This is absolutely brilliant…
“I am running to be the next leader of the Liberal Party and the next Prime Minister of Canada because right now we Canadians have to stand up and fight for our country,” Freeland told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki last night.
“If the tariffs are imposed as Prime Minister I will fight back with dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs and our retaliation is going to be surgically targeted to create the maximum pressure on the White House to stop what The Wall Street Journal has described quite rightly as ‘the dumbest trade war in history,” she added.
The 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico have since gone into effect and the stock market has entered a death spiral — just as every reputable economist predicted.
“An example of a measure that I will put in place as Prime Minister is 100% tariffs on Teslas. I think that should get some attention in the White House,” added Freeland.
Such a plan would indeed get the attention of the MAGA administration. Elon Musk wields enormous influence over Donald Trump and if his bottom line gets targeted, he’ll start screeching for action.
“And you know Jen I think people, Americans, you know, I don’t think you think about Canada all that much but I think when you do think about Canada you might think ‘oh they’re smaller than us, is this really something I should be worried about?'” Freeland continued.
“Well, the stock martket is worried. Shares have gone down. And this has been a terrible years for U.S. stock already because of these tariffs threats,” she said. “And the reality is you guys need us!”
“We are your largest market by far. The U.S. sells more to Canada than to China, Japan, the U.K., and France combined,” she continued. “So we do have leverage and as Prime Minster I will use it. And not because I want to.
“I mean the irony about this, the stupidity about this, is right now we have a balanced and mutually beneficial relationship,” said Freeland. “There is a win-wiun here. There is an exit ramp. But Americans need to know that if you hit Canada, we will hit back and we will be sure that our retaliation hurts.”
Psaki then drilled down the Tesla tariff proposal and asked if Freeland would consider cancelling contracts with his other company, Starlink.
“Absolutely,” said Freeland. “And Canadian premiers have already said that they would do that.”
