If this fight continues, the federal government may have to consider overriding Danielle Smith’s objections. The pain of tariffs needs to be shared across the country. If Ontario and Quebec are facing tariffs on steel, aluminum and automobiles, every province has to do their part. 

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on March 17, 2025.

OTTAWA—The roller-coaster ride facing our country is unlikely to end soon.

U.S. President Donald Trump is doubling down on his false claims that Canada is responsible for the tariff wars engulfing both countries.

And he continues to repeat that Canada’s best economic path would be to simply join the United States. Trump has been publicly questioning the boundaries between the two countries, and the organizations that manage boundary issues and shared watersheds.

The International Boundary Commission has maintained the integrity of the border since a treaty signed in 1925. The current boundary was surveyed and demarcated in 1908. Since that time, there has been zero claim that the border designation is wrong.

But we are dealing with a president who thinks he can rename the Gulf of Mexico simply by executive order.

He can also decide that news organizations refusing to carry the Gulf of America geographic designation will no longer be part of the White House press pool.

Reuters and the Associated Press have both been kept out of White House briefings for not bowing to the president’s order.

The White House Correspondence Association used to be responsible for managing the media membership and presidential pool access. It has criticized the change in policy, but Trump has said he wants new media included.

The president has also decided to further snuff out free speech by authorizing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport anyone in the country on a temporary permit who participates in legal demonstrations.

So much for America’s First Amendment guaranteeing free speech.

Trump’s disrespect for Canada continues apace, even though the vast majority of Canadians have made it very clear that they are not interested in becoming the 51st state.

The only organized group that seems lukewarm to the fight for Canada is the truckers’ Ottawa occupation group.

Leader Tamara Lich—still awaiting the verdict in her trial for mischief, intimidation and counselling people to break the law—went on social media to complain about the slogan “Elbows Up,” calling it “the stupidest slogan I ever heard of.”

Mike Myers didn’t agree with her. In his recent appearance on Saturday Night Live, the Canadian comedian launched the “elbows up” movement after playing Elon Musk on the show. At the very end of the episode, Myers opened his vest, showing his ‘Canada Is Not For Sale’ T-shirt, and mouthed the words “elbows up” message while crooking his left elbow up. Every Canadian knew exactly what he meant. #ElbowsUp became a rallying cry that Liberal Leader Mark Carney referenced in his victory speech at the party convention last weekend, as did outgoing prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Some of the Liberal government’s more vocal opponents don’t like the unity message. It will be interesting to see how the leader of the official opposition manages this national consensus.

Pierre Poilievre has expended so much political energy to convince people that Canada is broken that it is tough for him to embrace a national, united fight for the country.

His core support draws from anti-vax truckers and if he appears to be too pro-Canada, that could cost him dearly. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has made it clear she will risk nothing in her tariff fight.

While most other premiers appear focused on this existential fight of our lives, Smith heads off to Florida March 27 to headline a conservative event with Ben Shapiro, a strong supporter of the plan to overrun our nation.

“When we take over Canada, you will be expelled to Panama to work the canal,” he wrote in a social post to prime minister Justin Trudeau in January.

Alberta New Democratic Party Leader Naheed Nenshi called Smith’s participation in the US$1,500 ticketed event, “Despicable. These are not the kind of people that Albertans want her associating with,” Nenshi told reporters.

Smith defended her participation, saying she will be influencing millions of followers on Shapiro’s social media account.

The premier has also been on Breitbart, saying she is getting the message out, but unlike Ontario Premier Doug Ford, her main strategy appears to be appeasement.

Smith repeatedly states that Alberta will not retaliate with oil and gas tariffs, even though the brief threat of electricity tariffication got Trump’s attention.

If this fight continues, the federal government may have to consider overriding her objections. The pain of tariffs needs to be shared across the country. If Ontario and Quebec are facing tariffs on steel, aluminum and automobiles, every province has to do their part.

A fuel tariff would be immediate cause a hike in gasoline prices south of the border. Gas-guzzling pro-Trump truckers would not be amused.

Canada needs all elbows up!

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

By SHEILA COPPS
First published in The Hill Times on May 14, 2018.

OTTAWA—Earlier this month, the planet commemorated World Press Freedom Day, launched by the United Nations in the last century.

The recognition, proclaimed by the General Assembly in 1993, coincided with the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement by African journalists about the importance of the free press.

The UN says the day is an “opportunity to: celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; assess the state of press freedom throughout the world; defend the media from attacks on their independence; and pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.”

The Globe and Mail published an homage to those who had been killed. I was shocked at how many journalists around the world were snuffed out in pursuit of truth. The list did not even include those who were injured because they were just doing their jobs.

Last week, Montenegrin journalist Olivera Lakic was shot in the leg outside her home. It was the crime reporter’s second brush with violence. She was attacked six years ago, one of 25 such assaults on reporters and editors working for Vijesti, an independent daily newspaper in the capital of Podgorica.

According to media reports, the newspaper’s general manager has accused the government of characterizing journalists as traitors and state enemies.

Lakic was writing about alleged murky business dealings by top officials in the government, including those in the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists.

The Montenegro experience is not top of mind in this part of the world. But its resemblance to what is happening south of the border is eerie. Just last week, American president Donald Trump took to Twitter to denounce the bad coverage he has been receiving from traditional media outlets.

The new threats were simply the continuation of an ongoing attack on the press. At the beginning of this year, he tweeted a Trump-proposed version of journalism awards. “I will be announcing the most dishonest & corrupt media awards of the year. … Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!”

More recently, the president was ruminating on Twitter that he would consider revoking White House press accreditation for journalists who insist on criticizing him. According to the president, “The Fake News is working overtime. Just reported that, despite the tremendous success we are having with the economy & all things else, 91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake). Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?”

The American president has been largely successful in feeding public skepticism about the fourth estate. Credible news organizations have even been forced to take out ads in broadcast and print media, defending their fact checking and truth-telling.

Most people have already forgotten that “alternate facts” were introduced into the lexicon on the day Trump was sworn into office. He claimed the largest turnout for a presidential inauguration ever. But the pictures told a different story. The crowd gathered in Washington and watching from around the world was only one-third the size of his predecessor, America’s first black president Barack Obama.

While Trump is slagging the media and creating his alternate fact universe, journalists around the globe are risking life and limb in multiple hotspots to get the story out.

In the multi-channel universe, citizens are faced with a startling array of confusing and contradictory claims. Because more time is spent culling internet-based news, like-minded people are sharing a narrow band of conversation, which is not often mindful of the facts.

People are out on Twitter, and Facebook, communicating with those who agree with them and unfriending those who don’t. There isn’t much room in that space for competing perspectives.

Trump himself publicly suggested he should receive the Nobel Peace Prize on the same day that he unilaterally pulled the United States out of the Iran denuclearization deal, notwithstanding the pleas of his closest allies.

Surely, a destabilized Iran is not going to advance the cause of much-needed peace in that part of the world. Notwithstanding the danger of Trump’s move, 18 of his Republican colleagues have nominated the president for the Nobel Prize for his success in getting North Korea to the negotiating table.

The release of three Americans last week was certainly a win for Trump. But from that to the awarding of a Nobel Prize is quite a leap.

The truth gap in Trump’s alternate universe is simply too great.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.