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Just after midnight, President Trump put another 10% tariff on all products from China. That's on top of the 10% he put on Chinese goods last month. China responded with its own tariffs targeting U.S. foreign products. President Trump also followed through on his threat to put a 25% tax on products from Canada and Mexico. And Canada retaliated, too. This and Trump's taunts about Canada have sparked a surge of patriotism and upended Canadian politics. NPR's international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam reports.
JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: Just two months ago, Canada's Liberal Party under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was on the ropes over the economy, housing and immigration. The Conservative Party had a strong lead in the polls.
DARRELL BRICKER: Twenty-six points I think we had at its high point, which is, in Canadian politics, is unbelievable.
NORTHAM: That's Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, a global public opinion research group. He says all signs pointed to the liberals being decimated in an election year, and then two things happened. First, a deeply unpopular Trudeau stepped down in January. Bricker says the second was the threat of tariffs.
BRICKER: The commitment by the president of the United States to use economic forces to basically bend Canada to his will.
NORTHAM: But it didn't stop there. Trump joked - some said warned - that he'd make Canada the 51st state.
JAMIE TRONNES: Canadians are really feeling angry, hurt. Canada feels so disrespected in this relationship right now.
NORTHAM: Jamie Tronnes heads up the Center for North American Prosperity and Security, which focuses on Canada-U.S. relations. She says Trump's comments touched a nerve with many Canadians.
TRONNES: This has led to a resurgent nationalism, which is something that we haven't seen the likes of in a long time in Canada, that has really benefited the Liberal Party.
NORTHAM: The Liberal Party has shot up in the polls, now neck and neck with the conservatives or slightly ahead, depending on which poll. Bricker says that's largely because the leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, is seen by many as Canada's version of Donald Trump. He's being called Trump Lite or Maple MAGA.
BRICKER: He goes on about the woke stuff. He is more muscular when it comes to military issues. Progressive voters really respond to him like they would respond to a Trump-type character. He's more aggressive than Canadians are comfortable with.
NORTHAM: For months, Poilievre ran on a downbeat campaign slogan of Canada is broken.
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PIERRE POILIEVRE: We must work together, fight together and win together. That is what it means to put Canada first.
NORTHAM: Recently, Poilievre changed the slogan to Canada first. Candidates vying to replace Trudeau as head of the Liberal Party in a vote this coming Sunday are not letting Poilievre off the hook. Here's Mark Carney during a recent debate among liberal candidates.
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MARK CARNEY: Who's the worst person to stand up to Donald Trump? Pierre Poilievre. He worships the man. He uses his language. He's not the right person for our country at this crucial time.
NORTHAM: Jamie Tronnes says Canada's Conservative Party is left of the U.S. Republican Party and that politicians need to remember their words could come back to haunt them.
TRONNES: The big problem is that these positions of being very anti-American and being very against Trump make it very difficult for whoever wins that election to come back to the United States and make a deal.
NORTHAM: Even if that deal is with what was long considered your closest ally. Elections in Canada are expected in the next few months.
Jackie Northam, NPR 瓜神app.
(SOUNDBITE OF DON ROSS' "BIG BUCK") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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