B.C. premier appears on Fox News making case against pending tariffs

B.C. Premier David Eby, right, appears on Fox News Weekend with Jon Scott on Feb. 2, 2025.

With the threat of a potential trade war looming, B.C. Premier David Eby pleaded his case for international co-operation directly to Fox News viewers.

In an interview with Fox Report Weekend host Jon Scott, the premier disputed U.S. President Donald Trump’s characterization of an unfair “trade deficit” with Canada.

“To hear that the perspective is that we’re been taking advantage of the Americans is bizarre,” Eby said Sunday. “We provide what America needs to grow. We provide metals, minerals, lumber, energy. We’re really good partners.”

Speaking directly to viewers, Eby warned that a trade war with Canada would lead housing prices, fuel prices, electricity prices and grocery prices south of the border to surge.

“Your pasta is made out of Canadian wheat,” he said. “For Pete’s sake, why are we doing this? Let’s get back to working together and focusing on areas of shared concern.”

On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Trump’s proposed tariffs of 25 per cent on nearly all Canadian exports – which had been expected to take effect Tuesday – were delayed “at least 30 days,” as have Canada’s retaliatory measures.

The decision followed new commitments from Canada to hire 10,000 frontline personnel to protect the border, deem cartels to be terrorist organizations, and appoint a “fentanyl czar.”

Asked Sunday about Trump’s stated concerns about potent and addictive drugs being smuggled into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico, Eby stressed that the governments should be working together to address the problem.

“Our hearts are filled with rage about the predators who traffic this around the globe, who move those precursor chemicals from China into Canada,” Eby said on the Fox Report. “If the president has information, let’s bring our top intelligence and law enforcement officials together and fight this hard. That is the path forward. We want to fight that just as badly as he does.”

A graphic on the screen indicated a total of 19 kilograms of fentanyl had been seized along the Canada-U.S. border in the last fiscal year.

Scott also questioned the premier on local retaliatory measures he proposed for B.C., which include ceasing to stock provincial liquor stores with American products exported from red states that helped elected Trump.

“We’re tiny compared to the United states. You guys are huge. When an action like this is taken against our country, we have to fight smarter,” Eby said, adding that the intention is to put pressure on elected officials in those states who support the trade war. “We don’t want this fight. We didn’t sign up for this.”

Stewart Prest, a political science lecturer at the University of British Columbia, suggested Eby’s tone – conciliatory, peppered with misgivings about striking back – was the right way to approach his target audience.

“If we come in really fiery, if we come in making this about attacking Americans, then Americans are going to get their backs up,” he said. “Then we’re going to ignite some of that same kind of patriotic, nationalistic fervor that we see here in Canada.”

“We have to really make it clear – from the outset, and again, and again – that this is not a conflict of our choosing,” Stewart added. “None of this we do with glee or with anger, but rather it is a kind of necessary result to demonstrate that Canada will not be pushed around.”

Much uncertainty remains about whether Trump will go through with his tariffs of 25 per cent on everything but Canada’s energy exports, on which he proposed a tariff of 10 per cent, next month.

If a trade war does happen, Stewart said it would be wise strategically for Canadian leaders to appeal directly to the president’s base, so they will be connect the expected cost increases to the tariffs, and might make their displeasure known with their representatives in the U.S. Congress and the Senate.

“Ultimately, the final arbiter here will be American public opinion,” Stewart said.

“If it turns against this trade war, then we can hope it will end in the relatively near future – but as long as people are indifferent, or not really noticing what’s happening and why, then the administration can really continue with a relatively free hand.”