As everyone knows, the Canadians have their maple syrup panties in a wad and are baby-soft elbows up, warding off the evil capitalist Americans while playing the current round of 'Trade Wars.'
It all blew up last Friday, when the Canadians inexplicably walked out on what the United States thought was a done deal - a 'fantastic deal - the best deal in the world,' as Commerce Secretary Lutnick said this afternoon.
And we've been treated to nothing but the Syrupean version of 'They so mean!' with tiny Canadian Prime Minister Carney's posturing over slapping tariffs on US goods and tough talk about going outside the US for better deals for any camera ever since.
We are stronger now than when the United States started this trade war. More unified, more determined and more ambitious. pic.twitter.com/H6e0WNahjA
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) August 23, 2026
The trade war 'the US started.'
Weellll...
In the intervening days, though, while turning this into even more of a carnival show, there have been some interesting facts coming out about Canada's long-standing double-dealing with us. The kind of easy cheats that had always cost the US in the lopsided trade arrangement would no longer be tolerated in the new agreement.
For one thing, it turns out Canada had been routinely importing cheap Chinese steel and aluminum and passing it off as Canadian in origin for auto parts, etc., to bypass the US 'melt-and-pour' rules and tariffs.
Here’s the key issue: Canada was bringing in Chinese steel and aluminum and selling it as Canadian steel to help China avoid tariffs
— Department Of Deportations (@DoDeportations) August 23, 2026
When told to knock it off, they refused. This is why the trade deal collapsed
We cannot allow China to build a proxy state on our border
It's called 'transshipping.'
One reason the Canada-US trade deal collapsed:
— Cecile Shaw (@CecileShaw) August 23, 2026
Canada could not promise / would not stop Chinese steel being transshipped into auto parts & then into the U.S. market.
The U.S. requires a strict “melt and pour” rule. Steel must be melted and poured in North America to qualify… pic.twitter.com/xQ8XTUpJhz
Steel must be melted and poured in North America to qualify for preferential treatment.
This stops Chinese steel from entering Canada, getting light processing, and crossing the border as “North American” content to evade tariffs.
Recall The Canadian Steel Producers Association and Aluminium Association of Canada have both publicly confirmed Chinese dumping is happening, warning Canada risks becoming a dumping ground for China’s excess steel and aluminum.
A recent White House report on the “transshipment scam” also listed Canada as a problem country in China’s shadow network for evading U.S. tariffs.
Canada failed to deliver enforceable guarantees. Mexico accepted the melt-and-pour requirements, raised tariffs on Chinese steel and auto parts, and closed the back door.
Canada left it open and the deal fell apart.
Mexico was willing to enforce its guarantees that transshipping would not happen. Canada was not.
The DOJ settled just such a case with a Canadian firm this year.
For anyone who’s claiming I’m lying - the DOJ just settled a case over it earlier this year.
— Department Of Deportations (@DoDeportations) August 24, 2026
This has been an ongoing issue. pic.twitter.com/8G7Vm2XvaR
Carney's also been talking about slapping tariffs on US goods, with, naturally, the retaliatory 'back atcha, buddy' from the US.
But it seems as if the Syrupeans really hadn't thought this fish-slapping dance through when they started it.
There's the issue of Canadian oil. Everyone was talking tough about hiking the tariff on Canadian oil exports to the US up by 50%, and some fire-breathing radicals even wanted to cut off the flow to the lower 48 entirely to teach us a lesson.
HAH! ELBOWS UP NOW, HOW 'BOUT IT!
But it seems as if everyone running their mouths hadn't done a lick of research about Canadian oil products to begin with.
All their black gold travels through US pipelines because Canadians are too prissy to allow it, and/or the individual provinces are at war with each other and will not allow a pipeline from, say, Alberta, to transit British Columbia to reach a port for export.
Picture of how Canada gets oil from Alberta to Ontario and Quebec
— IQ 589 | Cody Penn-Dent | Effluencer (@codypd) August 23, 2026
Canadians are talking about “cutting off” the US from Canadian petroleum and natural gas
What they will end up doing is cutting Canada off from Alberta’s petroleum and natural gas pic.twitter.com/wjyC8HPNMX
They're pathetic. What's even more pathetic is that the people in charge spewing this blustering nonsense had no idea before they opened their pieholes.
JUST IN - Doug Ford discovers that Canadian oil is shipped through the US back to Canada
— Tablesalt 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@Tablesalt13) August 26, 2026
"I have to give credit to Danielle Smith, she came up with these ideas to reroute Canadian oil through Canada"
This is unbelievable. They didn't KNOW about this massive risk. pic.twitter.com/hSpI4eIQPo
The woman in charge of arguably the financial breadbasket of Canada says, 'Are you all out of your maple leaf pickin' minds?'
KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY
Im sorry but serious question. Are all the politicians in Canada mentally ill, or just so corrupt? Asking for the rest of the non mentally challenged Canadians who pay your salary
— NEXUS DRIFT MUSIC (@MusicBizVet) August 27, 2026
It's no wonder Albertans want out of the Confederation.
Carney came up with a list of tariff targets, and one of those items on the hit list was Maine lobsters.
Until it wasn't. Why?
Because the prime minister of Canada did not realize that the Canadian seafood industry pretty much lives or dies on Maine lobsters and the whole Atlantic seaboard seafood catch for processing. Coincidentally, the Trump administration had been working to make the fishing regulatory process even easier for American fisherfolk to work with.
This is a fascinating little trade war boomerang and carries some pretty obvious electoral politics underneath it.
— Alise Mills (@DiaryofaFixer) August 27, 2026
So Canada reportedly pulled US seafood from its retaliatory tariff list after Atlantic Canadian producers pushed back hard —🦞 is a big reason why.
And Maine was… https://t.co/ec7YPRKUQG
...And Maine was likely wasn't chosen accidentally. The apparent strategy by the Carney government was to hit a politically sensitive Republican state, create economic pain in the lobster industry and increase pressure on Senator Susan Collins who's heading into a consequential midterm. Canada hoped that pressure eventually travelled back to the Trump White House.
Except there's a poblem no one in Carney's world seem to think about. Canada buys Maine lobster.
The Atlantic seafood economy is deeply integrated. American catch comes north for Canadian processing, packing and redistribution, so a 25% tariff doesn't exclusively punish Maine fishermen but punishes Canadians because it raises input costs for Canadian processors =threatens Canadian jobs.
And ICYMI my post on new US fishing regulations –the devil is all the 'small' moves.... The Trump administration has been moving in precisely the opposite direction here. They've reduced regulatory barriers, reopening fishing areas and deliberately making US seafood, especially Maine lobster more competitive after decades of their fishers complaining about how unfair the Canadian regulations were. (What they had to throw back, Canadian fishers kept)
So to sum this up... Ottawa risked taxing an American industry our own processors depend upon, while inviting US retaliation against Canadian seafood just as Washington is expanding domestic production through deregulation.
All caught up? 😉
That's not clever leverage. It's a boomerang.
The best part? Ottawa apparently tried to weaponize Maine lobster politics against Washington — and Atlantic Canada effectively forced Ottawa to protect the American supply chain it was trying to hit.
OOF!
And now the American trade representatives have been turned loose to tell their side of the story, and some of it is actually filtering back on Canadian broadcasts.
It's not pretty.
CBC just aired a version of the Canada–U.S. trade story Canadians rarely hear. 🇨🇦 🇺🇸
— wealthmoose (@wealthmoose) August 24, 2026
Trade expert Kelly Ann Shaw says Washington was prepared to ease tariffs on steel, aluminum, lumber and autos.
The price?
Canada dropping retaliatory measures involving alcohol, dairy and…
...retaliatory measures involving alcohol, dairy and autos so both sides could “start with a fresh, clean slate.”
That deal collapsed.
Her warning now: buckle up for months of friction.
And one detail cuts through the rhetoric:
Roughly 95% of Canadian imports still enter the U.S. tariff-free under USMCA.
This was never simply “America attacking Canada.”
It was a negotiation over retaliation, leverage and trust.
Then came the most CBC ending imaginable:
“Some people are going to disagree with what you’re saying…”
Translation:
Thanks for presenting the part of the story that doesn’t fit neatly into the preferred narrative.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dropped an intriguing hint today that something else was at play with Carney's irrational walkout...
Scott Bessent just went straight at Carney’s political incentives. 🇺🇸
— wealthmoose (@wealthmoose) August 27, 2026
His point: Carney won by campaigning against Trump and selling “Canada vs. America.”
So here’s the uncomfortable question:
When the trade deal was on the table, was Carney negotiating for Canada or…
...When the trade deal was on the table, was Carney negotiating for Canada or protecting the political narrative that got him elected?
If anti-American politics became part of the bargaining strategy, Canadians may be paying for it in jobs, investment and higher costs.
That deserves scrutiny.
...and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick may have just blown the doors off the entire sham.
He believes it was all about upcoming elections in Quebec, where, at the moment, polling indicates that Carney's Labor Party is going to lose. So he believes the prime minister had to stage a little bad-boy tantrum to impress the anti-American French Canadians that he hates us, too, and is tough enough to handle Trump.
This is an eye-opening couple of minutes.
DO I CARE ABOUT HOW THE QUÉBÉCOIS SPEAK?
Lutnick "It was manufactured. So there's the Sovereignty Party trying to run and they're in the lead in Quebec."
— cbcwatcher (@cbcwatcher) August 27, 2026
"And so this was Mark Carney manufacturing something that would try to keep them from winning."
"So (Carney's) making this a political thing for Canada."
"...These… pic.twitter.com/uXvrDodZ0N
'...My guess is as soon as his elections are over we'll see a planeload of Canadian negotiators going 'Come on, come, we'll give it to you before your elections.''
The French he spoke of, I believe, refers to a blurb I read days ago claiming the US had rejected the deal because we wouldn't allow the Canadians to censor Netflix with their censorship law, nor would we mandate that Netflix be able to be translated into French. When I read it at the time, I thought surely that's just some argle-bargled report out of the blue, as it made no sense.
But apparently the Canadians heard it in their heads, and US Trade Representative Jamison Greer has tried to elaborate further on it within the past few hours.
🇺🇸 U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer just went on CBC and seriously challenged the story Canadians were told about why the trade deal collapsed.
— wealthmoose (@wealthmoose) August 27, 2026
According to Greer:
• The alleged “attack on French” was tied to Netflix recommendation rules.
• Trump did not suddenly… pic.twitter.com/IlCDrz0uR7
• Trump did not suddenly change the deal at the last minute.
If that account holds up, then the biggest question becomes unavoidable:
Did Carney walk away from a deal Canadians were told Washington had blown up?
Because that would completely change the story.
Not “Trump moved the goalposts.”
Not “Canada had no choice.”
But a Canadian government making a deliberate decision to scuttle an agreement — and then selling the fallout as something Washington caused.
That deserves answers.
Even the Montreal Gazette is taking the US side on this.
The truth is coming out little by little.The U.S. did not attack the French language. They wanted an ease in the Canadian demand to control content from streaming platforms like Netflix. The U.S. still believes in the freedom of speech. Canada not so much. https://t.co/Z4wUmTDzNL
— CheektowagaStan (@CheektowagaM) August 27, 2026
The Canadian government is still in an elbows-up position, but I believe the more that Canadians learn about how their prime minister has manipulated the process, the outcry is going to be huge. The harm it will cause Canadians will far outweigh any harm to the United States, because many Canadian businesses deal only with the US, as it's nearly impossible to work with businesses in the province next door because of provincial tariffs and trade bans. The way they are over-regulated is insanity.
President Trump looked like he was having a good time today, fanning those flames, though.
🚨 BREAKING: @POTUS signs an Executive Order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 27, 2026
Here is the text of the Order:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose and Policy.… pic.twitter.com/ggfLXiD0g7
At least he didn't do it in French.
Beege MORE: Ah! Here's Carney claiming it was all about Trump wanting to take French away from the Canadians.
Holy SMOKES, this is something.
"President Trump demands Canada change its French language, Quebec culture and Canadian identity as a condition for reversing tariffs. This is no longer about a trade deal-it is about a takeover of Canada's sovereignty and identity."pic.twitter.com/iXAZmPxT0k
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) August 23, 2026
And I also just learned that Trade Rep Greer speaks fluent French, so sending him into these negotiations was like having Marco on hand in South America - a ringer at the table.
BUSTED. Carney was caught lying to Canadians. Again. Parti Quebecois learned about it, through the New York Times. The US Trade Representative, who speaks fluent French and has a son born in Paris, confirmed that the French language and sovereignty were never a topic of… pic.twitter.com/mbfMVWFhvd
— 🇨🇦 Antonio Tweets (@AntonioTweets2) August 27, 2026
...confirmed that the French language and sovereignty were never a topic of discussion. Today, the government decided to cover up their lie, with another lie. A revisionist approach to what actually happened instead of them taking ownership for lying to Canadians. This is how the Liberal government manipulates public perception & lies to avoid accountability.
Aren’t you tired of all the lies?
I’m exhausted. Canada needs a new leader immediately
What a fool Carney is.
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