Image: Truth Social
Nova Scotia mixed media artist Chris Warburton Hulme, (whose motto is “Empowering Women Through Art”), produces prints, bookmarks, cards, stickers, notebooks etc. based on her original art. According to this CBC report, Warburton Hulme will no longer be selling to her US customers out of principle because she believes that works of creative expression should not be at the centre of a tariff war. Even if she didn’t have such scruples, her US market probably dried up in any case, as all her work just got 50 percent more expensive in the US as a result of the Trump administration’s imposition of retaliatory tariffs on a range of Canadian products. In the case of art, unless they are more than one hundred years old, the new tariff applies to paintings, drawings, collages, sculptures and statuary, original prints and lithographs and, for good measure, anything (art or otherwise) made from tortoise shell, whalebone, horns, antlers, hooves, nails, claws and beaks. That will stem the flood of deer hoof rattles flooding in from Canada! The tariff being applied is based on a legal measure that has never before been used, Section 338 of the US Tariff Act of 1930. The Act established what are commonly known as the infamous Smoot-Hawley tariffs that resulted in deepening the Depression and causing a severe rupture in international trade before the Second World War.
The US retaliation is in response to Canada’s retaliation against the imposition of US tariffs on a range of Canadian products that were granted tariff-free access under trilateral trade pact, the USMCA (referred to as the CUSMA in Canada). The US overrode its market access commitments in the USMCA by invoking the pretext of “national security”, a self-judging loophole that is part of the agreement. As a result, the US imposed tariffs of up to 50% on Canadian steel, aluminum, and copper, 25% on cars and wood products including such key national security items as upholstered furniture, vanities and kitchen cabinets, and 10 percent on lumber on top of existing duties, bringing the total tariff on Canadian lumber to the range of 30 percent. Lumber exports to the US from Russia pay less duty. Canada had the temerity to retaliate against this treatment, leading to the present situation. The US position is that not only is it entitled to erect import barriers into the US market, it is at the same time equally entitled to demand duty free access to other markets. If you don’t agree to this, the US will inflict pain on you targeting, among others, Canadian print makers and antler and bone carvers. Watch out! Worse is to come.
If that doesn’t bring those “nasty Canadians” to heel, Donald Trump has another ace up his sleeve. Renaming. For starters, he signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario, the name by which it has been known for approximately 400 years, to Lake America. Where is Lake America? You’ll have to ask the President, but in case you are in any doubt he posted this bizarre video showing him replacing a Lake Ontario sign with one saying Lake America and then doing some sort of victory dance. It is truly distressing—and frankly sad—to see the President of the United States, enabled by the sycophantic clique surrounding him, behaving like a spoiled adolescent. Sorry, that’s unfair to spoiled adolescents who could be forgiven for not knowing any better. This puerile behaviour could be ignored if it wasn’t so dangerous and harmful for the longstanding economic and political relationship between the two countries that share the largest part of the North American landmass.
After the US began enforcing the Section 338 tariffs following the last-minute implosion of the US-Canada trade talks that had been taking place because of the 338 tariff threat, Canada announced yet another retaliation list. One wonders at its efficacy, although it is good domestic politics to be seen to be standing up to threats. While Canada can impose some selective pain on US exporters, it cannot really hurt the US economy. Trump’s widespread tariffs on imports, not just from Canada but from just about everywhere, are taking care of that. While designed to put some pressure on US exporters, the Canadian tariffs are also apparently designed to help Canadian producers–who now have their access to the US market impeded–by providing them with protection against directly competing US imports. Original art has not in fact been targeted by the Canadian tariffs; putting a reciprocal tariff on US deer hooves, lithographs or sculptures probably wouldn’t make much difference to Canadian artists. One result of the Canadian countermeasures will be to increase the price of products imported from the US, so Canadian consumers will be the ones taking a hit. Mind you, the mood of consumers is already very much behind purchasing locally made products, but generally the retail end-user is unable to identify intermediate inputs. It is overly simplistic to slap a “Made in Canada” label on a product when in fact, there are relatively few products made exclusively in Canada. Perhaps Chris Warburton Hulme’s products qualify.
One result of the Canadian counter-action will inevitably be further US retaliation. Most Canadian provinces have in effect banned the import of US liquor and wine, not by imposing an import ban but by simply not placing orders for the product, and by not retailing it. Apparently, the US is mulling banning some Canadian products as a countermeasure. Maybe Canadian maple syrup will have to find new export markets.
Donald Trump could also up the ante on his renaming offensive, passing more executive orders to eliminate all those annoying references to Canada. Let’s get rid of “Canadian bacon”. (As a footnote to my US readers, no-one calls it Canadian bacon in Canada. It is simply just “back bacon”). Let’s rename the Canada goose. Trump seems to have a hate on for this noisy and annoying bird that tends to foul golf courses and playgrounds, judging by another inane post from the White House. Goose poo flown in from Canada. Almost as bad as wildfire smoke. Some have suggested renaming the Canada goose as the Donald Duck. Maybe the Daffy Duck would be more appropriate. Or, how about “Lame Duck”.
When will this madness end, and artists like Chris Warburton Hulme can get back to creating art without getting caught in a political crossfire? Probably about the time that Lake America fades into history. Lake America is impossible to find on Google maps in Canada, although its name recognition surged briefly when some official Canadian websites found, to their embarrassment, that the underlying settings for Google maps in Canada were set to a US API (Application Programming Interface), making Lake America the default setting. That was hastily changed. To stir the embers, Canada’s own resident clown, Ontario Premier Doug Ford (who has an unfortunate and canny ability to get under Trump’s skin), unveiled a large sign proclaiming, bilingually, “Lake Ontario: Now and Always”, as if anyone really needed to do this. Don’t take the bait. About the time the moniker Lake America disappears, the true name of the Gulf of Mexico will also make a comeback, although this US website suggests that Trump is having a tough time making Gulf of America stick. Perhaps the lyrics of Johnny Horton’s song (“We fired once more and they began to runnin’, On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico”) will not need to be rewritten after all.
The most recent infantile outburst is this post on Truth Social showing Trump (who probably can’t even skate—those darn bone spurs again) knocking down Carney (who played on the Harvard hockey squad, admittedly as back up goalie) in a supposed ice-rink confrontation. Doesn’t he have better things to do? The sad spectacle of the most senior elected official, and many non-elected cabinet-level officials of the United States, making complete fools of themselves through childish, meaningless social media posts and comments makes one wonder who is really in charge. Have the inmates now truly taken over the asylum?
© Hugh Stephens 2026. All Rights Reserved.
