Donald Trump's tariffs on Canada are making his party anxious ahead of 2026 midterms
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Last Friday, Trump imposed a 35 per cent tariff on Canadian goods not compliant with the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement, adding to existing high duties on steel, aluminum, autos, and copper. Though most Canada-U.S. trade remains USMCA-compliant, businesses dealing in affected goods had largely been waiting to see if tariffs would be lifted. Now, those industries must pass increased costs along to U.S. buyers, pushing prices higher on items ranging from groceries and clothing to cars and farm equipment.
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Combined with last Friday's weak U.S. jobs report, the trade concerns have GOP lawmakers worried about the political and economic impact ahead of the midterms, but only a handful dare to voice their concerns.
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'It definitely is indicative of a weakened economy, an economy that's not acting in a robust fashion. I've all along felt like there's a lag between tariffs and actual economic downturn,' Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican, told the press this week, adding that retailers have told him they think they will have to raise prices this fall.
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Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran also warned this week of rising costs for consumers and businesses. While noting that tariffs can be good for solving trade barriers, he said 'there's no question tariffs are a tax on the cost of a product.' He also noted that trade uncertainty is bad for business because it 'delays decisions to expand, to hire, to spend money.'
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Earlier this year, Mitch McConnell, a Republican senator from Kentucky, also railed against Trump's tariffs.
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'With so much at stake globally, the last thing we need is to pick fights with the very friends with whom we should be working with to protect against China's predatory and unfair trade practices,' he said in a statement. He and Sen. Paul, along with Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, also voted in favour of a resolution to undo Trump's 25 per cent tariffs back in the spring, warning of impacts on their state economies and border communities. The Senate narrowly approved the joint resolution, 51-48, but it then died in the House.
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Inu Manak, a fellow for trade policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, says inflated prices from the tariffs will be felt before the end of the year — and for some items, like clothing, as early as next month with back-to-school shopping. And while Republicans know these impacts are looming, they're not taking steps to mitigate the tariffs.
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The government says the report is a rehash of publicly available information that doesn't contradict what the government has said publicly. Advocates seized on the portion of the report showing two arms permits to send goods to Israel were issued in 2024. Anand's office noted the permits were disclosed to Parliament last June and were issued on Jan. 8, 2024, the day Ottawa stopped issuing new permits. The advocates also noted that the report cited $2.3 million in Canadian sales to Israel listed as 'bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, other explosive devices and charges and related accessories, components and equipment.' Anand's spokesman James Fitz-Morris wrote that these were 'electronic components for detection equipment' in Israel's Iron Dome system, which intercepts and destroys incoming rockets. Did Carney change the Trudeau government's policy? While the government insists it hasn't changed policies, its language has shifted. Joly and her office spoke about non-lethal uses for arms. Anand has avoided that language. 'For a year and a half, we have been clear: if an export permit for an item used to protect civilians is requested, it will be approved,' her office wrote in a statement this week. 'Canada has not approved the export of any lethal weapons or munitions to Israel since January 2024, and any such permit that could have allowed such items were suspended and remains inactive today.' Woo said Anand is 'prevaricating, with the shift in language and … an effort to try to be legalistic about the government's adherence to its own promise.' Fitz-Morris wrote that it would be 'a disingenuous claim, at best' to suggest Ottawa's language has been shifting. 'The government's position has not changed. Minister Anand is not reading from a script. She uses different words sometimes to convey the same message or to add clarity, depending on the circumstances and what she is responding to,' he wrote. 'The only permits that may be granted are for the items used to defend civilians, such as the Iron Dome, and items that are transiting through Israel as part of the global supply chain such as items (whose) end-users include Canada and/or NATO allies.' Why not end all arms exports to Israel? The government says it would compromise the complex supply chains that Canada and its allies rely on if Canada refused to export military goods to Israel, or to import them from that country. 'Any consideration of a two-way arms embargo that would block Israeli-made components from entering Canada would need to take into consideration the impact that would have on Canada, including the (Canadian Armed Forces),' Fitz-Morris wrote. Sen. Woo said Anand should halt all military trade with Israel. 'She's digging a deeper hole for herself and for our government, particularly if there are in fact legal consequences around complicity, aiding and abetting war crimes,' he said. 'We are witnessing, in the memorable words of Amnesty International, a live-streamed genocide. It's tearing at our souls.' Israel says it's in an existential war of self-defence and blames Hamas for the high casualty count. What do Canadians want? In an online survey of 1,522 Canadians conducted by the Angus Reid Institute from July 31 to Aug. 5, 54 per cent said they want Ottawa to ensure Canada is not selling lethal military equipment to Israel. One-fifth of respondents said they want the restrictions dropped. Another 27 per cent said they were unsure or opted not to respond. Is the government being transparent? 'The Government of Canada tables regular reports concerning arms exports and has provided thousands of pages of documentation to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs — which the committee then published to its website,' Fitz-Morris wrote. That's not good enough, Woo said. 'To play with words, when a genocide is happening before our very eyes … it's scandalous,' he said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 10, 2025. Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
