Trump Unsure When 10% Tariff on Canada Takes Effect

Nearly two days after Donald Trump announced on social media that he was raising “the Tariff on Canada” by 10 per cent, the U.S. president has yet to clarify which tariffs will increase — or when the new measures will take effect.

Asked aboard Air Force One on Monday when the tariffs would begin, Trump replied, “I don’t know when it’s going to kick in… we’ll see.”

Canadian officials say they’ve received no official notice from Washington about any tariff changes, despite the president’s post sparking a diplomatic scramble in Ottawa.

Triggered by Ontario ad

Trump’s sudden announcement followed his fury over an Ontario government advertisement that used excerpts from Ronald Reagan’s 1987 speech defending free trade.

The ad, which aired in the U.S. during the World Series, criticized tariffs and trade protectionism — messaging Trump called “fraudulent.”

“Reagan liked tariffs, and [Ontario] totally changed that,” Trump claimed, falsely suggesting the late president supported tariffs on allies like Canada.

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Nov. 5 in a case challenging Trump’s authority to impose broad-based tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and other countries. The president has called it “the most important case ever.”

Refuses meeting with PM Carney

Trump also said he has no plans to meet Prime Minister Mark Carney at the upcoming APEC summit in South Korea, despite both leaders attending.

“I don’t want to meet with him,” Trump said. “I’m very happy with the deal we have right now with Canada, and we’re going to let it run.”

It remains unclear what “deal” Trump was referring to. Senior officials had been negotiating tariff relief for Canadian steel and aluminum exports before Trump abruptly called off talks.

White House frustration grows

White House officials suggested the Ontario ad was only one factor behind Trump’s decision to escalate trade tensions.

“The Canadians have been very difficult to negotiate with,” said Kevin Hassett, director of Trump’s National Economic Council.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CBS’s Face the Nation the ad amounted to “propaganda crossing our border,” but declined to specify which Canadian goods would face new tariffs — or whether the hike would apply across the board.

With no clear timeline and no official documentation, analysts say Trump’s 10% tariff threat remains a political message in search of policy substance.

Liberals Admit Lacking Votes to Pass Federal Budget

Liberal House Leader Steven MacKinnon says the government currently does not have enough votes to pass the upcoming federal budget, warning that Canadians could be headed for another election if opposition parties refuse to cooperate.

“As we speak right now, we don’t have the votes,” MacKinnon said in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live Sunday morning.

The federal budget, set to be tabled on November 4, is a confidence vote — meaning if it fails, the Liberal minority government could fall. MacKinnon urged opposition leaders to think carefully about whether they want to send Canadians to the polls again.

“The opposition parties will have to determine whether the differences between us are sufficiently large to cause an election,” he said. “We would be reluctant to go to the polls.”

Demands from opposition parties

Each opposition party has begun staking out its conditions for supporting the budget.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is demanding an “affordable budget” that includes broad tax cuts, a deficit cap of $42 billion, and an end to the carbon tax.

MacKinnon dismissed those demands as unrealistic, saying they would “subtract hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue from the federal government.”

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet wants higher federal health transfers, new infrastructure spending, expansion of the rapid housing initiative, and increased Old Age Security payments for Canadians aged 65–75.

MacKinnon pushed back, saying Blanchet’s criticism of the budget’s legitimacy was “a little rich coming from someone with 22 seats in a 343-seat House of Commons.”

Meanwhile, the Liberals appear to have a more constructive dialogue with the NDP.

“I wouldn’t lump Don Davies in with the other opposition leaders,” MacKinnon said, noting that NDP feedback has been more collaborative.

Still, he admitted, “The math is pretty clear — we don’t have a majority.”

Carney signals tough budget ahead

Prime Minister Mark Carney has been preparing Canadians for what he called a “challenging” and “sacrificial” budget aimed at strengthening the economy amid rising U.S. tariffs.

Speaking to students last week, Carney warned that “if we don’t act now, the pressures will only grow,” calling for long-term investments to diversify supply chains and reduce economic dependence on the United States.

MacKinnon echoed that message, saying the government will have to make “hard choices” on spending in order to free up money for key investments.

“We must make our supply chains better so that we can diversify markets east and west,” he said. “We’ll be investing massively on that side, but we will be making tough decisions on the spending side.”