Retired provincial politician Shirley Bond expressed some of her thoughts regarding Donald Trump’s inauguration speech, which kicked off his second tour of duty in the White House on Monday.
Bond anticipates Trump will hit the ground, taking aim at crime and other hot-button issues the country is facing.
“President Trump has made some very big promises about lowering costs for American citizens, about creating a safer America – those are touch-based things for Canadians and for people around the world in fact. The test of Donald Trump’s presidency will be whether or not he can deliver.”
One thing that did not occur, at least not right away, was the 25% tariffs on all Canadian imports – Bond thinks Trump will sit down and take a look at the economic impacts such a move would have on his country as well as Canada.
“There has been a lot of debate about the impacts of those tariffs and who is going to pay the price. I think he is certainly got Canada’s attention and the attention of Mexico in making those statements and I think today he is prepared to study the impacts, take a look at what those means, not just for Canadians but also for American citizens.”
Bond added BC Premier David Eby along with the rest of his provincial counterparts have their eyes wide open on when or if Trump’s 25% tariffs related to Canadian goods will come into effect.
“We have seen in British Columbia for example, Premier Eby has laid out the potential impacts of a 25% tariff and you can imagine that when we are talking about literally thousands of jobs and billions of dollars lost to the economy that this is going to continue to be a very high-priority discussion not just in the United States but certainly here in British Columbia.”
“The majority of Premiers have stepped up to work together and solidify a united front to President Trump but there has been some divisiveness there and this is an opportunity for Canadian leaders to sort out what they are going to do.”
While it’s still unknown what goods the tariffs could be imposed on, the BC government fears they could have a disastrous impact on the province’s economy, resulting in a cumulative loss of $69 billion in economic activity over the next four years.
BC sent around 54 per cent of total merchandise exports to the U.S. in 2023, with China, Japan, and other nations making up the remaining 46 per cent.
Wood, pulp, paper, metallic minerals, and energy products combined account for around 67 per cent of total goods exports.
Job losses could reach 124,000 by 2028, with the largest declines presumed to be in natural resource sector industries and associated manufacturing.
Losses would also be felt in the transportation and retail sectors, and unemployment would increase to 6.7 per cent in 2025 and 7.1 per cent in 2026. The current base is 5.8 per cent.
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