ICYMI

Canada’s Justin Trudeau Uses Farewell Speech to Hit Trump

USES THE DIMINUTIVE; 'DONALD'

Julia Ornedo
Sun, March 9, 2025 

Blair Gable / REUTERS


Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took parting shots at President Donald Trump on his way out of office.

Trudeau is expected to step down this week once Mark Carney is sworn in as prime minister after winning the Liberal Party’s race for a new leader. Trudeau announced his resignation in January in the face of deep unpopularity.

Speaking to members of the Liberal Party on Sunday, Trudeau took swipes at Trump’s trade war, annexation talk, and his administration’s policies to dismantle the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“As Canadians face from our neighbor an existential challenge, an economic crisis, Canadians are showing exactly what we are made of,” Trudeau said. “Canadians are showing what it is that makes us Canadians—not by defining ourselves by who we’re not but by proudly embracing who we are.”


“We’re a country that celebrates the right of each and every person to be who they want to be, to pray as they pray, and love who they love,” he added. “We’re a country that will always defend a woman’s right to choose. We’re a country that will be diplomatic when we can but fight when we must elbows up.”

Tensions between Canada and the U.S. have heated up since Trump took office and imposed sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods, prompting Trudeau to clap back with tariffs on products made in the U.S.

Trump has also repeatedly expressed a desire to annex Canada as the 51st U.S. state, which Trudeau shut down by asking a trade of American states for Canadian territory.

It’s not just politicos who are in a standoff. American and Canadian sports fans have also been booing each other’s national anthems before games as the relationship between the two nations continues to get icy.


Newly Elected Canadian PM Mark Carney Immediately Vows He Won’t ‘Let Trump Succeed’ in Trade War

Stephanie Kaloi
Sun, March 9, 2025 



Mark Carney, Justin Trudeau’s successor in Canada’s Liberal Party, vowed the country “will not” let Donald Trump “succeed” with his attacks against “Canadian families, workers, and businesses” in his victory speech Sunday night.

Carney was voted into office as Prime Minister Sunday. In a clip being shared on social media, Carney referenced “someone who is trying to weaken our economy” before making it clear he meant Trump.

“Donald Trump, as we know, has put, as the Prime Minister just said, unjustified tariffs on what we build, on what we sell, on how we make a living,” Carney said. “He’s attacking Canadian families, workers and businesses, and we cannot let him succeed. And we won’t.”

Carney defeated three other candidates in the party’s election. Carney, who stepped down from Harvard’s second-highest governing body, the Board of Overseers, upon being elected, will be sworn into office this week.

Carney was the favorite to win the race and did so soundly, earning 85.9% of his party’s vote.

The Harvard Crimson reported Carney said elsewhere in his speech, “My government will keep the tariffs on until the Americans show us respect. In the meantime, we will make sure all the proceeds — all the proceeds from our tariffs— will be used to protect our workers.”

“Canada will never ever be part of America, in any way, shape, or form,” he also said.

If Carney’s coalition is successful, Canada will hold a general election by October 2025. Carney can also choose to call for an election at any time.

The party election marks the end of an era that began when Justin Trudeau, the oldest son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, was elected in 2015.

“I leave as leader of the Liberal Party with the same belief in hope and hard work as when I started,” the younger Trudeau wrote on X on Sunday. “Hope for this party and for this country, because of the millions of Canadians who prove every day that better is always possible.”

Trudeau announced his resignation on January 6, 2025, “I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust, nationwide, competitive process,” he said at a press conference at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa. “Last night, I asked the president of the Liberal Party to begin that process. This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me that if I am having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election.”

“My friends, as you all know, I’m a fighter. Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians. I care deeply about this country, and I will always be motivated by what is in the best interest of Canadians,” Trudeau noted. “And the fact is, despite best efforts to work through it, Parliament has been paralyzed for months after what has been the longest session of a minority Parliament in Canadian history.”

“That’s why this morning, I advised the Governor General that we need a new session of parliament. She has granted this request, and the House will now be prorogued until March 24 over the holidays,” he continued. “I’ve also had a chance to reflect and have had long talks with my family about our future. Throughout the course of my career, any success I have personally achieved has been because of their support and with their encouragement.”

Trump adviser hopes Canada fentanyl dispute will be solved by end of March

DRUG WAR IS BS EXCUSE FOR TARIFFS

Reuters
Sun, March 9, 2025 


FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Sunday he was hopeful a dispute with Canada over accusations of the deadly fentanyl opioid entering the U.S. across its northern border could be resolved by the end of March.

His comments on ABC News's "This Week" raise the possibility that tariffs due to be reimposed by U.S. President Donald Trump at the end of the month could be stayed further.

Hassett said the on-again, off-again tariffs that Trump was imposing on Canada were a reflection of the president's concerns over drug smuggling.

"We launched a drug war, not a trade war," he said. "We've got the drug war, which we're hopefully going to solve by the end of the month."

In reality, Canada is responsible for a minuscule proportion of drug smuggling into the United States and it wasn't immediately clear what progress Hassett was referring to.

Hassett, who directs the White House's National Economic Council, further muddied the waters over the administration's intentions when he referred later in the interview to America's "trade war."

Democratic U.S. Senator Adam Schiff from California, who appeared after Hassett on ABC, called the adviser's comments "incomprehensible."

(Reporting by Raphael SatterEditing by Bill Berkrot)



Trump admin. says tariffs meant for 'drug war, not trade war'

ANOTHER TRUMP-KNOW NOTHING

Mark Moran
Sun, March 9, 2025
UPI

U.S. President Donald Trump listens as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick speaks after announcing a $100 billion U.S. investment by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. File Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI


March 9 (UPI) -- Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that the Trump administration's threatened 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports will start Wednesday and tariffs on Canadian dairy and lumber products will go into effect on April 2.

National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett said in an interview with ABC News' "This Week" that the tariffs are not meant to start a trade war.

"What happened was that we launched a drug war, not a trade war, and it was part of the negotiation to get Canada and Mexico to stop shipping fentanyl across our borders," Hassett said.

"As we've watched them make progress on the drug war, then we've relaxed some of the tariffs that we put on them because they're making progress."

Lutnick, in an interview with NBC News' "Meet the Press," said the tariffs would go into effect and remain until both countries are satisfied with how the flow of fentanyl into the United States is being handled.

US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC in February. Elon Musk's demand that more than two million federal employees defend their work is facing pushback from other powerful figures in the Trump administration, in a sign that the billionaire's brash approach to overhauling the government is creating division. Photo by Al Drago/UPIMore

Hassett claimed Canada is a "major source" of fentanyl imports, despite the fact that the country is only responsible for 0.2% of illegal imports of the drug into the United States, according to CNN.

President Donald Trump on Sunday responded to concerns that tariffs could cause a recession in the United States.

"I hate to predict things like that," Trump told Mara Bartiromo on her Fox News show. "There is a period of transition because what we are doing is very big."

Trump predicted that his approach to reshaping the economy will take time but ultimately benefit U.S. farmers. He also said Sunday that the tariffs "could go up." He added that he plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on countries that put them on U.S. goods.

Economists have said Trump's approach is unusual and unprecedented, and making American consumers and businesses nervous.