How is it not a waste of time? What value could come from negotiating with someone whose entire brand is “I make and break deals all day, everyday”? We waste time and effort of actually useful people on our side, while they fling shit whether we show up or not.

You’re stuck in the past. “Dealing” with the US is a waste of resources, including time. That country might as well be gone until / unless they somehow redeem themselves, which is going to take GENERATIONS, not years.

[–] festus@lemmy.ca 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Politically, Carney needs to signal to voters that Trump is the reason we can't get a good deal, not the Liberals. You and I already know that, but my conservative voting parents don't. If Carney had walked away day 1, many voters would be thinking that maybe the Conservatives could get us a good deal.

I think there was other value too - I think if we had walked away months ago, tariffs like this would have been imposed even sooner. Delaying tariffs like this is providing real value for Canadian exporters at the relatively cheap cost of some politicians' time.

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 days ago

Politically, Carney needs to signal to voters that Trump is the reason we can't get a good deal, not the Liberals.

It also signals to other countries the futility of dealing with Trump, and that it is possible to stay strong and walk away from the Americans threats and buister.

It also demonstrates to anyone watching internationally that Canada can remain reasonable, reliable and diplomatic in our negotiations.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 days ago

If Poilievre was PM, we would have a deal, and he would have killed EU and Asian trade deals, and he would have legally changed his name to Peter Hairyhare.

[–] nyan@lemmy.cafe 11 points 3 days ago

I think the idea was more, if we could patch something together with the people who were actually negotiating (not Trump, he doesn't have the ability to look at anything in detail) and get it to hold for six months or so, that would be six months more to diversify our export markets. In other words, our government has been trying to buy time. Which didn't work this time.

Whether buying time for some of the industries under threat is justified is a whole 'nother crottle of greeps, but the pressure there is coming mostly from small subsets of the Canadian electorate, not from Americans.