Never mind the insults. It's time for Canada to hit the U.S. where it really hurts

Walking away was the wise move. So what’s our next move, exactly?

We’ve been told to stand by for dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs — details to come by Labour Day. But let’s not labour under any illusions.

So-called counter-tariffs mean more of the same measured, targeted, calibrated, quintessentially Canadian half-measures that attract little attention in America. And consistently fail to deter more punishment from President Donald Trump.

We have to hit harder and smarter. Where it hurts, not just where it’s easy and effortless.

That means hitting Americans in a different pocketbook — not through tariffs that hurt U.S. exporters, but with export taxes that target American importers and consumers who depend on our most valued commodities (notwithstanding Trump’s fatuous and false declaration that he needs nothing from us).

Canadian energy powers their manufacturing, fuels their cars and heats their homes. Our uranium supplies their military. Canadian potash fertilizes their crops. Our aluminum and critical minerals keep their economy moving.

To be sure, neighbours don’t let neighbours freeze in the dark or go without food. So nobody is talking about cutting off American customers.

That’s why export taxes or surcharges — the mirror image of import tariffs — are the long overdue solution to the presumption that America can dictate the terms of engagement, by picking and choosing the Canadian industries it wants to hobble or hijack.

It’s not just up to Canada’s federal and provincial governments. By definition, all Canadians are part of Team Canada, which is why everyone should redouble existing consumer boycotts, because nothing beats the power of purchasing power.

Beyond alcohol, autos made mostly in America also cry out for boycotts. So does discretionary travel to U.S. tourist destinations.

Our past playbook, based on predictable tariff reprisals, hasn’t worked before and won’t work now. Instead of a counterattack, our counter-tariffs are almost counterproductive.

Targeted tariffs only trigger escalation by the Americans, who have just proclaimed more tariffs to come in January. As Prime Minister Mark Carney himself argued last year, the U.S. economy is 10 times bigger than Canada’s, so the impact of dollar-for-dollar tariffs on them is barely one-tenth of the effect on us.

America’s tariff war devastates our auto industry and steel sector, but Canadian counter-tariffs are merely a mosquito bite for the diversified U.S. economy. Which is why most Americans keep tuning out Canadian breast-beating — they fret about rising gas prices caused by their shooting war with Iran, not the increased cost of hockey sticks from a tariff war with Canada.

Beyond the trade war, the same can be said for the war of words pitting Trump’s team against Team Canada. It may be emotionally satisfying, but it is economically irrelevant.

Premier Doug Ford spoke for many Ontarians when he invited Trump to “kiss my ass.” It quickly got the president’s attention — he promptly badmouthed “Governor Carney, and his Flunky, Ford” — but it changed nothing.

Yes, Ford deserves credit for cultivating the American media to get the message out that Canada is America’s biggest customer. But it’s not reaching the American heartland.

In truth, the truth hurts only if the truth gets through all the falsity and fallacies sweeping America. If Canada’s message had penetrated, if Ford’s rhetoric had gotten through by now, Trump wouldn’t be attacking Canada so recklessly and relentlessly.

This isn’t tough bargaining between two sides; it’s a rapacious scorched-earth policy mounted by a bully focused on hegemony, not sovereignty. Trump and his team long ago gave the game away by belittling Canadian nationhood, which explains their strategy of dismantling our economy and destroying our sovereignty.

An existential attack requires an existential response — through export taxes on essential commodities. Not a cut-off, just an end to cut-rate prices.

Ford briefly flirted with electricity surcharges at the outset of the trade war, but backed off after Trump threw a tantrum. Ford later aired TV ads merely quoting U.S. president Ronald Reagan’s critique of protectionism, but took them down after Trump threw another tantrum.

Both times, Ford opted to give negotiations another chance by de-escalating, but time’s up. Now, Ontario’s call for export taxes has been echoed by former prime minister Jean Chrétien, who agrees it’s the only way to get the attention of Americans.

Ultimately, the U.S. has a choice. It can continue to sabotage bilateral trade — undermining essential trade flows of Canadian commodities that are critical to its economy — or it can reverse course and respect its past free trade agreements.

First, though, Canada has a choice to make. Are we serious about this existential crisis, or are we going to keep falling into the same trap of dollar-to-dollar counter-tariffs that only delay the day of reckoning?