Commentary
The controversy over tariffs between Canada and the United States—and the partially related issue of illegal migrants, drugs, guns, and other objects crossing the Canada-U.S. border—is having the beneficial effect of causing Canadians to think about making this country more independent of American influence and also a more efficient economy for competition in the world.
As I touched upon here last week, the most irritating aspect of the current controversy is the flippant manner in which Canada was likened to Mexico, and the official conduct of the two countries was implicitly deemed by the U.S. government to be equally objectionable. President Trump made it clear that his principal grievance in the case of both countries was illegal immigration and drug imports, which as a practical matter has nothing to do with tariffs. Nor is what crosses the border of a sovereign country a legitimate subject of complaints by that country, since every country has both the right and the duty to make its borders as easy or as difficult to cross for people and goods as it wishes….