It starts with Kentucky bourbon, spreads to peanut butter, and is accompanied by a splash of orange juice. The Canadian response to Donald Trump’s tariffs sounds like some sort of awful recipe by an influencer on Instagram. But it’s instead a carefully crafted mission to hit the Americans where it hurts.

Day by day, as we inch closer to a potential Feb. 1 tariff date, Premier David Eby and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveil more of the plan to hit back at the American president.

Not since COVID-19 have international events so completely overtaken the national and provincial political agendas as we now see with the Trump tariffs. The B.C. government is entirely seized by the issue, as ministers seek to cut spending, reach out to other international trade partners and batten down the hatches for the incoming economic storm.

“We’re going to respond to tariffs,” Eby said Tuesday. “Keep in mind, this is not a fight that we picked. And in fact, we think this is going to hurt Americans as badly as it does Canadians. But we’re going to stand up, we’re going to support federal efforts to respond with targeted tariffs to make sure that the Americans understand we will not surrender.”

The products Canadians could target were picked to target so-called “red states” where Republican allies of........

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