One thing I despise about the US (gun violence and healthcare inequitability aside) is how it measures the value of everything in money.

It’s culture is a commodification machine. Nothing can just be beautiful for the sake of being beautiful, it has to be made into a side hustle somehow.

Most Americans are married to their jobs and have little work life balance relative to Canadians and Europeans.

There is a remarkable amount of mental gymnastics done by people trying to gaslight themselves into thinking this is what they want, even though most would be happier and healthier with more time off.

Theres a reason why he isn’t making the same threats against Mexico.

There’s a reason he wants to resettle Palestinians before redeveloping Gaza.

Canadians and honestly most of the world hate American healthcare and gun laws.

Exactly, theres no way this triggers WW3 unless Canada starts working more closely with China immediately and even then it’s unlikely China goes to bat for Canada. Western countries have gotten way too comfortable with the US.

I mean if you’re going to dog on minorities then you gotta dog on the white people he has majority support from.

Oh so this is just layperson’s math on the back of a napkin. Thanks for clarifying.

Trump and his ilk are trying to spread the idea that the US doesn’t have to buy the $482 billion worth of goods ans services from Canada and its doing so essentially as a ‘favor’.

Canada does not have the systems in place to sell to the rest of the world efficiently, especially oil. Which is part of why the Canadian economy is more dependent on the US than vice versa.

It looks like ~20% of the $482 billion figure you’ve cited is oil which the US could reasonably procure from elsewhere, even domestically, if there was a will to do so. Especially considering that Western Canada Select is high in sulfur and needs more refinement, making it less valuable on the global market.

Source? Does this include energy / oil or only consumer goods?

It’s America we’re talking about. This is a nation that traverses oceans and continents to shed blood for oil. An export tax on it from one of its major suppliers would be enough. The US would no doubt be able to weather any import tarriffs imposed by Canada but it will be bad for business for them. Canadian officials have already made a list of items they’re going to target which would impact $35+ billion in American goods.

Doubt that Trump sticks with this, and if he does, Canada is going to bring the US along for the ride kicking and screaming until it stops hitting itself.

There is no winning for Canada here. Most Canadians are well aware of that. The goal is to make it hurt enough for Americans for the mutual hurt be as short-lived as possible.

As an elected official, Trump has to answer to the American people. If his policies worsen the affordability crisis (and retaliatory tariffs from Canada will achieve that for a notable subset of Americans) then he may be compelled to reverse course.

It’s a good thought but much less practical than retaliatory tariffs. I don’t think there is precedent (in recent times) of Western nations overtly violating each other’s intellectual property rights.

Isn’t the US leading the world in AI? How else will the world access chatbots that make confidently make shit up?