Canadian journalist Matt Gurney argues that Donald Trump has singled Canada out for unusually harsh treatment in his tariff war, and that Prime Minister Mark Carney has no political option but to respond firmly. The piece contends that while Trump has hit dozens of countries with tariffs, Canada has faced disproportionately severe measures alongside repeated talk of annexation, upending decades of assumed friendliness between the neighbours and forcing a major shift in Canadian politics.

Canada was largely shielded from the April 2025 "Liberation Day" tariffs by its existing free trade deal, but the US recently declined to renew that agreement for another 16-year term, leaving it subject to annual renegotiation. The White House then imposed tariffs of up to 50% on a range of Canadian goods, including items previously protected by the trade deal, far higher than the roughly 10% rates applied to most other countries. Gurney links this to Trump's stated ambition to annex Canada as a "51st state" using "economic force," noting the shock has bolstered Carney and the Liberal party domestically while straining Canada's fractured regional economies, particularly manufacturing-dependent Ontario and Quebec versus resource-dependent Alberta and Saskatchewan.