United States Announces New Tariffs on 57 Countries; Canada Not Included
The Story: On Wednesday, United States President Donald Trump announced sweeping new “Liberation Day” tariffs against 57 countries, but announced no new tariffs on Canada beyond those already levied. The lack of new tariffs signals a potential thaw in the frosty relationship between the two countries. Recently, Trump stated that he had an “extremely productive” call with Mark Carney who he referred to as “Prime Minister” rather than as “Governor”—a moniker he frequently gave to Justin Trudeau. He has also not referred to Canada as the “fifty-first state” for nearly a month.
Carney’s Liberals continue to lead in most national polls. However, the seeming relaxation of the United States-Canada trade war could soften voter enthusiasm for the Liberals whose support is reliant on the existence of tariffs as a primary election issue—providing an opportunity for Poilievre’s Conservatives who maintain an advantage on other critical issues including affordability and crime.
The Significance: Tariff news over the next three weeks will continue to have an outsized effect on the course of the federal election as polling continues to show a Liberal lead. If the tariff issue loses momentum leading motivated Conservatives to vote at higher rates than their Liberal-inclined counterparts, the Conservative Party will have an opportunity to defy the polling. On the other hand, if Liberal voters in seat-rich Ontario remain deeply concerned by tariffs and believe Mark Carney is best suited to handle the issue, the Liberals will likely retain their lead. All this demonstrates the unpredictable nature of this election and the human inability to know the future. As such, we must place our trust in the LORD alone who holds the will of Kings and emperors in His hand and who always accomplishes His purposes. For those who belong to Him, all things—including this election—will work together for good. The time is now to seek His face and trust His will.
Read More: Spencer Van Dyk, CTV News, “Canada exempt from Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariffs, PM Carney promises countermeasures to auto, sectoral levies”
Liberals, Media Target Poilievre’s “Biological Clock” Comment
The Story: Speaking about affordability at a recent press conference, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre stated that “we will not forget that young 36-year-old couple whose biological clock is running out faster than they can afford to buy a home and have kids.” Liberal candidates responded by calling Poilievre’s words “outdated and harmful” and “blatant misogyny.”
Also at a recent press conference, Poilievre announced that, if elected, his Government will institute mandatory life sentences for human traffickers, drug traffickers, and gun smugglers: “we will ensure the monsters who kill our people and endanger our communities go to jail for life.” Currently, traffickers in Canada regularly receive lenient sentences from judges who consider harsh sentences and mandatory minimum jail times to be inhumane.
The Significance: For the last decade, the Liberal Party has governed Canada as the Party of unyielding progressive ideology. Among the major tenets of this ideological system are the denial of biological reality and the denial of human sinfulness. Both are on display in this story.
With regard to Poilievre’s affordability comments, the reality is that couples have a limited time in which fertility is possible—a fact which should motivate any society to encourage married couples to have children early. This idea is anathema, however, to progressive politicians who have spent their careers touting an ideology that proclaims the triumph of the human will over the fixed reality of God’s created order. These individuals have long proclaimed that men can be women and women can be men. It should come as no surprise, then, that they are offended by the reality of time and by Poilievre’s compassion for childless couples who long to have kids.
Similarly, this progressive ideology asserts that criminal behaviour is not the result of wicked human hearts but is instead the by-product of difficult environments. As such, a human trafficker is not truly responsible for their behaviour and should only receive a few years (or a few months) of soft correction before being released to the public. This, however, violates the words of God, who constituted human governments to punish wickedness not only as a means of correction but also as a temporary measure of the eternal justice which He will one day deliver to all evildoers. Canadians should reject the truth-denying ideology of a Liberal Party that has lost sight of their Creator, His created order, and His justice.
Read More: Jamie Sarkonak, National Post, “Liberals offended by Poilievre’s compassion for ‘biological clock’ problem”
Read More: Rahim Mohamad, National Post, “Life sentences for gun, human, fentanyl trafficking, Poilievre pledges”
Convoy Organizers Found Guilty of Mischief
The Story: In January 2022, thousands of people and hundreds of trucks converged on downtown Ottawa to protest the Federal Government’s vaccine mandate for federally regulated workers. The movement, which involved similar protests across the country, was harshly ended after the Federal Government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act—a move that gave military powers to police and allowed for the freezing of at least 76 citizen bank accounts totalling $3.2 million.
Afterward, several convoy leaders were arrested, most notably Freedom Convoy organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber. After a 31-month trial, the two have been found guilty of mischief—a crime that carries a sentence of up to ten years in prison. Barber was also found guilty of counselling to disobey a court order.
The Significance: The Government’s treatment of the protesting truckers can at best be characterized as problematic. By all accounts, the protests in Ottawa and elsewhere were peaceful and respectful of law enforcement officials. Yet no one from the Federal Government was willing to meet with or talk to the protestors. Instead, they were treated as troublemakers and adversaries from day one, and were eventually forcibly removed.
By contrast, last year’s pro-Hamas protests against Jewish community centres and synagogues targeted Jewish Canadians with threats and violence. Nevertheless, then-Prime Minister Trudeau refused to treat the protestors with the same harshness meted out to the truckers two years before. Instead, at a press conference he said, “nobody can be indifferent to the suffering in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war,” and insisted that “Canadians have a right to protest and make their anger heard.” Again, the Bible has a message for such a two-tiered approach to justice: “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbour” (Lev. 19:15).
Read More: The Canadian Press, “Freedom Convoy organizers Tamara Lich, Chris Barber found guilty in mischief trial”
Liberal Candidate Reignites Chinese Election Interference Scandal
The Story: A Liberal candidate’s musings about delivering over a Conservative candidate to the People’s Republic of China for a $1 million bounty has once again brought concerns about Chinese election interference to the forefront. Now-former Liberal candidate Paul Chiang made a call, in Chinese, for anyone in his audience to deliver Conservative Joe Tay to the People’s Republic of China consulate. Hong Kong police placed a bounty on Tay on Christmas Eve, which was just weeks before his Conservative nomination in Markham-Unionville (a heavily Chinese riding in the Greater Toronto Area). Tay has a YouTube channel where he criticizes the Chinese Communist Party’s governance of Hong Kong.
Canada’s foreign interference commission, in June, revealed that 11 Members of Parliament “wittingly” helped the Chinese Communist Party with election interference. One is said to have “maintained a relationship with a foreign intelligence officer” and “proactively provided the intelligence officer with information provided in confidence.” In October, they documented that Canada had quietly raised the issue of foreign interference with the People’s Republic of China 48 times in two years. At least five of the People’s Republic of China’s 54 overseas police stations exist in Canada to harass Chinese-Canadians. In May, Canadian officials revealed that the People’s Republic of China has already executed four Canadian citizens this year.
When Liberal Leader Mark Carney was confronted with Chiang’s comments, he said, “he’s going to continue with his candidacy. He has my confidence” and called the incident a “teachable moment.” However, Chiang later resigned as a candidate mere hours after the RCMP announced they had opened an investigation into the matter.
The Significance: Governing authorities are appointed by God not to terrorize the righteous, but to punish evildoers (Rom. 13:3). If Canadians—particularly our Chinese brothers and sisters in Christ, who frequently find themselves in conflict with the Chinese Communist Party—are being terrorized by a foreign government in our land, is that not cause for deep Christian concern? God will avenge His persecuted ones (Ps. 79:10, 119:84, Rev. 6:9-11) and, in the meantime, we are to remember that we are one body with those who are persecuted (Heb. 13:3).
Read More: Daniel Dorman, The Macdonald-Laurier Institute, “‘This is treason’, Chinese agents are running Canada”