Canada’s business elites still seem to want us to surrender
For a country that often seems to focus on its partisan divisions and regional differences, Canada sure is united right now. Recent polling shows that almost three quarters of us are ready and willing to fight Donald Trump’s America, with almost as many in support of the counter-tariffs being levied even if they increase the price we pay for goods. As The Globe and Mail’s Shannon Proudfoot wrote in a recent piece on Canada’s chippy new national mood, “the overall sentiment could be summed up with a weapons-grade hoser phrase: Just keep givin’ ‘er.”
There is, however, one notable exception: the business community. Among some of Canada’s business leaders and elites, there seems to be a far greater appetite for surrender. In an entirely unsurprising turn of events, Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke volunteered that opinion on his social media feed. “By far the best strategy for Canada is, and has always been to win by helping America win.”
Just as unsurprisingly, Postmedia columnist and former Imperial Oil board member Jack Mintz laid out the case for standing down at much greater length. In a piece he co-wrote with Janice McKinnon — a former Saskatchewan finance minister — the pair effectively joined the “blame Canada” brigade south of the border. “Delaying a deal involves major economic costs for Canada. Inadequate infrastructure and uncompetitive taxes and regulatory burdens are bad enough,” they wrote. “Continuing uncertainty about........
