Donald Trump wants Canadians talking about “Lake America.”
Fine.
I’d rather talk about six bloody great Canadian icebreakers.
Because while the President of the United States was once again generating headlines with another ridiculous provocation aimed at Canada, something considerably more important was happening up here.
Canada was spending money.
Building things.
Protecting industries.
And retaliating against American tariffs without simply throwing taxes at everything crossing the border.
That part deserves our attention.
Canada Just Hit Back
On August 25, Canada announced retaliatory tariffs covering roughly $20 billion worth of annual American imports.
The tariffs range from 15% to 50% and cover around 700 American products.
They take effect September 8.
And this isn’t simply Canada saying…
“You tariff us, so we’ll tariff whatever American stuff we can find.”
The list includes products in areas such as steel, aluminum, machinery, paper products and other manufactured goods.
That’s important.
Because retaliation can hurt the country doing the retaliating too.
A tariff is a tax.
Put one on something Canadians need and can’t easily replace, and congratulations… you’ve just made Canadians pay more.
That’s not much of a victory.
The better strategy is to find places where Canada has alternatives, where Canadian producers can supply more of the market,
and where the American supplier suddenly becomes the expensive option.
That turns retaliation into something potentially much more useful.
Domestic demand.
Here’s Where This Gets Interesting
One day before Canada announced those tariffs, Mark Carney was in Lévis, Quebec announcing something else.
More than $11 billion to build six new Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers at Chantier Davie.
It is the largest shipbuilding contract in Quebec’s history.
The first steel is expected to be cut next fall.
The first ship is expected five years later.
Eventually, all six will replace aging heavy and medium Coast Guard icebreakers.
Now connect those two stories.
Canada is facing American tariffs on important Canadian industries.
Canada is retaliating against selected American products.
And at the same time, we’re spending billions building enormous pieces of Canadian infrastructure that require Canadian workers,
Canadian industrial capacity, steel, equipment, engineering and a whole supply chain behind them.
That’s the part I like.
Don’t just complain about tariffs.
Build something.
That’s a Much Bigger Idea Than Six Ships
For decades, Canada got comfortable with the United States being the easy answer.
Need a customer?
America.
Need a supplier?
America.
Need a market?
America.
Need equipment?
America.
And for a long time, that made economic sense.
Then Donald Trump came along and demonstrated the weakness in the arrangement.
Dependence works beautifully right up until the fellow you’re depending on decides to use it against you.
That’s the lesson I don’t want Canada forgetting when this trade war eventually ends.
Because Trump will eventually be gone.
Our vulnerability shouldn’t survive him.
Those icebreakers matter because Canada needs them.
But the philosophy behind them matters even more.
Build here.
Buy here where practical.
Develop Canadian industrial capacity.
Find customers outside the United States.
Create alternatives before we desperately need them.
And stop assuming tomorrow’s America will behave like yesterday’s America.
Trump’s Tariffs Created Their Own Incentive
Here’s the funny part.
Trump’s strategy is supposed to make other countries more dependent on America and move investment into the United States.
But when you repeatedly threaten your customers, those customers start shopping elsewhere.
And when you repeatedly make American products more expensive, other countries start asking whether they can make those products themselves.
Canada doesn’t have to replace everything it buys from America.
That would be foolish.
The United States remains an enormous neighbour, customer and supplier.
Trade between our countries isn’t disappearing.
But dependency and trade are not the same thing.
We can trade heavily with America without building an economy that becomes helpless whenever an American president gets angry.
That’s the reset Canada needs.
And Then There’s “Lake America”
Yes.
Trump really did publicly float the idea of changing the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America.”
He can talk about names.
He can post pictures.
He can insult Canadian leaders.
He can manufacture another day’s outrage.
We should probably get used to it.
Because every hour Canadians spend arguing about the latest Trump provocation is an hour we’re not talking about what Canada is actually doing.
That’s the trap.
The important question isn’t…
What did Trump say today?
It’s…
What did Canada do today?
That’s where I’m increasingly looking.
Did we build something?
Did we find another customer?
Did we protect an industry?
Did we strengthen our Arctic?
Did we reduce a dependency?
Did we create Canadian jobs?
Did we make ourselves harder to bully next time?
Those are the numbers I want on the scoreboard.
Retaliation Doesn’t Mean Losing Our Heads
There will be people who want Canada to retaliate against everything American.
I don’t.
There will be others who think Canada should avoid retaliation altogether because upsetting Washington might make things worse.
I don’t buy that either.
The smart answer sits between the two.
Use leverage where Canada actually has leverage.
Target retaliation where it can produce political and economic pressure without unnecessarily punishing Canadians.
And use this crisis to accelerate investments we should probably have made years ago anyway.
That isn’t anti-American.
It’s pro-Canadian.
There’s a difference.
The Best Retaliation May Not Be a Tariff
I’ve been thinking about this for months.
Maybe Canada’s most powerful response isn’t what we stop buying from America.
Maybe it’s what we start building without them.
Ships.
Defence equipment.
Energy infrastructure.
Critical-mineral processing.
Manufacturing capacity.
Transportation corridors.
New export markets.
Every one of those makes the next American threat slightly less frightening.
That’s real leverage.
Not chest-thumping.
Not slogans.
Not another politician standing behind a podium promising to “fight.”
Options are leverage.
And Canada needs more options.
This Fight Is Bigger Than Trump
That’s the other mistake we can’t make.
We cannot build Canada’s strategy around waiting for Donald Trump to disappear.
Maybe the next American government repairs the relationship.
I hope it does.
But hope isn’t an economic policy.
Canada has now seen what can happen when access to the American market becomes political leverage.
We can’t unsee it.
So keep trading.
Keep negotiating.
Keep talking.
But keep building too.
Trump can call Lake Ontario whatever the hell he wants.
We’ll call it Lake Ontario.
And while he’s busy making headlines...
Canada has ships to build.
The Recap…
Trump wants Canadians talking about “Lake America.”
Canada just announced retaliatory tariffs on roughly $20 billion in U.S. goods… and more than $11 billion to build six icebreakers in Quebec.
One produces headlines.
The other produces Canadian capacity.
I know which one matters five years from now.
The Gut-Punch…
Trump’s biggest mistake may be teaching Canada how expensive dependence on America can become.
And once Canada learns to live with more options, Washington may discover that leverage is much easier to lose than it is to get back.
Source credit:
This article was developed from research notes supplied from a current-affairs video transcript and independently checked against current reporting and Government of Canada information. Key figures and announcements were verified against the Prime Minister of Canada, Reuters, Associated Press and CPAC reporting.
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Yeah the Lake America nonsense is jsut a clown show off to the side of the main act. I can spare a moment to look over and laugh at the clown, but I'm not worried about it nor do I think anyone else really is. He can call it whatever he likes, it will always be Lake Ontario
So, I m all excited about the PM s commitment to open negotiations with Europe this fall. As soon as next week? Because the world looks like it s got to make a lot of reinvestment in supply and war economies and that means more money going in new places and why not us? Seems to me if they want to keep an eye on what the US is up to they ll do well to be building over here just like we did in Europe post war.
We need to open new transport systems, eg to Chuchill and I hope lots more rail. We ll need people from everywhere which means feeing and housing and moving and educating and amusing and so on.
The weather s changing which is harsh but also holds promise for the North to open more.
It s going to be a very different world in 25 years and I wish I could see it.
The USA will be hot or melted or drowned or diseased; the Four Horsemen will take. a heavy toll and maybe we ll finally get a solid border. The 21 Century will be Canada s.