Canadians Welcome Tighter Border Security

President Donald Trump has decided, at least for now, to postpone tariff actions on Canada and Mexico until early March. Trump has long said that his use of import tariffs is a show of economic force against nations that refuse to bend to his demands. But the new U.S. president has not been truly clear about just what, exactly, those demands are for his two closest neighbors

President Trump said he wants Canada and Mexico to stop the flow of migrants and fentanyl at the U.S. border but offers only vague benchmarks to gauge responding efforts. When asked recently what Prime Minister Trudeau could offer to avoid tariff action, Mr. Trump’s immediate response was “I don’t know.”

In a social media post, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described security actions that are already in progress under Canada’s $1.3 billion border plan, which includes deployment of improved surveillance technology along with additional security personnel.

Pierre Poilievre, who is the odds-on favorite to be Canada’s next Prime Minister later this year, was asked what he thought of the Canadian government’s response, and if those actions might be enough to satisfy President Trump’s goals.

“You’d have to ask President Trump what his goals are," he noted.  "We need to protect our borders, not to please any other foreign leader. I’ve been calling to reinforce our border for about eight years now.  And I haven’t been doing that to please anyone in the White House, I’ve been doing it to save the lives of our people.”

According to American Border data, whether it be illegal migration or the flow of fentanyl from Canada into the U.S., it is quite clear that the numbers are less than 1% of the southern border Mexican numbers.

Canada’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ralph Goodale, is a former Canadian Finance Minister and a former Agriculture Minister.  Like Poilievre, Goodale says that Canada needs to beef up its border security – to guard against longstanding smuggling problems originating on the U.S. side.  And Goodale said it appears that every time Donald Trump gets asked to clarify the rational for his tariff action, Trump’s reasons change

“Well, as you know, the rational changes from news conference to news conference. I think the reference to this, which is under U.S. Emergency legislation, is simply a hook to hang the legal basis for the Action. But the facts just don’t support it" Goodale noted.  "The greater problem is the movement of illegal drugs and illegal guns from the United States into Canada.”

The lack of detail in President Trump’s demands appear to be as much of as his strategy as the threat of the tariffs, themselves.

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