Lorne Gunter: Make 'Made in Canada' mean something again

Advertisement 1 This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Breadcrumb Trail Links HomeOpinionColumnists Lorne Gunter: Make 'Made in Canada' mean something again The Prairies provinces, particularly Alberta, have the closest thing to authentic free interprovincial trade. Ontario is next closest. Author of the article: By Lorne Gunter Published Sep 09, 2026 Last updated 2 hours ago 3 minute read Join the conversation Canada exported almost $500 million in dairy products in 2023, most of which went to the U.S. PHOTO BY JACK BOLAND /Postmedia, file Article content It’s all well and good that the Canadian government imposed counter-tariffs on $27.6 billion of American goods on Tuesday. We matched tariffs imposed on Canadian goods last month by U.S. President Donald Trump. Article content The U.S. and Canadian tariffs match each other dollar for dollar. They added import taxes on Canadian dairy products, alcohol, clothing, building materials, hockey sticks (that one always makes me laugh, although it probably shouldn’t), cement, and select high-value items like electronics and plastics. Article content Article content Article content The White House started this conflict by announcing additional tariffs on steel, aluminum, American milk, cheese, appliances, agricultural equipment, and paper products. Article content Headline News Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns. Sign Up By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Article content Since their economy is more than 13 times larger than ours (Canada’s is only about 7.5 per cent as large as the Americans’) it is much more likely their tariffs will cause more pain for our exporters than ours will cause theirs. Article content Can we outlast them in a tit-for-tat trade war in which their tariffs are on about 10 per cent of our economy, while ours only effect less than one per cent of theirs? Article content Are we barking up the wrong tree by engaging in a head-to-head confrontation with the Trump administration, regardless of how satisfying it is? Article content What about eliminating the last of our interprovincial trade barriers and implementing real free trade within Canada? Article content Much was made of breaking down barriers to trade between provinces when Mark Carney first took office as prime minister. But it’s something not heard much…