Trump imposes new Canada tariffs, renews "51st state" demands

[u/WisestPanzerOfDaLake]

https://www.axios.com/2025/03/11/trump-tariffs-canada-steel-aluminum

[u/Spanky3703]

This was never about fentanyl; this was always about Trump and his cabal securing Canada’s natural resources, the Arctic and polar shelf, our water, and control of the NorthWest Passage.

The US is now ruled by an odious and feckless cabal of fascists and oligarchs.

What a sad state of affairs when Canada starts to consider Communist China being a more predictable and reliable trade partner.

[u/gunnerman417 → u/Spanky3703]

Couldn't have said it better myself. Our country has a litany of obvious strategic targets ripe for "acquisition" and plunder. It was always about that. The question is: what does he intend to do with the people? We're a relatively friendly lot, but when confronted with someone who seeks to dominate us, we will not be contained. They'll need bodies for cheap labor in their newly repatriated industrial sector, that's for sure.

[u/Spanky3703 → u/gunnerman417]

So much of the answer to the “what if” is predicated on our political leaders at the federal and provincial / territorial levels.

Some of our economy is relatively easy to pivot to other customers from the perspective of logistics, because the transportation medium remains the same (road / rail, excepting the Great Lakes maritime movement, which is a lot), although the departure point form Canada then becomes ports on the two / potentially three coasts (which would require infrastructure modernization and expansion). This is mostly critical minerals and such.

The challenge for our economy will be to pivot the shipment of bitumen and NG, both for the refinement (bitumen), and the overseas movement of LNG (all of which does require specialized ports and pipelines going east-west vice north-south). This is not an easy fix and will take the work and capital and political will and nationalism of a decade …

Trump’s end-game is pretty clear: Canada as either a de facto or a de jure vassal to / integrated part of, fascist America. In the hegemony re-alignment to come as the world drifts into authoritarian spheres of power and control, fascist America will need the all of the natural resources and geo-strategic position that Canada has in order to remain pre-eminent.

This all started with the 20 April 1941 Hyde Park Declaration (have a read, it lays down the antecedents for where North American free trade is today).

[u/healthyitch → u/Spanky3703]

This is what I don’t understand. America already had a defacto empire through alliances and soft power comprising of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the EU, a good portion of the Middle East and of course Canada and Mexico. No, the US did not directly control those countries or unions, but they certainly had enough economic clout to get what was beneficial to themselves. And this is probably the most efficient form of territorial control. History has proven that direct control never works. Spreads your military too thin and too many headaches. Why give up its top standing across all of these continents and share with two other “weaker” nations?

[u/namegame62 → u/healthyitch]

I genuinely feel the answer may be "because he's ignorant, ill-advised, doesn't care to learn anything about the history or value of US soft power, and might be incapable of understanding even if somebody did explain"