Justin Trudeau Panics, Calls Emergency Meeting After Trump’s Tariff Announcement

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called for an emergency meeting of top advisors in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to impose a significant tariff on all U.S. imports.

The meeting request, first reported by the Guardian, came after a social media announcement by Trump on Tuesday that he would on his first day in office impose a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods and services entering the U.S., following through on a campaign promise to bolster domestic jobs and production. The Republican stated he would “sign all necessary documents” to make the tariffs take effect immediately and that they would remain in place until “such time as drugs, in particular fentanyl, and all illegal aliens stop this invasion of our country!”

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Trudeau, the leader of the country’s Liberal Party, downplayed any disagreement he may have with Trump, telling reporters that both men had a “good” conversation after the social media post. “We talked about how the intense and effective connections between our two countries flow back and forth,” he told reporters. “We talked about some of the challenges that we can work on together.”

As Canada’s largest trade partner, the U.S. exercises tremendous influence over the northern nation’s economy, which remains fragile amid high costs and surges of new immigrants. Recent elections saw the Liberal Party take a battering at the polls, prodding some high-ranking members to recommend that Trudeau refrain from running for reelection in 2025. So far, the prime minister has rebuffed those calls and instead begun tacking more toward the center, as seen in his recent announcement to restrict all forms of immigration into Canada for the next three years.

Canadian politicians and business leaders were split on whether Trump is right to target the nation over the issues of fentanyl and illegal immigration. The Guardian reported that 23,000 illegal crossings were intercepted at the Canadian border last year, a fraction of the 1,530,523 “encounters” recorded along Mexico. In addition, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency lists Mexico, China and India as the top purveyors of fentanyl.

Danielle Smith, the Conservative Premier of Alberta who is frequently at odds with Trudeau, defended Trump’s grievances in a social media post. “We are calling on the federal government to work with the incoming administration to resolve these issues immediately, thereby avoiding any unnecessary tariffs on Canadian exports to the US,” Danielle Smith wrote. “The vast majority of Alberta’s energy exports to the US are delivered through secure and safe pipelines which do not in any way contribute to these illegal activities at the border.”

Candace Laing, chair of Canada’s chamber of commerce, said being a “nice neighbor” to the U.S. isn’t likely to get her country off the hook when it comes to resolving differences with Trump. “To [Trump], it’s about winners and losers – with Canada on the losing end,” said Laing in a statement on Tuesday. “Canada’s signature approach needs to evolve: we must be prepared to take a couple of punches if we’re going to stake out our position. It’s time to trade ‘sorry’ for ‘sorry, not sorry.’”

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