Despite being married for nine years, Maia Bettina and Dounald Hernandez consider themselves compatible in every aspect. They both like to travel, they’re major foodies, and they love cats and dogs.
Every aspect of their relationship feels compatible, except for their political beliefs.
Even though the two don’t let political differences stifle their relationship, the two Alaskan residents’ values sit on different ends of the spectrum. Bettina voted for Trump in the last election, while Hernandez voted for Harris.
Hernandez said he believes it’s difficult to see how truly bad everything will be this early on in his presidency. Despite this, he said he wasn’t concerned about the U.S. and its relationships with other countries yet.
“The orange baby thinks the American presidency means he’s king and will keep demanding things until everyone bows down to him. America can still afford to fend for itself until the world calls the crybaby’s bluff and stops playing with him,” he said.
Bettina considers herself a Republican with a conscience. Although Trump’s tariffs are concerning at first, they are a beneficial negotiation tactic that can be used to revisit trade deals.
“As we’ve seen, this approach yielded results, as both countries are now working with us, and the tariffs were postponed for 30 days,” she said.
Trump’s tariffs have been looming over the heads of Canadians for the past month, with the 30-day pause announced on Feb. 4 giving Canadian consumers time to prepare for price increases.
Canadian policymakers, however, are left to decide the best course of action by trying to understand Trump’s strategy and goals.
Ian Lee, an associate professor of business management at Carleton University, said that Trump’s logic is largely based on ignorance.
Lee wrote an article for the National Post this month detailing his insight on a document written by Stephen Miran, one of Trump's economic advisors.
Titled A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System, Lee said in an interview with Humber Et Cetera that he believes many of the points Miran brought up are radical and concerning.
Miran touches on the Bretton Woods system, a global agreement that established the American dollar as the universal currency for trade due to its worth and its safety.
Miran argued in the document that these countries demand access to the American market but then restrict American access. For Canada, Lee said there are many pieces of legislation that either deny or restrict access.
Lee said legislation such as the Telecom Act and the Broadcast Act denies entry to American companies. Other legislations, such as The Bank Act, impose different restrictions on foreign banks compared to Canadian banks.
Lee said since the 1970s, Canada's supply management policies have restricted American dairy and poultry exports from selling higher prices than Canadian goods to Canadian consumers.
Miran said in the document it’s unfair to America, as he believes U.S. allies are free-riding and not paying their share and have therefore overvalued the American dollar.
“They have a very clear vision, completely contrary to what your leaders have said. We’re going to force you to open up your economy, and we’re going to do it with tariffs until you scream,” Lee said.
In the document, Miran proposes creating a world with two groups: those supporting the U.S. and those “on the other side.”
Lee said this proposal mirrors what the world experienced in the 20th Century between the Soviet Union and NATO.
Lee is referring to the Cold War, a political rivalry that existed between the U.S. and the Soviet Union between the Second World War and the fall of the U.S.S.R. During this period, both leaders imposed tariffs and trade restrictions with each other and their respective allies.
“China and its allies will trade within its block, and America and its allies with opened economies will trade in the American or NATO block. And then we have to decide, do we want to be inside this block or the other block?” Lee said.
Blayne Haggart, an associate professor of political science at Brock University, said he shared the same concerned perspective as Lee.
“We’re moving towards a world of hard regions. The United States is being much more coercive with its allies than it ever was during the Cold War,” he said.
Haggart said the most important thing to know about Trump is he isn’t a businessman. He says he’s a gangster.
“He doesn’t pay his bills. He tries to litigate his way out of problems, basically by daring people to sue. He was never locked up for his crimes until he was already in the White House, and now he will never face justice,” he said.
“His goal is to dominate. I think about Premier (Doug) Ford or Premier (Danielle) Smith saying we’re going down to Washington, and we’re going to negotiate. That won’t work. At most, it will deliver temporary peace. But as we’ve seen, even with all this tariff nonsense, he’ll just come back for more because he’s a gangster, and he is not engaging in negotiations,” he said.
Lee said he disagrees with Canada’s decision with retaliatory tariffs. He said America’s economy is much bigger than Canada’s, with Canada destined to lose in this fight. Instead, he believes negotiation with America is the solution.
“We need to negotiate the best possible deal from them, the hegemony, and they’re going to demand things from us and we have to figure out what are we willing to give up,” he said.
Both Haggart and Lee said Canada needs to diversify its trading partners. While Lee said there were many opportunities for Canada to do so through its fuel sources, Haggart said Canada would need to build up its economy first.
“There’s a reason we haven’t diversified, it’s because it’s difficult. We’ve got this market that’s right there and it costs money because we’re basically an island outside the United States and it costs money to trade into other markets,” Haggart said.
Haggart said that despite these cons, he sees the positives in Canada receiving the opportunity to reevaluate what it wants to do as a country. He said it comes to mind after seeing the outpouring of patriotism from Canadians uniting together because of the tariffs.
One video shared on TikTok shares hockey fans in Montreal booing the American national anthem, before singing Canada’s national anthem.
“If we take this opportunity to ask what do we want, what are our values and how do we want to promote them? What makes Canada preserving and how do we promote that?” Haggart asked.
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