Fact-based journalism that sparks the Canadian conversation

Articles Business Environment Health Politics Arts & Culture Society

Special Series Hope You’re Well For the Love of the Game Living Rooms In Other Worlds: A Space Exploration Terra Cognita More special series >

For the Love of the Game

In Other Worlds: A Space Exploration

More special series >

Events The Walrus Talks The Walrus Video Room The Walrus Leadership Roundtables The Walrus Leadership Forums Article Club

The Walrus Video Room

The Walrus Leadership Roundtables

The Walrus Leadership Forums

Subscribe Renew your subscription Change your address Magazine Issues Newsletters Podcasts

Renew your subscription

The Walrus Lab Hire The Walrus Lab Amazon First Novel Award

Amazon First Novel Award

Appeasing Trump Is Not a Winning Strategy

Between wildfires and the US president, Carney should prioritize the crisis he can manage

The optics at the July 19 FIFA World Cup final are revealing.

In one photo, United States president Donald Trump looks deep in conversation with FIFA president Gianni Infantino, a man he’s reportedly pitching to become United Nations secretary general. Prime Minister Mark Carney, standing nearby, looks on, seemingly forgotten.

Prime Minister Carney’s investment in managing Canada–US relations seems to take priority over Canada’s wildfire problem

In the past few months, Ottawa has rolled back environmental and climate policies

Critics are calling for a national wildfire strategy to be created

At that moment, Carney is facing two crises. One is Canada’s descent into another hellish wildfire season; the other is the tariff threat from the man ignoring him.

That Carney seems more consumed by the latter doesn’t solve either problem.

That week, air quality alerts had been issued across the country. On July 15 in Toronto, the smoke-filled sky turned a jaundiced yellow and cast an eerie orange glow, making it unsurprising the city was deemed to have the worst air quality in the world. The following day, twenty US states and Washington, DC, saw air quality quickly deteriorate, as smoke choked much of the northeast and Midwest.

“We are holding Canada responsible,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “The United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air.” He has repeatedly suggested making Canada pay for the smoke but hasn’t followed through on that threat—at least, not yet.

Instead, on July 20, the president announced new tariffs on Canada at the astonishing rate of 50 percent, using a Herbert Hoover–era law to circumvent the free trade on specific goods (including hockey sticks, though there is only one major hockey stick factory left in Canada) guaranteed under the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement. His........

© The Walrus