and he says, ‘I’m going to lock you in your homes and send you to prison if you dare go outside for more than 15 minutes a day.’ And they’ll just say ‘Okay, sorry then, Mr. Trudeau. I understand.’ It was a very bizarre thing to witness and I think we’re seeing the same thing again,” Pappert said.
“I think that this is the Canadian ethos. As you said, they’re totalitarian, but they’re also just pathological pushovers,” Pappert added.
Moving forward, however, Pappert said he predicts that the overall support for Canada pushing back on U.S. tariffs will “collapse.”
“I predict what we’re going to see here is a repeat of the Biden-Kamala switcheroo. You’re going to see Trudeau’s successor, Carney, get a little bit of support in the polls for a few months while he pursues this trade war against President Trump and once Canadians realize that we have a little bit firmer of a resolve than they do, I think it’s going to collapse,” Pappert said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Donald Trump” by Donald Trump.
