Seems it was a waste of our time and money. If anything, Canada should be asking the USA to increase their own border security as guns and drugs come into Canada at a much larger scale. And why even have a fentanyl czar etc if none of our actions will stop the tariffs? This was never about the border or drugs but Trump said jump and Canada asked How high?
Canada asked How high?
This isn’t true. Canada re-affirmed that it was going to spend money that had already been allocated and agreed to join a task force that was a Canadian proposal to begin with. The only new thing was appointing a fentanyl “czar,” which is insignificant. Mexico similarly gave up nothing new. Let’s not help Trump spin his failures into victories.
Actually, the money we allocated to border control occurred in December 2024, at least a month before Trump threatened tariffs. Trudeau then gave it a fun name (Fentanyl Czar) and Trump accepted that as yielding to his demands. We didn’t budge an inch, but we bought ourselves a month.
And we also bought ourselves the perception of being the “reasonable ones”, with the US being even more blatantly painted as flagrant deal-breakers.
That will be useful as we build new alliances with the rest of the world.
And while they try to make new deals.
We allocated $1.3b in early December as a response to Trump’s initial tariff threat.
Monday’s 270-page budget document outlined key new expenditures including C$1.3 billion for border agencies over six years, an attempt to avert Trump’s threat of 25% tariffs unless the flow of migrants and fentanyl over the crossing is halted.
We budged.
I don’t think it was the wrong choice, but I don’t think it had the desired effect.
I see the other side of that where we’re upping border control in case Trump decides he wants to invade. That’s not a bad thing.
And you think that allocation was unrelated to Trump?
It’s time Canada stopped relying on the United States for anything. If we want to be our own country, not beholden to any other country then we have to be prepared to stand on our own two feet. That means we have to stop thinking we can help every other country in the world and start thinking about how we secure Canada. And it’s going to cost because we need a functional military including the ships that will be required to patrol our coast lines. And that does not come cheap.
We still depend on other countries for trade, however I do agree that we need to start doing more within our country to facilitate trade of finished products rather than parts of products.
I agree 100%. Well said
This isn’t about fentanyl. More flows into Canada from the USA than to the USA. It was just a petty excuse to start mounting pressure on Canada in a long game to attempt annexation. Trump has made this abundantly clear and even said there’s nothing Canada can do to avoid tarriffs.
Well he has made his statement that joining the US will stop the tariffs but that ain’t going to happen!
He also was asked afterwards whether there was anything Canada can do to stop the tarriffs and he said no. We should not believe this man for a second.
Asking the US to do anything for us doesn’t sound like a good plan, they’re no longer reliable.
Hopefully the extra enforcement around ‘fentanyl crossing south’ in practice is used to prevent unwanted incursions in both directions, namely guns north.
they’re no longer reliable.
I hate to say it but any term limited democracy is unreliable
Well, then, there’s a possibility America will become reliable once Trump abolishes term limits. /s
If things keep going as they are we might want that border security to keep people out of Canada.
/s
‘/s’ but not really.
Fuck em’. Lets join the EU and make some new friends. Or team up with mexico! Best way to play this game is to not play at all. Lets divest, pull the plug and re-orient with new partners.
I believe we need to finalize the CANZUK agreement, not join the EU.
This was never about the border or drugs
You got that right. That stuff was pretty much all post-hoc improvising to attempt to make trump’s ridiculous tariff idea seem less irrational and stupid.
I’m waiting to see what nebulous and impossible task he comes up with this time in the 11th hour, one last chance for Canada to prove its worth to the imitation mob boss who’s running the country down there.
I agree though, whatever he wants this time, we should call his bluff. As much as he wants to paint Canada as the abuser stealing billions from the american economy, everyone can see that the opposite is true. Deleting our trade deal with them will be hard at first, but it will ultimately be a good thing for Canadians.
This was never about the border or drugs but Trump said jump and Canada asked How high?
This, sadly. I do not think a single thing Canada will do will have Trump change his tune. He has been told Canada has been screwing the US for whatever reason, and now he wants revenge like all the other actions he has taken this term so far. Still, I think we need to at least try, that way the more sane Americans (and the rest of the world) will hopefully realize that attempts were made by Canada, programs were put into place at the US’s request, and all ignored by Trump.
He believes there is a deficit because on the books the US is paying more to Canada than Canada is paying the US. He believes it should be the other way around, he is just forgetting that Canada sends more product down to the US so they pay Canada more.
This more product is oil and natural gas May I remind you that we sell it to the US at a discount.
It’s like he’s forgotten that trade consists of both money AND goods. We’re not just passing money back and forth while secretly keeping some of the USA’s cut. Like even kids can understand this. And yes it’s even more infuriating since we’ve been good to the USA, I’m sure many countries around the world would love a neighbour like Canada.
They’re going to negotiate again, he said this last time too. That’s the game. Threaten, try to get something, repeat.
He’s just a bully, and we should take our oil and energy and go play elsewhere.
Sometime needs to deal with those 40 lbs of fentanyl.
I doubt we will and I suspect it was a symbolic gesture from us to begin with.
Does anyone know if any money was actually spent?
It looks like Canada bought a lot of DJI “drones” but USA refused to have them close to their border because it’s a chinese spy tool…
