Trump dropped his “tariff relief” offer to Canadian steel companies yesterday: move your production to the US or keep paying 50%. The United Steelworkers — the union representing the people actually doing the work in Hamilton, Sault Ste. Marie, and across the country — called it blackmail and extortion. Not metaphorically. That’s the actual terminology for “relocate everything or face consequences.” They chose a precise word and they meant it.
The workers on those lines are already being laid off under the current tariff regime. Trump’s offer doesn’t save them — it gives their employers an offramp to close up shop, move south, and hire Americans instead. The Canadians who’ve spent decades in those plants get scrubbed out either way. What’s being sold as “relief” is just the faster version of the same outcome with better optics for the US press release.
Carney said Canada won’t be “chasing a small deal” and that’s the right call. There’s no deal on the table — there’s an ultimatum with a ribbon on it. When Trump calls something tariff relief, ask who it relieves. It’s not the steelworkers in Ontario. It’s never the workers.