By Scott Taylor
In his first few weeks back in the Oval Office, US President Donald Trump has launched a torrent of executive orders in such rapid succession as to be almost impossible for opposition parties and the media to focus on a single topic.
Political strategists note this is a deliberate tactic known as 'flooding the zone'. Therefore I will not get distracted by the chaff in the form of Trump's wild plans to annex Greenland, reclaim the Panama Canal and, perhaps most bonkers of all, Trump's call for the US to own the Gaza Strip and turn it into the 'Riviera of the Middle East'.
Instead I will focus only on those issues which directly affect Canada and Canadians. From the time he won the election and prior to his actual inauguration, Trump repeatedly threatened to impose a 25% tariff on all Canadian and Mexican imports.
At first Trump emphasized the financial necessity for the tariffs, claiming that the trade deficit between the US and Canada amounted to a 'subsidy' to the Canadian economy. In making his argument Trump used his trademark exaggeration to claim that the current US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) free trade agreement was perhaps 'the worst trade deal in history'.
For the record, that USMCA was negotiated in 2018 by the first Trump administration to replace the NAFTA agreement. When he signed USMCA, Trump boastfully proclaimed it was perhaps 'the best trade agreement in history.' But I digress.
As the tariff deadline loomed, Trump changed his tack and began demonizing Canada for not managing our shared border efficiently. Trump actually claimed that Canadian negligence at policing the border had resulted in the deaths of more than 300,000 American citizens through fentanyl overdoses. Sadly, Trump's statistic of 300,000 fentanyl related deaths since the opioid crisis began in 2010 is accurate. However to blame Canada for the entire tragedy defies all logic.
Over the past twelve months, a total of 18 kilos of fentanyl was seized by authorities at the US-Canada border. Comparatively, over 9,000 kilos of fentanyl was seized at the US-Mexico border.
In their latest report, the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) lists the three major illegal fentanyl importers into the United States as China, Mexico and India in that descending order. Canada was not even on that list.
However, Trump is the President of the United States of America and he has the powers to punish Canada. As such Canadian leaders began finding creative solutions to solve a problem that does not exist.
With much fanfare and media hoopla, it was announced that the RCMP had acquired two Blackhawk Helicopters which will be used to better secure our border. These military grade utility helicopters were freshly painted with the RCMP logo and reporters filmed RCMP tactical teams loaded into the back.
While this might make for good theatre, these Blackhawks are being leased from, and operated by an Ottawa based company. While these helicopters have the impressive standard range of 590 kilometres, it must be remembered that the Canada-US border is 8890 kilometres long. I also question the role of a tactical team in intercepting would-be migrants attempting to cross our border.
Mexico earned a 30-day tariff reprieve from Trump when they offered to send 10,000 soldiers to patrol their border. Given Canada's woefully understaffed Canadian Armed Forces, such a deployment was not an option. Instead Canada agreed to deploy more drones, police officers and add another $1.3 billion to the border budget.
This was enough of an effort to earn us the same 30-day tariff grace period which Trump afforded to Mexico.
To fully appease Trump we further agreed to appoint a 'Fentanyl Czar' before that 30-day window expires. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith had earlier proposed that Canada name a border Czar in the form of a recently retired general.
For those puzzled by sudden proliferation of made-up sounding Czar titles, you are not alone. The term 'Border Czar' was coined by the Trump election team to demonize Vice President Kamala Harris.
Czars were of course Russian monarchs with absolute powers. The insinuation that Harris had such sweeping powers as a 'Czar' meant she could be blamed for any shortcoming related to the border.
Then Trump got elected and I guess it sounded like a good idea. One of his first acts was to create his own Border Czar and he named Tom Homan to the post. Now it would seem Canada will create our own Czar (or two), all to fix a problem that does not exist.
