Getting back to the issue of tariffs.
Canada was built on tariffs. In our case they were the same tariffs that Trump is contemplating - barriers to North South trade. And if you wanted to sell to Canadians you had to build in Canada. That was the basic premise up until Mulroney's Canada US Free Trade Agreement. Prior to that there were some limited tariff busting agreements, like the Autopact of 1965, that were based on Reciprocity.
A pair of good articles on tariffs and The National Policy:
If the Donald Trump administration uses tariffs to de-integrate the North American economy, Canada will have no choice but to look to history and the future, and adapt
www.theglobeandmail.com
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Canada's tariff wall protected the rise of the Canadian banks, the CPR and the CNR, the Canadian Pacific and Allan Steamship Lines and contributed to the rise of Cunard and the Irving, Thompson and Weston family fortunes. It supported the rise of McLaughlin Motors at Oshawa, that became General Motors. It supported the Massey family and their tractor business (Massey, Massey-Harris, Massey-White and Massey-Ferguson).
My Canadian home town, Peterborough, Ontario, was home to General Electric, DeLaval, Westclox, Quaker Oats, Johnson and Johnson, Outboard Motor Corporation, Fisher-Gauge, and various Canoe Companies. The area around was scattered with dairies and cheese factories. One of Peterborough's premier tourist attractions is its hydraulic lift lock on the Trent-Severn Canal. All of those jobs were protected by the National Policy tariff walls.
Those jobs permitted the raising of families with 4 or 5 kids in single family dwellings, with one car, a cottage, a boat, a snow mobile and an abundance of fishing tackle and hunting gear - on one salary. Like as not the rifle or shotgun was made in Peterborough as well at Lakefield.
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Do tariffs work? Ask Ontario.
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PS the downtown was full of family owned businesses - barbers and tailors, shoemakers and taverns, hotels and furniture stores, drycleaners and service stations.
