Hours after sweeping tariffs were imposed by the U.S., Canadian officials began to make their feelings clear.
“An unjustifiable attack,” a “foolish” failure, a threat to Canada’s sovereignty — or, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau put it, “a very dumb thing to do.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to pick a trade war is a "very dumb thing to do." Trudeau says Canada is fighting back with retaliatory tariffs and will escalate that retaliation if the tariffs don't come off. (March 4, 2025 / The Canadian Press)
Trudeau, speaking to reporters in Ottawa Tuesday morning, accused the Trump administration of starting a trade war against its “closest partner,†while at the same time, seeking to appease Russia, which he called a “murderous dictatorship.â€
Tariffs on Canadian goods imposed by Donald Trump take hold Tuesday. Follow live updates.
On Tuesday, the U.S. imposed 25 per cent tariffs on almost all goods from both Canada and Mexico, along with a 10 per cent tariff on Canada’s energy exports. In turn, Trudeau authorized an initial 25 per cent tariff on $30 billion worth of U.S. goods, with a promise to extend them to $125 billion in American goods near the end of March. He said Canada will also file formal complaints against the U.S. under the World Trade Organization and the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on free trade, which Trump signed in 2019.
Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre speaks during a news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday.Â
DAVE CHAN AFP via Getty ImagesWhat Poilievre and Singh are saying
Leader of the Conservative party, Pierre Poilievre, said Tuesday that Trump has “stabbed America’s best friend in the back.”
“My message to the president is this: Canada will fight back,” Poilievre said, reiterating past calls for dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs.
”(The U.S.) is already paying the price of trillions of dollars raised in stock market value over the last month,” the opposition leader continued. “Your workers will soon start losing jobs.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Canada needs to retaliate against American tariffs by targeting U.S. goods Canada can make, does not need or can obtain elsewhere. He says almost all money collected from counter-tariffs should go to tax cuts, with a small sum set aside for the workers hit hardest by the trade war. (March. 4, 2025 / The Canadian Press)
In a statement released Monday, Poilievre suggested scrapping Canada’s “no-new-pipelines” law, passed in 2019, as a means to gain greater independence within the energy sector, along with allowing increased trade between the provinces.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh in a urged all party leaders to support an emergency recall of Parliament to “immediately put in place measures to protect Canadian workers.”Â
“In this moment, we must be united,” Singh wrote.Â
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is calling for government supports similar to those introduced during the pandemic, adding the tariffs' economic impact may be worse than what Canada experienced during COVID-19. Singh says the House of Commons should be recalled to deal with the needs of workers before an election is called. (March. 4, 2025 / The Canadian Press)
How Canada’s premiers are reactingÂ
Canada’s premiers have also come out in a near-united front against Trump’s trade war.
In a , Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the move would “devastate the U.S. economy, put Americans out of work and raise costs for hardworking (...) families.â€
As retaliation, Ford announced Tuesday that all U.S. products would be stripped from LCBO shelves. Speaking on CNN Tuesday morning, he apologized to the American people for the reprisal and called on residents of Republican states to call their senators to stop the “insanity” caused by Trump.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford arrives at a press conference regarding the new tariffs that the United States place on Canada at Queen’s Park in pc28¹ÙÍøon Tuesday, March 4, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Nathan Denette THE CANADIAN PREShey’re furious,” Ford told CNN when asked how Canadians are feeling about tariffs.Â
Tim Houston, the premier of Nova Scotia, who had already directed his provincial liquor retailer to remove U.S. products from shelves, levied additional retaliations on Tuesday.
 provincial procurement opportunities and “actively†seek to cancel existing contracts. He also committed to doubling the costs of tolls at the Cobequid Pass on Highway 104 for commercial vehicles, effective immediately.
American political and business leaders are also bracing for colder and harder times ahead as
In a lengthy , Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston called Trump a “short-sighted man who wields his power just for the sake of it†and accused the U.S. administration of failing to consider the “destructive†impact of his decision.
“It is impossible to properly describe the uncertainty and chaos that President Trump’s threat of tariffs and now actually imposing tariffs has caused for Canadians,†Houston wrote. “We know tariffs are bad for people and businesses on both sides of the border.”
“Unfortunately,” the statement continues, “some people need to touch the hot stove to learn.”
Wab Kinew, premier of Manitoba, told residents of his province, “We’re going to keep fighting for your families and our economy.”
Speaking to the media just after 12 p.m., British Columbia Premier David Eby accused the Trump administration of shifting the goalposts during negotiations leading up to the initiation of tariffs, which he described as a “threat to Canada’s sovereignty.”Â
“When the president raised the issue of tariffs, he said it was about fentanyl on the border,†Eby said. “I would say that without doubt, the president’s demands were met, and yet it did not matter because obviously, that’s not what this is about.â€
“As the President has repeated many times, he wants to make Canada the 51st state — and Canada will never be the 51st state.â€
In response, Eby announced B.C. retailers would strip all red state products from their shelves.
He went on to assure constituents that their province had “resources that the world needs: cheap, clean electricity, critical minerals, lumber, agricultural products, and tourism, right here in B.C.â€
“We are strong, we are tough, we are resilient, and we are exceptional, and we are ready to meet this moment,†he said. “This is a moment for us to take an attack, and turn it into a source of strength for ourselves as a province and as a country.â€
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the tariffs represent a “clear breach†of the trade agreement signed by Trump himself during his first term, calling them an “unjustifiable attack on Canadians and Albertans.â€
“This policy is both foolish and a failure in every regard,†Smith wrote in a shared to social media. “This is not the way it should be between two of the world’s strongest trading allies and partners. “
Smith parroted Poilievre’s plea to eliminate trade barriers between provinces and scrap the no-new-pipelines law, calling for dozens of construction projects, “from pipelines to LNG facilities to critical minerals projects,†to be fast-tracked.
What are U.S. officials saying?Â
The tariffs drew mixed reactions from U.S. government officials outside of the White House.
At a House GOP leadership event on Tuesday, Speaker Mike Johnson said that Trump’s threat to match all reciprocal tariffs could “(give) countries a dose of their own medicine.â€
In the Senate, Majority Leader John Thune told reporters he hoped the new tariffs will only be in place until the flow of fentanyl into the United States was stopped.
“I’m hoping they’re a means to an end and not an end itself. I think they’re hopefully temporary — designed to achieve a specific result,†said Thune.
On Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote that “a 25 per cent across-the-board tariff on Canada does nothing to bring American manufacturing home, strengthen U.S. supply chains, or create jobs.â€
“Donald Trump promised to lower prices on ‘day one’,†a statement shared by Warren to social media reads, “but now families have to worry about higher costs.â€
Senator for Kentucky, Rand Paul, and senator for Wisconsin, Tammy Baldwin, also shared concerns about rising prices for American citizens on social media Tuesday.
“US tariffs inevitably bring Canadian, Mexican, and Chinese tariffs,†Paul wrote on X, “which means higher prices for lumber, steel, aluminum and more expensive homes and cars.â€
The premier of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, said that he would issue a 25% export tax on electricity sold to the U.S. and may later cut it off completely if U.S. tariffs persist. Ontario powered 1.5 million homes in the U.S. in 2023 in Michigan, New York and Minnesota. (AP Video / March 4, 2025)
While Baldwin said she agreed with Trump’s goal of “stopping the scourge of fentanyl from crossing the border,†she disavowed what she called “knee-jerk tariffs.
“But, where we don’t agree are these knee-jerk, across-the-board tariffs that will crush our farmers and manufacturers and jack up costs for families.â€
By 12 p.m. on Tuesday, one U.S. representative had already to introduce a resolution under the National Emergency Act to the U.S. Congress, which, if passed, could force the tariffs to an end.Â
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