If there’s anything to be said beyond vindictiveness, caprice and outright insanity about the first 30 days of the Trump presidency, it’s the appalling lack of a coherent opposition from the Democratic party.
A crisis of confidence and nerve could not have been more painfully on display than the party’s pathetically weak response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress this past week.
Funnily enough, it turns out courage and conviction were hiding North of the border. In our political leaders. In our institutions. In our patriotism and our collective sense of responsibility.
Let that sink in. The strongest, most articulate, the main opposition to Donald Trump now exists outside America. And for the foreseeable future, that’s exactly where it will stay.
Make no mistake — Canada must now prosecute the most consequential political persuasion campaign in our nation’s history.
“Off again, on again, off again” — let’s be clear: the threat of tariffs isn’t going anywhere.
That’s why I use the word “political” very deliberately. Diplomacy will still have its place as part of the cover story, but the real fight — the one that matters most — is a bare-knuckle, down-on-the-ground, political street fight.
As Trump reminds us every day, this is the era of the permanent campaign. And so, fire must meet fire. Just as Trump tries to persuade Canadians that they’d be better off as America’s 51st state, we must continue our full-scale political counteroffensive to persuade Americans that Trump’s tariffs and trade wars (even the threat of them) are making their lives more expensive, more difficult, and more uncertain.
And we need to tie that pain directly to Trump personally.
Reciprocal tariffs are the blunt-force instrument, they trigger economic pain. But tariffs alone aren’t enough. This is a crisis and we need to go to end game. That means realizing the only thing that will change Trump’s mind is political pressure. And therefore, we need a persuasion campaign layered on top to effect that pressure — one designed to convert every ounce of economic pain into political pain, one that ensures every price increase, supply chain snag and lost job is strapped to Trump’s ankles like a lead weight.
And to do that most effectively, we ought to follow three basic rules of political persuasion.
First, define the audience.
The strategy cannot be to simply influence coastal elites and Democrats who already agree that tariffs are, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau echoing the Wall Street Journal put it, a “dumb” idea. That’s not a path to victory. And it’s a waste of time.
We need to convince every last American consumer, no matter how they voted, Trump’s tariffs are making or will make their life worse.
Second, steal what works.
Put another way: use the tactics that are proven to work most recently with your target audience and only pivot if you need to.
Remember those viral gas station stickers — the ones with former U.S. president Joe Biden pointing at the pump price and saying, “I did that!”? That’s the template.
We need to ensure Donald Trump owns the specific price of specific everyday essential items.
Egg prices through the roof? “Trump did that.”
Paying more at the pump? “Trump did that.”
Paying more for a fridge, a sofa, a pack of diapers? “Trump did that.”
Third, underline the disconnect.
The core vulnerability of Trump’s populist brand is that he’s fundamentally out of touch with the reality he claims to champion.
As Congressman Eric Swalwell (in a rare example of effective bite back from the Democratic party) recently put it:
“This guy has gone to the Super Bowl … the Daytona 500 … a UFC fight.
He should go to the f—king supermarket and look at what people are spending to feed themselves, because that’s where they want him to go and he won’t go there.”
That’s precisely the tone and message Canada needs to amplify.
We need to drag Trump — kicking and screaming — to the grocery store, to the gas pump, to the dinner table where families are staring down higher electricity bills and overpriced food.
Here’s the bottom line: Trump didn’t just win, with the margin he did, solely because Americans were fed up with Biden. He won because he made them a simple promise — he would bring down prices. On day one.
That promise is already in pieces and tariffs will only drive prices higher. And our job — Canada’s job — is to make sure every American knows exactly why.
We cannot wait around for the Democratic party or anyone else to drive this political message. This is Canada’s fight — and it starts now.
