Real talk: is there such a thing as a non-tariff response to what the US is doing that doesn't amount to, essentially, rolling over while the US to curb stomps us? What's the alternative? Because 70% seems low.
this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2025
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Recalling all Canadian hockey players in the American hockey league?
Cutting off the power we supply to them.
Isolated places like Point Roberts would be screwed, and the rest of the US would feel it too.
I’m highly skeptical of the impact this would have, I don’t think the US would feel it much at all. Those isolated places are about it but that probably wouldn’t last long and I doubt US leadership cares much.
Plus that and a lot of the other stuff people are suggesting are single-use weapons. We can only do them once. Be wary of using such measures so early into this.
Real talk: is there such a thing as a non-tariff response to what the US is doing that doesn’t amount to, essentially, rolling over while the US to curb stomps us?
There's definitely more drastic responses. Rather than simply imposing a tariff, you could go really extreme and throw up a full blown embargo of US goods. You could put a tax on exports (lumber and energy) equivalent to their tariff on imports, further discouraging trade on those goods because you know the US buyers are working against an inelastic good. You could threaten to withdraw from NAFTA or start entering into friendlier trade agreements with US rivals (start doing more business with China or start selling direct to Cuba or Nicaragua or Venezuela).
Retaliatory tariffs are just seen as equal-and-opposite and therefore a legitimate reprisal. The other stuff would be (not unfairly) seen as an escalation and likely upset more than just the Trump base of support.
I love how 1/3 of your population is similarly batshit insane to about the 1/3 of ours that elected him.
This is why I say it's not the American people who are to blame. I wish more people understood this. Canadian society isn't immune from the exact same thing coming up here, especially if the CPC wins and sells us out to the US. Lord knows too many of our population is culturally indoctrinated by US social media platforms.
70% of the US population DID NOT vote for Trump—they were either disillusioned with democracy (abstained) or voted for the least-bad option (Kamala). And of the remaining 30%, many of them don't necessarily like Trump so much as they were duped enough into thinking he was less bad than the alternative.
There's a 20-30% threshold of people who will believe just about anything.
Or it could just be that 30% haven't been paying attention to the news for the past month or so.
In my experience, up to 30% are just fucking idiots.
Why retaliate with tariffs which only hurt Canadians and not strategically embargo certain good exports and eliminate US IP protections in the US?
They haven't been planning blanket tariffs on everything, at least not initially. If you've been following the news, officials specifically said they were trying to avoid tariffs on things that affect average Canadians as much as possible. The starting plan was to target red states and Tesla, last I heard. We've also got a deal with Japan for selling oil and likely Europe will want some too. Then there's turning the lights off via the Hydroelectric supply.
The retaliatory tariffs are being strategically chosen and placed in a way that impacts magas the most.
A bunch of Americans do, as well!
It's important for Canadians to remember we need you more than you need us.
More specifically I think it's important for Canadians to remember this is a working class vs capitalist issue. Not an American working class vs Canadian working class issue
Just put full embargo’s on potash to start. See how they do with spring on its way and farmers needing fertilizers.