America First Canada First

The saying "to whom much is given, much is required" (Luke 12:48) caused me some concern as a Canadian when I observe that “America First” has been interpreted by the Trump administration as the slogan for the dismantling of USAID, slashing staff at the Centers for Disease Control,  reducing staff at NOAA, and closing offices at USGS.

America First? Canada First?

Oxfam America’s Abby Maxman in a statement urged all staffing and funding to be reinstated. “The funding freeze and program cuts are already having life or death consequences for millions around the world,” said the chief executive of the humanitarian group. (WHITEHURST & KUNZELMAN, 2025)

WASHINGTON, April 1 (Reuters) - The Trump administration began mass layoffs of 10,000 staffers at U.S. health agencies on Tuesday, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation, with security guards barring entry to some employees just hours after they received dismissal notices.

The cuts, which affect several high-profile agencies under the Department of Health and Human Services, including the FDA, CDC and National Institutes of Health, are part of a broad plan by President Donald Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk to shrink the federal government and slash spending. (Douglas et al., 2025)

The reinstatements have added a new layer of confusion at NOAA, which had already halted several services because of staffing issues following the cuts. They included weather balloon launches in Albany, New York; Gray, Maine; and Kotzebue, Alaska, that are critical to support accurate forecasting. The agency also closed several offices.

The cuts came just weeks before a severe storm raced across the country, spawning tornadoes and killing at least 42 people. The National Weather Service, a division of NOAA, forecast the storm, issuing public alerts that it would be a “particularly dangerous event.” 

Although the probationary workers at NOAA have technically been reinstated, they were placed on administrative leave and have not been asked to return to work. So it is not immediately clear whether the services they previously contributed to would be restored. (Bush, 2025)

“Shuttering USGS offices is a short-sighted move that will severely weaken our nation’s ability to monitor natural hazards, manage water resources, and understand how our environment is changing,” said Kristen Averyt, executive vice president for science at the American Geophysical Union, a nonprofit organization that represents Earth scientists, in an emailed statement. “This decision would undermine decades of scientific infrastructure that directly serve the American public and puts both lives and livelihoods at risk.” (USGS Faces Potential Office Closures, 2025)

Many of the ways in which America has given much to the world has been through sharing the work of top notch scientific and humanitarian aid organizations with the world to alleviate hunger, educate impoverished people, control disease epidemics, warn North Americans of dangerous weather events, and alert the world to earthquake and tsunami events.

The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.' (Matthew 25:40-45 NIV;KJV)

When I hear politicians proclaim “Canada First”, I fear that we may be advocating policy that mirrors the American neglect of their moral responsibility to use their riches to address the hunger, thirst, nakedness, imprisonment, and isolation of our brothers and sisters in the world.

References

Bush, E. (2025, March 19). Fired workers are reinstated at NOAA, creating confusion on heels of storms. NBC News. Retrieved April 7, 2025, from https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/noaa-fired-workers-reinstated-weather-storms-rcna197004 

Douglas, L., Taylor, M., & Steenhuysen, J. (2025, April 1). Trump begins mass layoffs at FDA, CDC, other US health agencies. Reuters. Retrieved April 7, 2025, from https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/trump-administration-begins-mass-layoffs-health-agencies-sources-say-2025-04-01/ 

USGS Faces Potential Office Closures. (2025, March 12). AIP.ORG. Retrieved April 7, 2025, from https://ww2.aip.org/fyi/usgs-faces-potential-office-closures 

WHITEHURST, L., & KUNZELMAN, M. (2025, March 18). Judge rules DOGE's USAID dismantling likely violates the Constitution. AP News. Retrieved April 7, 2025, from https://apnews.com/article/usaid-federal-judge-trump-administration-bdc919a5d98eda5ab72a32fdfe2f147d 

“First” may become last

The political slogans of “America First” and “Canada First” may be heralding paths that will ultimately fulfill the Christian caution that “the first will be last”  [Mark 10:31; Mt 19:30; Lk 13:30].

In an editorial in the Economist, dated April 2nd 2025 Mr Trump is quoted as saying that he “couldn’t care less” if car prices rise as a result of his tariffs.

But pricier imports and the rising cost of making cars in America will undoubtedly hit sales. Americans bought 16m cars last year. This year that figure could tumble by 1m-2.5m, analysts predict, with the models most affected being cheap ones that would be unprofitable to import or manufacture at home. Making fewer, more expensive cars and pricing out poorer buyers is an odd sort of liberation. (the Economist, n.d.)

Unifor, Canada’s largest union in the private sector, representing 320,000 workers in every major area of the economy, reports that Stellantis has responded to the imposition of a 25% auto tariff with the temporary layoff of thousands of Unifor Local 444 members at Windsor Assembly Plant and additional layoffs in Mexico and at U.S. facilities.

“Unifor warned that U.S. tariffs would hurt auto workers almost immediately and in this case the layoffs were announced before the auto tariff even came into effect,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “Trump is about to learn how interconnected the North American production system is the hard way, with auto workers paying the price for that lesson.” (the Economist, n.d.)

Bridge Michigan, a self proclaimed nonpartisan, nonprofit news source, notes that Trump previously imposed targeted tariffs on steel and aluminum, in addition to targeted 25% tariffs on certain Canadian and Mexican imports.

Economists at the University of Michigan recently predicted steel and aluminum tariffs will cost the state about 2,300 payroll jobs in 2026 — but their forecast is based on an assumption that "long-lasting, broad-based tariffs on Mexico and Canada will be avoided."

Uncertainty remains as to what the administration’s tariff plan means for Michigan’s economy, though experts foresee increased prices for consumers and retaliatory tariffs from other countries that could undo any potential benefits.

“In the sense of applying to a very broad range of goods and services, I would expect the cost-benefit ratio of those tariffs to be less favorable to Michigan,” said Gabriel Ehrlich, an economic forecaster at the University of Michigan. 

“At least with the auto tariffs, there is an important local industry that they're aiming to protect,” he continued, noting that auto import tariffs set to begin Thursday will nonetheless be “very disruptive.” (Trump Announces Sweeping New Tariffs: What They Mean for Michigan, n.d.)

The Trade War coverage on BNNBloomberg.ca includes an article by Stan Choe, of the Associated Press, reporting that world markets are reeling as Trump’s tariffs tank stocks. Little was spared in financial markets as fear flared globally about the potentially toxic mix of higher inflation and weakening economic growth that tariffs can create.

Everything from crude oil to Big Tech stocks to the value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies fell. Even gold, which has hit records recently as investors sought something safer to own, pulled lower. Some of the worst hits walloped smaller U.S. companies, and the Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks dropped 5.9% to pull it more than 20% below its record.

Investors worldwide knew Trump was going to announce a sweeping set of tariffs late Wednesday, and fears surrounding it had already pulled Wall Street’s main measure of health, the S&P 500 index, 10% below its all-time high. But Trump still managed to surprise them with “the worst case scenario for tariffs,” according to Mary Ann Bartels, chief investment officer at Sanctuary Wealth. (Choe, n.d.)

The chaos and disruption that has followed Trump Tariff policy is hardly the environment that the world investment community supports in an economy that claims to be “Number One”.

References

Choe, S. (n.d.). World markets reeling as Trump’s tariffs tank stocks. BNN Bloomberg - Canada Business News, TSX Today, Oil and Energy Prices. Retrieved April 3, 2025, from https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/tariffs/2025/04/03/dow-drops-1100-as-us-stock-market-leads-a-worldwide-sell-off-following-trumps-tariff-announcement/ 

the Economist. (n.d.). Donald Trump’s plan for American carmaking is full of potholes. The Economist | Independent journalism. Retrieved April 3, 2025, from https://www.economist.com/business/2025/03/31/donald-trumps-plan-for-american-carmaking-is-full-of-potholes?utm_campaign=r.the-economist-today&utm_medium=email.internal-newsletter.np&utm_source=salesforce-marketing-cloud&utm_term=4/2/2025&utm_id=2072047 

Trump announces sweeping new tariffs: What they mean for Michigan. (n.d.). Bridge Michigan: Michigan news, state, politics, jobs, education. Retrieved April 3, 2025, from https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/trump-announces-sweeping-new-tariffs-what-they-mean-michigan 

Tax and Cash Transfer Promises

David Macdonald of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) has analysed the tax and cash transfer promises of the Liberals (Lib), Conservatives (CPC), and NDP in the first week of Canada’s 45th federal election.

No Surprises in the distribution of Cash and Tax Cuts

A common theme among all party platforms is that the hypothetical maximums promised in party press releases drastically overstate what average tax filers will get. The Liberals and Conservatives touted benefits of $412 and $928 a person from their tax changes, but only one per cent of tax filers would get those maximums. Actual tax files are more complicated and result in lower average benefits. (MacDonald, n.d.)

References

MacDonald, D. (n.d.). Platform Crunch: Comparing four parties’ tax cut and cash transfers promises. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Retrieved March 29, 2025, from https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/platform-crunch-comparing-all-parties-tax-cut-and-cash-transfers-promises/ 

Trump or Truth

Trump Lost the Trade War He Started With Canada

Patricia Lopez, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, reports:

Trump has similarly exaggerated Canada’s trade deficit, which he said is at an “unfair” amount of $250 billion, amounting to a subsidy. (It’s not.) The actual trade deficit stood at $40 billion in 2023, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, and mostly exists because the US buys a lot of Canadian oil. Again, to heat those Midwestern homes. (Lopez, n.d.)

References

Lopez, P. (n.d.). Trump Lost the Trade War He Started With Canada. Bloomberg Opinion. Retrieved February 10, 2025, from https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-02-05/tariffs-trump-lost-the-trade-war-he-started-with-canada 

Remembrance or Requiem for the Great Republic

According to Google Maps, the American Border between St Stephen NB and Calais ME is an almost 5 hour drive from my home in a suburb of Halifax.

Canadian and American Foundations

A couple of years ago, I made that trip both ways in one day with a friend from Italy who needed to re-enter Canada to update his visa. The highways to Maine are mostly four lane and divided and allow an average speed of 100 km/hour. My first trip to Maine, as a pre-teen, was part of my Dad’s two week vacation and we originated in Sydney, Nova Scotia, camped overnight, drove on double lane roads, passed through the cities and towns and required Dad to pause at the border and show his driver’s licence to the US authorities.

My connection to the Great Republic is in my ancestry and in memories of my grandmother who referred to “rushing to catch the Boston Bus” when expedient movement was witnessed or desired in her home. I had no idea, as a child, where Boston was or why my “Nana” was familiar with how to get there. I would learn that Boston and Massachusetts played an essential role in the survival of Nova Scotians and that our New England “cousins” have been comrades and competitors since before the 18th century birth of the United States.

Our family are descendants of James MacPherson, a British soldier from Badenoch district in Scotland, who settled in Fisher's Grant (now Pictou Landing) Nova Scotia after the end of the American Revolution. After the thirteen American colonies declared independence from Great Britain in 1776, the 8th Duke of Hamilton was appointed to form a regiment to reinforce British forces in North America. The 82nd Regiment, also known as the Hamilton Regiment, was raised in 1778 in Scotland. In October, 1783 the 82nd regiment concluded their service and sailed from New York for Halifax. Those who elected to remain in Nova Scotia as settlers were released there and given grants of land, These included James McPherson and his brother John, who were each granted 100 acres. (Sources: "Pictonians in Arms" by James M. Cameron, and "History of the County of Pictou" by Rev. George Patterson.) If there were no American Revolution, our family would not have made it to Nova Scotia.

During my school days from 1957 to 1967, mostly in Glace Bay and Sydney, I was aware of the ties of our coal and steel industry to British Companies. On the maps of the world in school Canada was shown in the pink colour of the many British Commonwealth nations and colonies. The colours from America were the colours of the licence plates on vehicles from different states that we recorded with the phrase and action in “Free punch car from away”. The colours of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio decorated Nova Scotia roadways and tourist attractions. By the end of the 60’s, McDonalds brought American fast food to town.

My relocation to Halifax in 1970 to attend university brought me personally to the site of the explosion on Dec 6 1917 that decimated the north end of the port city, killed 2000 people and injured many thousand. In the days following the disaster the relief train dispatched by the Governor of Massachusetts arrived with resources that had been planned for potential disaster in the New England Commonwealth. Health professionals from Boston and New York tramped through snow from the storm on Dec 7 to open field hospitals to care for the wounded. Today in Boston Common, in December, a Christmas tree donated by Nova Scotia is raised as a sign of our continued gratitude to our “cousins” in New England. 

John U. Bacon is the American author of The Great Halifax Explosion, a book about the Halifax explosion in Nova Scotia, Canada. Bacon is also a former feature writer for the Detroit News and has written for other publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Sports Illustrated.

 

My first engineering position was with NB Tel in Saint John, less than two hours from Calais, where routine trips to New England, especially Boston, were frequent for friends, sports, and business. One of the microwave sites I worked as a Maintenance and Protection engineer was a key link for the secure traffic of the US Military to northern facilities, in addition to being key in providing cable TV in Atlantic Canada from Maine. 

My second employer was the US multinational mini computer enterprise, Digital Equipment Corporation, with headquarters in Maynard MA and facilities throughout New England. This portion of my career increased my contact with American enterprise and expertise. My training in Nashua, NH, with other DEC salespeople from around the world impressed me with the scope of the positive impact that an American business can have on the way the world works.

My next employer, based in Ottawa, was the Canadian presence of Chicago based Gandalf Data. Gandalf had developed a data communication device that reduced the cost of connecting terminals to computers to 10% of the competitor offerings. 

The policy followed by both Digital and Gandalf was to address the Canadian market (about 10% of their business) by building production facilities in Kanata, Ontario. The products of these plants required inputs from the US and they exported products back to America.

A few opportunities for American contact were unexpectedly part of my transition to Community College instructor in Nova Scotia. On September 11, 2001, known as 9/11, one of our College campuses became a refuge for hundreds of passengers bound for the US when the FAA closed US airspace. Forty aircraft carrying more than 7,000 people were diverted to Halifax Stanfield International Airport on 9/11, as staff worked to accommodate the sudden influx of anxious travellers.

Aircraft sit wing tip to wing tip on the runway at the Halifax International Airport on Sept. 11, 2001. (Halifax International Airport Authority)

 

American and Canadian members, working in the North American Aerospace Defense Command’s center inside of Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, keep an eye on the sky looking for threats aimed at North America. Steven Armstrong was NORAD’s chief of plans and forces at the time of 9/11. He is now vice director of NORAD Operations and chief of NORAD Strategic Engagements.

About 10 years ago, we instituted a slogan in our command center where the daily execution and running of NORAD and USNORTHCOM operations occur: “We have the watch.” What that means is we have the watch for North America. We’re responsible for the homeland defense of North America, and that includes our mission partners up in Canada. It’s a significant thing that we’re doing for this nation.(Source: ‘We have the watch’: Stories from inside NORAD on 9/11)

In 2005, my brother was working as an engineering manager with an electrical generation utility near Seattle WA and I embarked on a trip across America on AMTRAK that took about a week to travel from Boston to Olympia WA with overnight stops in St Louis and Albuquerque. The trip was the summer prior to the election of Barack Obama and I enjoyed my many conversations with Americans in the dining and lounge cars of the train. The openness, friendliness and helpfulness of the people I encountered was the greatness of America to me. I was pleased to celebrate my first and only “Fourth of July” as a participant/observer of the parade in the Capital City of Olympia.

Another two week trip to Melbourne FL to learn about an educational system for electronic communication students at my Community College Campus was an experience of a great culture of technical sales and service that is part of my appreciation of American business. Our hosts saw we were very comfortable, shared the details of their technical/educational products and even included a day trip to Cape Canaveral where an onsite college for technicians made use of their training system.

“American Cousins” are part of the joy of gathering with Farris’ family in the summer at Ben Eoin on the Bras d’ Or Lakes. My father-in-law's sister married an American military man from Georgia and their children and grandchildren have been fairly frequent visitors to the annual family reunion in Cape Breton.

Perhaps the story has come full circle from the relatives of my grandmother who found financial security and friends in New England in the 1920’s and 30’s to family from the United States with whom we share meals, campfires, and family during summer in Nova Scotia. 

Perhaps the observation of a “boomer” may be dismissed. People may express “OK Boomer” but I deeply appreciate my contact with Americans and urge friends on both sides of the border to maintain this “true greatness of America” as a generous friend in a relationship where “having your back” is an example for the world.

Will Economic Truth trump Tariffs

Jim Stanford is economist and director of the Centre for Future Work in Vancouver, and author of the recent report “Who’s Subsidizing Whom? Myth and Reality about the Canada-U.S. Trade Balance.”

Trump claims that the bilateral U.S. deficit in merchandise trade with Canada amounts to the United States “subsidizing” Canada. This claim has no economic merit whatsoever. Trump literally makes up numbers and ignores fundamental precepts of economic theory. In reality, the United States benefits from the bilateral relationship at least as much as Canada does.

1. Canada is the largest market in the world for U.S. exports. We purchased $440 billion of U.S.-made goods and services in 2023.

2. The Canada-U.S. trade relationship is among the most balanced of all major U.S. trading partners. The United States sells 92 cents of exports to Canada for every dollar it imports from Canada — compared with less than 80 cents in its overall global trade.

3. The bilateral deficit with Canada ranks 10th among U.S. trading partners, accounting for only five per cent of the total U.S. trade deficit.

4. Trump’s claim the bilateral deficit is $200 billion is an utter fabrication. The bilateral deficit was US$40 billion in 2023, according to U.S. data, down 29 per cent from 2022. It fell another nine per cent during the first nine months of 2024.

5. Compared with a two-way trade flow of almost US$1 trillion per year, this imbalance is puny.

6. The United States enjoys a strong surplus in services trade with Canada, which offsets much of the deficit on merchandise trade and is only partially reflected in official trade statistics. Trump never mentions this.

7. The United States also enjoys a net surplus on investment income flowing out of Canada (C$13 billion in 2023). This further offsets the impact of the trade deficit on the overall U.S. balance of payments.

8. Most Canadian exports to the United States are unfinished inputs that U.S. businesses use in their own production — more so than with other trading partners. Tariffs would thus increase costs of these inputs (including raw materials, supplies, parts and semi-finished goods), reducing the competitiveness of U.S. firms (including in export markets).

9. Canadian energy (including oil, gas, coal and electricity) made up 60 per cent of the total bilateral merchandise trade deficit over the last decade. Having access to a secure and lower-cost energy source is a major benefit for U.S. businesses and consumers. (Stanford, 2025)

The economic facts and history between Canada and the United States may not be a sufficient argument for Donald Trump. David Frum comments that the 37th President of the United States has had interests in and misunderstanding of tariffs for a long time.

David Frum, author and staff writer for The Atlantic, explains on CBC the House why, of all the policies Trump has flirted with over the years, the incoming president is so wedded to the idea of tariffs and how Canada should prepare itself for a possible trade war.

Knowledge of the facts of the nature of trade between Canada and the United States may not be the way to convince President Elect Trump to abandon tariffs.

References

The House with Catherine Cullen. (n.d.). CBC. Retrieved January 18, 2025, from https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/ 

Stanford, J. (2025, January 13). Who’s Subsidizing Whom? Centre for Future Work. Retrieved January 18, 2025, from https://centreforfuturework.ca/2025/01/12/whos-subsidizing-whom/