The premier of a Canadian province launched a blistering attack on U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, calling him a “bad person” and “not to be trusted” and urging Canada to keep fighting rather than rush to make concessions in trade talks with Washington.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said Canada has leverage in the talks even as his province weighs restoring U.S. alcohol sales at Prime Minister Mark Carney’s urging to help secure a deal that would avert threatened 50% U.S. tariffs.
“Everybody knows the American president by now, he’s erratic, he’s irresponsible, and he’s not to be trusted. And this is the person that we were supposed to make a deal with, and we’re going to make additional concessions for it. That’s why I say you can’t make a good deal with a bad person, because who’s to say it’s not going to be undone?” Kinew said.
Like, have you ever heard of Manitoba (or any other province) setting import tariffs on US/foreign goods? No. When you import a good into Canada, does Manitoba CBSA charge you import fees? Do provinces even have their own CBSA? It is demonstrably false that provinces can set foreign trade policy without federal involvement and frameworks. They cannot tariff, set quotas, or even lower tariffs or import fees. They can buy and sell with foreign entities but only from within the confines of federal agreements like CUSMA, which is negotiated federally. Provinces can direct Crown Crops like liquor commissions to not buy goods made available via CUSMA, but they cannot change the terms of CUSMA to allow new goods, change import tariffs and fees, etc.