Editorials - Jan. 31, 2025

Trump’s threatened tariffs of 25 per cent on everything imported from Canada and Mexico has many industries, including those in the world of agriculture, nervous about an uncertain future.

 

Despite Trump’s repeated claims that the U.S. doesn’t need Canadian resources, they annually import $10 billion more agricultural products than they export to us. The trade imbalance with Mexico is even greater, around $100 billion, which leaves the question: how will they fill grocery store shelves and feed Americans if the tariffs materialize?

 

The Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers Association is forecasting increased costs under tariffs at around $475 million, putting some 29,000 jobs at risk. The Ontario Federation of Agriculture is just as worried about retaliatory tariffs which would increase costs on critical inputs from the U.S. like livestock feed, veterinary products, farm machinery and fertilizer. Some processors may ramp up Canadian production, bolstering our food supply chain, but others may need to shift production to the U.S., playing into Trump’s hand. Either way, consumers on both sides of the border are going to feel the pain.

 

The tariffs couldn’t come at a worse time. Kingston, Toronto and Mississauga have already declared a state of emergency due to food insecurity, with one in 10 Toronto residents relying on food banks and one in three Kingston residents experiencing food insecurity. We can’t afford four years of Trump and his bullying tariffs. – DS

In 2022, Ontarians gave Premier Doug Ford a mandate to govern them for the next four years. They voted overwhelmingly in favour of Ford and his Progressive Conservatives, who won 83 of 124 seats and reduced the once-mighty Liberal Party to just seven seats. But a strong mandate is in the eye of the beholder and one now has to picture Ford pacing around his Queen’s Park office, like Daniel Day Lewis’ Reynolds Woodcock in Phantom Thread, considering that mandate and begrudgingly declaring, “It’s just not very good, is it? It’s ugly.”

 

And so, here we are. Months of speculation have bore fruit and Ford, indeed, called an early election on Tuesday, sending voters to the polls in under a month. Let this decision dispel you of the notion that any politician cares about you. It’s all about power. In the U.S., Donald Trump is doing things for Trump; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau proroguing government serves not Canadians, but his party; Pierre Poilievre is shockingly quiet on Trump for someone who likes the sound of his own voice as much as he does; it’s every Premier for him/herself as potential tariffs loom, and then Ford moves to seize more power, for longer, rather than embrace stillness and consistency.

 

Then there’s the money being spent. As businesses, industries and residents prepare for potential financial hardship ahead, Ford has spent  about $3 billion to send $200 (of our own money) to every Ontarian. In addition, we will bear the cost of the election itself.

 

And yet, despite all of this, we will go to the polls on Feb. 27, not to choose a leader (we already have one) and not to improve our lives (a return to office for Ford changes literally nothing for us), but to earn Ford another full term, striking while the iron’s hot. When right-wing leaders extol the virtues of being financially conservative, do remember moves like these and the absolute mountain of irresponsible spending that buys the mirage of financial conservatism. – SL 

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for this year’s Oscars, eagle-eyed film buffs may have seen a familiar title as Sugarcane, a documentary following an investigation into the Canadian residential school system, made by two Canadian journalists and filmmakers, snagged a Best Documentary nomination.

 

The powerful film has impressed critics and now it has a chance to make history on film’s biggest night. This is a success for Canadians who carve out a living by telling the stories of their home and native land, and yet directors Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat are shining a light on one of the country’s greatest shames. This is a lesson in confronting past atrocities, not running from them, pretending they never happened. 

 

And while the work being done federally to make things right with Canada’s Indigenous population should certainly and rightly be met with scrutiny, some of the earliest and most basic steps towards understanding  and change for the next generations is not shying away from the reality of the story. The sooner that we, our children and our children’s children understand the true extent of the efforts of the federal government and the Catholic Church to keep Indigenous children under the thumb, the sooner those issues can be discussed and, perhaps one day, put to rest.

 

South of us, as books are banned, school topics are eliminated and bills and programs aimed at lifting up historically-marginalized groups are dashed, it feels uniquely Canadian to face these uncomfortable truths. We’re far from perfect, but telling these stories is a start. – SL