Polling shows Canadians are fed up with the constant harassment from Washington. They want our leaders to go back at Washington hard, even if it hurts us economically.

And rarely do you get the two polar opposites — the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and the United Steelworkers — both stating that it’s better to have no deal than a bad deal.

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Canada, however, has finally shown the leadership that reflects our long tradition of international justice and opposition to genocide. And for this, Trump is threatening to inflict serious damage on our economy unless we back down. What’s on the table is our right to maintain an independent foreign policy.

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Canada and the west have lined up to support the democratic resistance in Ukraine but Trump has always lined up behind Putin. When he first heard about the invasion, Trump declared Putin a “savvy genius”. He blamed President Zelensky for the war. In Trump’s worldview, the oligarch empires have the arbitrary right to reduce their neighbours to vassal state conditions — by economic pressure or by force.