CAN-USA 2025 Tariff Strife (split from various pol threads)

[ModlrMike]

Accepting that hope is not a COA, our best hope is that the balance of power in Congress changes on November 3, 2026. A more militant, anti Trump congress would be a real barn-burner as it works to take back it's enshrined powers.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Accepting that hope is not a COA, our best hope is that the balance of power in Congress changes on November 3, 2026. A more militant, anti Trump congress would be a real barn-burner as it works to take back it's enshrined powers.

Our best hope is the case in the courts. As much as people like to crow over Trump's slipping approval numbers, Democrats collectively are slipping more. They seem to be aiming for another "double-down" election cycle*.

(*Losing parties often go through a cycle or two or three convincing themselves that they weren't true enough to their ideology, or just didn't get the message across to voters, or both. Democrats are still visibly fighting for the "20" side of the proverbial "80/20" issues.)

 

[HavokFour]

We might be talking to Brazil again, soon.

Brazil Pushes Trade Deals in Response to Trump, Plans to Relaunch Talks with Canada

Lula government aims to sign treaty with EFTA and conclude talks with UAE this semester

www1.folha.uol.com.br

This may become one of the discussion points.

That would be one hell of a powerhouse, should such a deal happen.

Canada eyes Mercosur trade pact to reduce US reliance, minister says

Mercosur

 

[The Bread Guy]

Torn between here & "Bought & Paid For Media", but put this here given potential trade deal implications.

Another potential bargaining chip PMMC could consider dropping down the line???

U.S. State Department targets Online News Act in human rights report

OTTAWA - The U.S. State Department is taking aim at Canada’s Online News Act in a human rights report that criticizes press freedom in Canada — which experts characterized Thursday

www.thecanadianpressnews.ca

From the State Department report bit about Canada (highlights mine):

... During the year (2024), the Online News Act of 2023 came into force. The law required large digital media platforms pay news businesses when their content appeared on the platform. The law empowered the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission to set mandatory bargaining guidelines between platforms and news businesses and to otherwise enforce and set regulatory guidance for the act, including codes of conduct and eligibility of news businesses to participate, powers which could be used to discriminate against political speech or disfavored independent media outlets ...

They mention the Rebel News court case from late last year, saying, "The organization was one of the few in the country that produced critical reporting on the government’s response to protests of the COVID-19 lockdowns." The report had this to say on media subsidies:

... The public media and majority of private media were substantially dependent on government sources of funding for their activities. Government intervention in the media market favored means of communication that did not diverge from government-suggested bounds of political speech, and government policy and practices often disadvantaged independent media.

The government used a variety of mechanisms to fund public and private sector media in the country, ranging from direct grants and tax credits to mandatory payments and funds collected from broadcasters, streaming services, and news platforms, but distributed or regulated by the government. News organizations faced direct and indirect pressure to conform their political speech in order to gain or maintain access to these funds, leading to self-censorship. Independent news organizations that did not take government funds faced a substantial market disadvantage ...

Only problem with dropping C-18, though, is that media outlets now getting $ via Google will see that disappear.

The good news, though, is that Meta and Google will be able to harvest content & make money off of it without having to pay for it - hurrah!