I shall never forget my thoughts as I walked along the Rue Saint-Paul during the 2015 election season. It was a typical autumn day, lots of leaves on the sidewalk, a bit breezy and a little wet. I thought “this means nothing to me; I never talk about Canadian politics.” I shall add this to my long list of things that I was wrong about.
Justin Trudeau has impoverished the Canada that I loved and continue to love. I hoped that his departure would mean the return of my beautiful Francophone Québec to the normal country that it always has been. We can add that to the list as well.
I hope that calm will be restored by the time that I post this. In any event, I need to address the tariff situation. The Canadian dollar has been consistently weak against the US dollar for a decade. That situation when added to carbon taxes and mind-boggling bureaucratic restrictions on housing construction have placed Canada in a state of crisis. Below is a chart of how much it has cost for Canadians to buy one US dollar since 2016.
As of 2/29/2025, it cost $1.4433 Canadian to buy one US dollar. This is why Canadians are today, on average, so poor. As recently as 2001 the Canadian dollar was more valuable than the greenback. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita was also higher in Canada than in the U.S.A..
Putting aside my opinion on tariffs, I must address what this will mean. First, 25% tariffs will restore Canadian prices in American dollars to what they were (or a little less) before Trudeau. Secondly, costs for Americans will rise. I have not as yet looked at the breakdown of what will be more expensive.
Politically, the very unpopular Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party will be more popular as elections approach. Little better could have happened for them, even if it means that opening up Canada to Americans is now farther away than ever. I shall be returning to France once again this fall.