How so?
Lake Ontario is not named after the province
- Thread starter Walt
- Start date
It does neither... Well sometimes I find them funny.
Yakuda
Verified User
Who really gives a fuck except you mentally deranged leftist twats.
Like Obama's Denali was changed.
Mere opinion.
Youtube has a good video on the legend of Squanto, who had to decide if he should help the settlers or let them die of starvation. Squanto knew if he let them die, Europeans may not be in such a hurry to come back, but if he helped them survive, Europe would eventually conquer the land and kill off the indigenous people.
There's a possibility America would be a lot different if not for Squanto.
That view is not just sloganeering. It tracks several long-standing, documented asymmetries that U.S. administrations of both parties have complained about for years. Here is why someone can reasonably hold it.
Canada
The U.S. has run a goods deficit with Canada every year from 2021 through 2025. In 2025 it was still about $48 billion (down from $61 billion the year before). Energy—especially crude—drives a large share of U.S. imports; Canada sells the U.S. a lot of oil and the U.S. does not sell Canada an equivalent volume of manufactured goods in return.
The bigger structural complaints are protectionist practices, not the raw deficit:
- Dairy supply management. Canada tightly quotas production, sets prices, and slaps 200–300% tariffs on dairy once small tariff-rate quotas are filled. U.S. producers get tariff-free access to only about 3.5% of the Canadian market. Washington has repeatedly argued that Canada allocates those quotas in ways that treat U.S. cheese worse than EU cheese under CETA (retailers can use the EU quota but are ineligible for the USMCA one). That is the explicit justification for the July 2026 Section 338 tariffs.
- Softwood lumber. This dispute is decades old. The U.S. claims Canadian provincial stumpage fees on Crown land amount to a subsidy. Duties have been in place, off and on, for years and were raised again in 2025.
- Autos and alcohol. After earlier U.S. measures, Canadian imports of U.S. vehicles fell about 22% ($5.6 billion) in one 12-month window. Several provinces also pulled U.S. liquor off government-store shelves. Those two sectors, plus dairy, are what the 50% tariffs announced in July 2026 were aimed at.
Canada is still the No. 1 destination for U.S. goods exports and most USMCA-qualifying trade still moves duty-free. The “mooching” claim is not that Canada is a poor customer; it is that Canada keeps high walls around politically sacred sectors while enjoying integrated North American supply chains and U.S. security guarantees.
Europe
The goods imbalance is larger and more persistent. U.S. goods exports to the EU in 2025 were roughly $356–414 billion; EU goods exports to the U.S. were $555–633 billion. That produced a U.S. goods deficit in the $199–285 billion range depending on the data series. Ireland (pharma) and Germany (machinery and autos) account for most of it.
The U.S. runs a services surplus with the EU that offsets a large part of the goods gap, so the overall relationship is closer to balanced. The political argument focuses on goods because that is where factory jobs and visible industrial capacity sit.
Recurring U.S. grievances that predate the current tariffs:
- Higher EU tariffs on U.S. cars (historically 10% vs. the U.S. 2.5%).
- Agricultural non-tariff barriers (hormone beef, chlorinated poultry, GMO rules) that function as effective bans.
- Digital services taxes aimed at U.S. tech firms.
- CAP farm subsidies and VAT as a border-adjustable tax.
The 2025–2026 “Turnberry” framework capped most U.S. tariffs on EU goods at 15% and had the EU cut industrial tariffs on U.S. goods. That deal itself is an admission that the previous status quo was not reciprocal on the goods side.
The broader “mooching” frame
Trade numbers alone do not prove exploitation. Comparative advantage, cheap Canadian energy, and U.S. consumer gains from imports are real. The reasonable version of the complaint is narrower: allies that run large goods surpluses with the U.S., maintain high protection in sensitive sectors (Canadian dairy, EU agriculture and autos), and for years under-spent on defense relative to NATO targets have been free-riding on U.S. market access and the U.S. security umbrella. That combination is what the current tariff campaign is trying to change.
Whether the specific tools (50% Section 338 duties, lake-renaming theater, etc.) are smart policy is a separate question. The underlying trade-practice complaint is not invented.
QP!
Verified User
In every area outside Energy the US runs a trade surplus with Canada. By Trumps own definition that means the US has been taking advantage of Canada in those areas.
In the Energy sector Canada sends the US mass amounts of energy (Hydro and Oil) and BELOW MARKET rates, which the US needs and benefits from. That does create a trade deficit for the US in that one area but that is ENTIRELY in the US control. Simply stop buying the cheap energy from Canada and buy more expensive energy from other countries and sources and voila the trade deficit is fixed by making American's pay more.
Canada sells the United States a lot of things the United States actually needs—especially energy and raw materials—and then spends a huge amount of that money buying American goods and services.
In 2025, the U.S. bought $381.9 billion in Canadian goods and sold Canada $333.6 billion in goods, producing a U.S. goods deficit of about $48.3 billion. That sounds large until you put it into context. The two countries conducted roughly $715 billion in goods trade and $872 billion in goods and services trade in 2025. That's an enormous integrated economy, not a situation where Canada is simply "selling to America and taking American money."
services
The U.S. actually runs a $27.7 billion services surplus with Canada.Americans sold Canadians $92.3 billion in services in 2025 while Canadians sold Americans $64.5 billion.
This is actually a goods surplus. The United States has a services surplus. Look at the entire trading relationship.
That's a much more sophisticated way of looking at it.
Energy
Canada is extraordinarily important to the U.S. energy system. In 2025, Canada supplied:
- 63.4% of U.S. crude-oil imports
- almost 100% of U.S. natural-gas imports
- 24.9% of refined petroleum-product imports
- 97.9% of U.S. NGL imports
"We're not being ripped off because Canada sells us oil. We're buying a commodity we want from the largest foreign supplier sitting directly next door." Canadian oil doesn't have to travel halfway around the world. It moves through an integrated North American pipeline and refining system.
Dependence
Canada is more dependent on the United States than the United States is on Canada. In 2025, 71.7% of Canada's merchandise exports went to the United States. Meanwhile, Canada accounted for roughly 14% of total U.S. goods exports and imports combined. That's an enormous asymmetry. If Canada were deliberately "taking advantage" of America through trade, you'd expect the smaller country to have tremendous leverage over the larger one.
In reality, Canada has an enormous economic incentive to maintain access to the American market.
And the recent tariff fight demonstrates that vulnerability.
"What exactly is Canada doing to the United States that we couldn't simply stop buying?"
Canada isn't forcing Americans to purchase Canadian products.
Americans voluntarily purchase:
- Canadian oil
- natural gas
- electricity
- automobiles and parts
- lumber
- metals
- agricultural products
- minerals
That's what trade is.
A trade deficit doesn't automatically mean the other country is "winning."
Canada buys an enormous amount from us
Canadian consumers and businesses buy:- American machinery
- computers and electronics
- automobiles
- aircraft
- chemicals
- pharmaceuticals
- agricultural products
- financial services
- travel and tourism
- professional services
- entertainment and intellectual property
What makes you think he doesn't know or cares half of a wit?
So, you believe that Italian navigators have more credibility than the President of the most powerful nation on earth? Dumber than mere Dumb.
It's in the middle dontchyaknow!
Is there a point here.
Here's a math lesson for you; Canada exports over $440 billion to the US. The US exports around $320 billion.
Canada has a population of 40 million. The US has a population of 360 million. Our GDP far exceeds Canada's as does out GDP per capita. The Canadian dollar is $1.42 to $1 US dollar.
The notion that the tiny economy of Canada can leverage or even sustain itself without the massive US economy can only be expressed by uneducated dotards.
Carney is a corrupt, arrogant political apparatchik who is gaslighting Canadians for political purposes.
Cute. He doesn't have that authority little brainless halfwit.