“Bernier said Carney and Tory leader Pierre Poilievre, who said this week he will never get rid of supply management, will not be able to sign a new free trade deal with Trump if they don’t put the issue on the table.” pic.twitter.com/DcoJsRCrDU
— Maxime Bernier (@MaximeBernier) March 28, 2025
Free Trade Deal with Trump? Seriously? Max, wake up and smell the coffee. The dogma of Free Trade is over. The only trade is managed trade. Every country wants to protect certain interests. Even if it means that the price of that certain interest is higher in the home country. The certain interest may be something like being able to keep multigenerational farm land viable and functioning.
So let’s look at milk and eggs. So we drop tariffs on American eggs and milk. They have ten times the population, with ten times the farms and they can pump up the cows with BSG to increase production to lower their costs. The ten percent excess that they produce is the equivalent of the entire production of Canadian milk, for example. So they can sell at a reduced cost. Canadian farmers would go broke. And out of business. So down the line, what if the President of the US declares that the US needs the milk or eggs more than the trade partner Canada. We get nothing. Nothing. This is not wine or beer we are talking about. This is about basic and staple foodstuffs. Our quota system is an insurnace policy agains the whims of our neighbours to the south.
I don’t think I have to tell anyone that we can be affected by whims of the Southern Neighbours these days as we are feeling those whims, good and hard.