Canada should not respond to potential U.S. tariffs with retaliatory tariffs, as this would primarily harm Canadian consumers by driving up prices. Instead, Canada should leverage its industrial and technological capabilities to undermine the monopolistic rent-seeking of American corporations by legalizing and promoting third-party modifications, repairs, and alternative marketplaces for technology, agriculture, and other industries. By dismantling restrictive intellectual property laws—many of which were imposed under the USMCA trade agreement—Canada could become a global hub for jailbreaks, independent app stores, and right-to-repair solutions, thereby reducing dependence on U.S. tech monopolies and fostering a new high-tech economy that directly benefits Canadian consumers and businesses.
The tariffs are being explicitly selected to avoid harm to Canadian consumers (e.g. on items for which there are available and suitably priced alternatives) and on items which create the most effective political pressure.
Cool, I hope you’re right. But I suspect without regulation that the cost of things will go up and loblaws will use the tariffs as an excuse anyway