Lack of consensus among premiers about how best to respond to tariff threats

Provincial leaders can't come to consensus on how to respond to Donald' Trump's tariff threat as a potential trade war with the U.S. looms.

Baha Naemi owns a Surrey-based business, called Cancorr, that makes corrugated cardboard sheets. His company exports a lot of packaging to the United States, and it does $60 million in trade to Washington State alone, and says if U.S. President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs go ahead, it would devastate his company.

“It would basically mean closing down shop for a lot of companies in this industry,” he said Wednesday.

The tariff threats sparked another meeting of premiers and the prime minister on Wednesday – this one virtual.

B.C. Premier David Eby posted a video online afterwards, in which he laid out a priority for him and a point of agreement amongst the group.

“Getting rid of those barriers that stop Canadians from buying goods from each other – I mean this is pretty basic, if we’re going to have the United States putting tariffs on our goods, let’s be able to buys stuff from other provinces easily,” he said.

But a unified front from all premiers remains elusive. Eby reiterated Tuesday that no retaliatory measure should be off the table, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford echoed that sentiment Wednesday, calling for Canada to match any tariffs imposed by Trump.

“You can’t bring a knife to a gun fight – usually the guy with the knife loses in a gun fight. We have to make sure that we make these tariffs dollar for dollar,” Ford said Wednesday after the meeting.

But Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has pushed back repeatedly on retaliatory tariffs. Quebec’s Premier Francois Legault prefers more diplomacy and Saskatchewan’s Premier Scott Moe opposes export surcharges or tariffs on Canadian goods.

“We would be against all export tariffs because they’re counterproductive, they’re escalating the conversation around tariffs,” he said Wednesday, also after the premiers had met.

“(It’s) a lack of coherence for messaging,” said UBC political scientist Stewart Prest.

“And I think this also stems from the relative leadership vacuum in the country – we don’t really have a prime minister able to speak credibly for the foreseeable future.”

The lack of consensus or unity amongst the premiers was partly reflected in a poll out Wednesday from Research Co., showing a growing number of British Columbians surveyed – more than a quarter – think B.C. would be better off as its own country.

“So we have this vacuum in Ottawa, and that is what, I think, is making some young and middle-aged British Columbians think, ‘Maybe this is a good idea, if we can look after each other and achieve some sort of sovereignty,’” said Research Co.’s Mario Canseco.