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      in Elections

      Oil Companies Wanted Trump to Lower Costs. Tariffs Are Raising Them.

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      President Trump’s promise during last year’s election to make it far easier to drill for oil and gas thrilled energy executives who believed his policies would lower their costs and help them make a lot more money.Those hopes are now fading. Thanks to Mr. Trump’s tariffs, the oil and gas industry is contending with rising prices for essential materials like steel pipes used to line new wells.That has not yet translated into a meaningful change in U.S. drilling activity or production expectations, but companies have begun revising budgets to reflect higher materials costs. Decisions made today about which wells to drill will affect production many months from now.Oil refineries are separately bracing for a tariff on Canadian oil, which some of them need to produce gasoline, diesel and other fuels.At the same time, consumers have grown jittery about the economy and the price of oil has fallen about 10 percent since just before Mr. Trump took office, to around $70 a barrel. Oil companies tend to drill less when prices fall.The combination could complicate Mr. Trump’s stated desire to juice U.S. oil and natural gas production, which are already at or near record highs.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in US Politics

      ‘I decided I was done’: Canada pizzeria boycotts US ingredients in tariff dispute

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      Tucked away in a former garage space in Toronto’s west end, Gram’s Pizza is usually packed with diners hankering for anything from a classic pepperoni to vodka and hot hawaiian.Lately, however, owner and chef Graham Palmateer has made some changes to how he makes his pizzas.After Donald Trump threatened to slap a 25% tariff on Canadian goods – and even to annex the whole country – Palmateer decided to banish US ingredients from his restaurant.“I just decided I was done with the US. I wanted to move away from American companies,” he said. “Canadians know Americans pretty well, and we don’t always agree with the choices that they make. A lot of us are disappointed, to put it mildly.”Making the switch has not been the easiest task: the two countries’ economies have been tightly bound through a longstanding free trade agreement since the late 1980s.But years of cross-border trade and investment has blurred the lines on country of origin: in the car manufacturing industry, for example, a vehicle passes the border an average of seven times during the manufacturing process.View image in fullscreenThose attempting to impose a full boycott of consumer goods have been caught off-guard at grocery stores where “Made In Canada” products might contain some US ingredients.And while Canada’s political leaders have at times appeared to be flailing in their response to Trump’s threat, ordinary Canadians have decided to get their retaliation in early, and boycott American goods.A poll this month by the Angus Reid Institute published found that since Trump revived his threat of tariffs, four in five Canadians have been buying more Canadian products.Some grocery stores have even labeled which items are made by Canadian producers. Bar Sazerac in Hamilton, about an hour west of Toronto, is no longer using American alcohol in its menu.Palmateer said his transition to Canadian ingredients had some bumps initially. He had trouble sourcing Canadian diet soda, while some items, like mushrooms, are more expensive to source locally. Instead of Californian tomatoes, he opted for canned ones from Italy.But he has since gotten into the swing of things. He uses a Quebec-based company to source pepperoni, the flour he uses is made with Ontario grain and cheese is easy to source from Canadian suppliers.View image in fullscreenThe cost of operating has increased slightly, “but by and large, I haven’t had to change pricing”, he said.Kenneth Wong, an associate professor at the business school at Queen’s University in Ontario, said he had been surprised by an apparently organic response among Canadian consumers: on a visit to his local grocery store, homegrown apples were sold out, while next to them, a bin of US apples appeared to be untouched.“Canadians are bearing down in ways I never thought they would,” he said.After appearing to relent on the tariff threat, Trump on Thursday repeated his intention to apply the levy on imports from Canada on Mexico from 4 March.The continuing uncertainty has prompted Canadian provinces to lift some internal trade barriers – a move which Wong said could somewhat reduce Canada’s strong reliance on the US.“And once that fully happens, tastes will change and habits will form. I’m not saying you can’t win back your consumer if you’re a US firm, but I am saying it’s going to be a lot more expensive to do so,” he said.Palmateer said his customer base seemed to be happy with his choice to shun American products. “It’s pretty much been positive. ‘Good for you’ kind of comments,” he said.One customer was upset they could no longer drink a Sprite with their Pizza. But Palmateer has since found Canadian soda brands like Sap Sucker which he hopes will fit the bill. Either way, he says he will not go back to using US ingredients.“This boycott … is my way of voting with my dollar,” he says. “If it encourages someone else to also do the same thing and divest, that’s a good step.” More

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      in US Politics

      China promises ‘countermeasures’ after Trump threatens additional 10% tariff

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      Donald Trump has threatened China with an additional 10% tariff on its exports to the US, prompting a promise of “countermeasures” from Beijing and setting the stage for another significant escalation in the two governments’ trade war.The US president also claimed he planned to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting next Tuesday, having delayed their imposition last month after talks with his counterparts.Posting on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump said illicit drugs such as fentanyl were being smuggled into the US at “unacceptable levels” and that import taxes would force other countries to crack down on the trafficking.“We cannot allow this scourge to continue to harm the USA, and therefore, until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled,” the Republican president wrote. “China will likewise be charged an additional 10% Tariff on that date.”If Trump makes good on this latest threat, the move would further strain relations between the US and its largest trading partners.In response, China’s commerce and foreign ministries on Friday vowed to retaliate if Chinese companies were affected by the tariffs, accusing the US of using fentanyl as a “pretext” to threaten China.“Such behaviour is purely ‘shifting blame and shirking responsibility,’ which is not conducive to solving its own problems,” a commerce ministry spokesperson said. “If the US insists on proceeding with this course of action, China will take all necessary countermeasures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.”Canada and Mexico have promised to retaliate if the US imposes tariffs on their exports. China hit back swiftly when Trump imposed a 10% tariff on its exports earlier this month.The Trump administration has repeatedly raised the threat of tariffs, vowing to rebalance the global economic order in the US’s favor. A string of announced measures have yet to be introduced, however, as economists and businesses urge officials to reconsider.The duties on imports from Canada and Mexico have been repeatedly delayed; modified levies on steel and aluminum will not be enforced until next month, and a wave of “reciprocal” tariffs, trailed earlier this month, will not kick in before April.This week, the US president vowed to slap 25% tariffs on the EU, claiming the bloc was “formed to screw the United States”, although details remain sparse. Duties will be applied “generally”, Trump said, “on cars and all other things”.The prospect of escalating tariffs has already thrown the global economy into turmoil – with consumers expressing fears about inflation worsening and the auto sector possibly suffering if the US’s two largest trading partners in Canada and Mexico are slapped with taxes.The prospect of higher prices and slower growth could create political blowback for Trump.Associated Press contributed reporting More

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      in Elections

      Trump Says Canada and Mexico Tariffs Will Go Into Effect Next Week

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      Tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico would go into effect on March 4 “as scheduled,” President Trump said on Thursday morning, claiming that those countries were still not doing enough to stop the flow of drugs into the United States.China will also face an additional 10 percent tariff next week, on top of the 10 percent he imposed earlier this month, the president wrote in a post on Truth Social.“Drugs are still pouring into our Country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels,” he said. “A large percentage of these Drugs, much of them in the form of Fentanyl, are made in, and supplied by, China.” He added that the levies were necessary until the flow of drugs “stops, or is seriously limited.”In an effort to stem the flow of migrants and drugs, Mr. Trump threatened to impose tariffs on all products from Canada, Mexico and China in early February. But after Mexico and Canada promised measures like sending more troops to the border and, in the case of Canada, appointing a “fentanyl czar,” Mr. Trump paused their tariffs for one month.He moved ahead with imposing a 10 percent tariff on all products from China, on top of those already in place, which prompted China to retaliate with its own tariffs on American goods.The post Thursday appeared to be an attempt by Mr. Trump to clarify his plans, after his remarks at the White House on Wednesday sowed confusion about whether the tariffs had been delayed.When asked about tariffs on Canada and Mexico on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said that they would proceed — but mentioned April 2, which is when he has said another batch of tariffs on various countries, which he has called reciprocal tariffs, would go into effect.Some investors interpreted those remarks as a sign the president meant to continue delaying the tariffs related to drugs and migrants, and the value of the peso and the Canadian dollar increased. But a White House official on Wednesday clarified that the April 2 date referred to other tariffs, not those on Canada and Mexico.“The April Second Reciprocal Tariff date will remain in full force and effect,” Mr. Trump wrote Thursday. More

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      in Elections

      Possible Remains of Indigenous Women Slain in Canada Found in Landfill

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      The search in Manitoba uncovered possible human remains from two victims of a serial killer, a devastating case that spotlighted an epidemic of violence against Indigenous women in Canada.The authorities in the western Canadian province of Manitoba said on Wednesday that they had found what could be the remains of two Indigenous women murdered by a serial killer, a possible breakthrough in a case that has devastated local communities and brought to the fore the issue of violence against Indigenous women in Canada.During a search of the Prairie Green Landfill near Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba, experts “identified potential human remains in the search material,” the provincial government said in a statement.The families of the two victims, Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, had been notified and visited the site, it said, adding that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other agencies would take over the investigations.Between March and May 2022, Jeremy Anthony Michael Skibicki, then 35, killed four Indigenous women, all from the Winnipeg area. He was arrested in December the same year. He had expressed support for the far right on social media, filling his Facebook page with white supremacist, misogynistic and antisemitic comments.Last year he was sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole for the first-degree murders of Ms. Myran, who was 26 when she was killed; Ms. Harris, who was 39; Rebecca Contois, 24; and an unidentified woman whom First Nations elders called Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, which means Buffalo Woman.Donna Bartlett, grandmother of Marcedes Myran, with her great-granddaughter in Winnipeg last year.Sebastien St-Jean/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesSome of Ms. Contois’s remains were recovered in a separate landfill in 2022, but the remains of the unidentified woman, Ms. Harris and Ms. Myran were never found.The latter two women were killed within days of each other in early May 2022, the authorities said at the time. Both were from Long Plain First Nation, a reserve about 55 miles west of Winnipeg, and had been reported to the police as missing.Ms. Harris’s and Ms. Myran’s families, friends and communities had mounted a relentless fight to persuade the authorities, both local and federal, to permit and to fund a thorough search for their remains in Prairie Green Landfill, where GPS evidence suggested they had likely been dumped.The Canadian government had resisted the landfill search, citing costs and technical difficulties.In 2022 the homicide rate of Indigenous women and girls in Canada was more than six times higher than that of their non-Indigenous counterparts.Cambria Harris, the daughter of Ms. Harris, who has led the fight for the recovery of her mother’s and Ms. Myran’s remains, asked for privacy. “I would like this time to grieve in peace,” she said on a social media posting.Jorden Myran, a sister of Ms. Myran, did not respond to a written request for comment. More

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      in US Politics

      Canada’s American coach Marsch ‘ashamed’ of Trump’s 51st state comments

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      Canada head coach Jesse Marsch took direct aim at Donald Trump and the current state of discourse in the US in comments to media on Wednesday.“If I have one message to our president, it’s lay off the ridiculous rhetoric about Canada being the 51st state,” said Marsch, who grew up in Wisconsin and enjoyed a 13-year career in Major League Soccer before moving into coaching. “As an American, I’m ashamed of the arrogance and disregard that we’ve shown one of our historically oldest, strongest and most loyal allies.”Marsch was addressing the media in Los Angeles, where he appeared with other representatives of the four nations participating in the Concacaf Nations League finals, set to be hosted at SoFi Stadium at the end of next month. Canada will play Mexico in one semi-final on 20 March with the US and Panama playing each other on the same day, raising the possibility that the two nations will play each other in either the Nations League final or third place game on 23 March.Trump has repeatedly antagonized Canada in comments and through official policy proposals like tariffs during his second term. On multiple occasions he has said that Canada could become “the 51st state” of the United States and has proposed tariffs that experts predict would kick off a trade war between the countries.Trump’s comments have already resonated in the sports world. The US national anthem was booed repeatedly at NHL and NBA games in Canada, while the countries’ meeting at the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off became an overtly political spectacle. In the final of that tournament, the Canadian national anthem singer changed the song’s lyrics in a direct rebuke to Trump, before Canada set off wild celebrations with a victory.Marsch, the former Leeds United, RB Leipzig, RB Salzburg and New York Red Bulls head coach, said on Wednesday that international tournaments like the Nations League “mean something different now” given the current political climate, and said he finds the 51st state discourse to be “unsettling and frankly insulting.”“Canada is a strong, independent nation that’s deeply rooted in decency, and it’s a place that values high ethics and respect, unlike the polarized, disrespectful and often now, hate-fueled climate that’s in the US,” Marsch said. “It’s one of the things that I’ve enjoyed the most about our team, is that they exemplify this as human beings and as a team … So for me right now I couldn’t be prouder to be the Canadian national team coach. I found a place that embodies, for me, the ideals and morals of what not just football and a team is, but what life is, and that’s integrity, respect and the belief that good people can do great things together.”Canada, who appeared in their first men’s World Cup in 36 years in 2022, hired Marsch in 2024 and have continued to thrive. The team progressed to the third place game at the 2024 Copa América, and defeated the US 2-1 in a September friendly later that year. A win against Mexico at the Nations League finals would stretch the team’s unbeaten run to six games since the Copa América.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“One thing’s for sure, when I look forward to a month from now … I know this will fuel our team, the mentality we have, the will we have to play for our country, the desire we have to go after this tournament in every way and show on and off the pitch exactly what Canadian character is,” Marsch said.US men’s national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino was not present at the event, replaced instead by former USMNT defender and current US Soccer President of Sporting Oguchi Onyewu. Asked to respond to Marsch’s comments, Onyewu said: “We’re all here to promote the Concacaf Nations League, and all of my comments are to promote the Concacaf Nations League, SoFi Stadium, and the strong competition that we have on this panel right now.” More

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      in US Politics

      More than 150,000 Canadians sign petition to revoke Musk’s citizenship

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      More than 150,000 people from Canada have signed a parliamentary petition calling for their country to strip Elon Musk’s Canadian citizenship because of the tech billionaire’s alliance with Donald Trump, who has spent his second US presidency repeatedly threatening to conquer its independent neighbor to the north and turn it into its 51st state.British Columbia author Qualia Reed launched the petition in Canada’s House of Commons, where it was sponsored by New Democrat parliamentary member and avowed Musk critic Charlie Angus, as the Canadian Press first reported over the weekend.Born in South Africa and helming US companies including electric vehicle-maker Tesla, aerospace company SpaceX and the social media platform Twitter/X, Musk has Canadian citizenship through his mother, who is from Saskatchewan’s capital, Regina. He has been crusading to slash the US federal government’s size at the behest of the US president, who has consistently challenged Canada’s sovereignty since returning to the White House for a second presidential term on 20 January.Reed’s petition – filed on 20 February – accuses Musk of having “engaged in activities that go against the national interest of Canada” by acting as an adviser to Trump. Trump has invited the scorn of Canada’s 40 million residents by making threats about imposing steep tariffs on Canadian products and openly boasting about having the US annex the country, including shortly before its national hockey team defeated a selection of American opponents in a politically charged 20 February tournament final.The petition asserts that Musk’s alignment with Trump makes him “a member of a foreign government that is attempting to erase Canadian sovereignty”. It asks Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau to take away Musk’s Canadian passport and revoke his citizenship with immediate effect.Trump has often mocked Trudeau as “governor”, the title given to US states’ chief executives. And Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he bought in 2022 for $44bn to relish Trudeau’s announcement in January that he would resign as the head of Canada’s Liberal party after it selected a new leader, with the tech billionaire praising clips of the prominent Canadian Conservative party chief Pierre Poilievre.As the Canadian Press noted, petitions like Reed’s require 500 or more signatures for them to gain the certification necessary to be presented to Canada’s House of Commons and potentially garner a formal government response. Reed’s petition evidently had no trouble clearing that threshold, having collected about 157,000 signatures as of late Sunday, with no indication that the number would soon stop rising.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionCanada’s House of Commons is scheduled to resume its work on 24 March, though the country could call for a general election before parliamentary members return. The signing period for Reed’s petition was set to expire on 20 June.Musk’s directive to ostensibly cut federal spending – after Trump lost re-election in 2020 to Joe Biden but then secured it in November at the expense of Kamala Harris – has affected hundreds of thousands of US government civil servants. The cuts include thousands at the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense, Health and Human Services, the Internal Revenue Service and the National Parks Service, among others.An Economist/YouGov poll of nearly 1,600 respondents recently found Musk and his so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) are far less popular with the public that they claim to be serving than many of the areas they are targeting.Nonetheless, on Friday at a gathering of conservatives in Maryland, Musk made light of his involvement in the Trump administration by giddily waving a giant chainsaw in the air.And on Sunday, Musk boosted an X post reading: “Of course we support Doge! Those who don’t support it are unAmerican.” More

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      in US Politics

      Trump’s comments on Canada prompt surge of patriotism – in a Canadian way

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      A lone figure takes to the stage, a giant maple leaf flag rippling on a screen behind him as he gingerly approaches the microphone.“I’m not a lumberjack, or a fur trader,” he tells the crowd. “I have a prime minister, not a president. I speak English and French, not American. And I pronounce it ‘about’ – not ‘a boot’.”The crowd, indifferent at first, grows increasingly enthusiastic as the man works his way through a catalogue of Canadian stereotypes, passing from diffidence to defiance before the climactic cry: “Canada is the second largest landmass! The first nation of hockey! And the best part of North America! My name is Joe! And I am Canadian!”The ad, for Molson Canadian beer, was immensely popular when it aired in 2000. And now, with Canada’s identity and sovereignty under threat, it has roared back into the public consciousness.In recent weeks, Canadian patriotism has surged in response to Donald Trump’s suggestion that the US could annex its northern neighbour. His threats have prompted an outpouring of disbelief and defiance, but – in a very Canadian way – they has also revived questions over the complexities of national identity.View image in fullscreenTrump began his campaign of diplomatic trolling before he had even assumed office, questioning Canada’s viability as a nation, suggesting that it could become the 51st American state, and deriding the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, as a “governor”.In response, Canadians have taken to acts of patriotism, small and large: one pilot flew his small plane in the shape of a maple leaf; sports fans have booed US teams; hats insisting “Canada is not for sale” have gone viral; consumers have pledged to buy only Canadian-made products – a pledge skewered in a viral sketch in which one shopper berates another for buying American ketchup.“What the hell are you doing?” he asked “We’re in a trade war, you traitor!”“It’s been absolutely crazy and overwhelming,” said Dylan Lobo, who runs MadeInCa, a website that catalogues products made in-country. “We’re struggling to keep up with all the listings. People are really frustrated and they want to find a way to support Canadian and buy Canadian.”Politicians, aware of a looming election, have wrapped themselves in the flag. And in a show of bipartisan unity, five former prime ministers have called for Canadian unity.“We all agree on one thing: Canada, the true north, strong and free, the best country in the world, is worth celebrating and fighting for,” the leaders wrote in a statement.A recent poll found pro-Canadian sentiment has surged in recent weeks – with the biggest leap towards patriotism found in francophone Quebec, a region historically ambivalent towards federal patriotism.View image in fullscreenThe shift marks a dramatic rebound from 2020, when the divisive policies of the coronavirus pandemic shifted how many Canadians viewed the flag – especially after the maple leaf was appropriated by the by far-right Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa.At the same time, new stress has been put on Canadian national identity amid growing recognition of the historical injustices perpetrated against Indigenous peoples. Statues of monarchs and founding statesmen have been pulled down, and buildings renamed amid a heated national discussion about the legacy of colonial rule.“Trump’s comments on annexation have certainly awakened something in people,” said Wilfred King, the chief of Gull Bay First Nation. “But I think we also need to remember on both side of the border, that Indigenous people in Canada are the only ones that can really speak about true sovereignty in this country.”Unlike in other colonial conquests, King said, the Crown made alliances with Indigenous peoples in what is now Canada. “There was no surrender to outside forces.”“When crisis and conflict came, we answered the call. Indigenous people volunteered more than any other group to fight alongside their allies in both world wars,” said King, whose father served in the second world war. “When they returned home, they were marginalized. They saw what it was like to be betrayed by a friend.”And so the fraught nature of Canada’s relationship with the US is jarringly familiar to the country’s first peoples. “They’re only feeling what we’ve been feeling for the last 175 years. It’s how the government has treated First Nations in Canada.”View image in fullscreenFor Jeff Douglas, who played Joe Canada in popular the 2000 ad campaign, the recent surge of nationalism has brought mixed feelings.“Patriotism wasn’t something that ever really resonated with me and I was very ignorant about the totality of Canadian history when we made the ad,” he said.Douglas, who later became an acclaimed radio host for the CBC, says decades spent meeting different groups across the country has deepened his understanding of Canada’s complicated, and dark, history.“I think that we can still be proud. We just have to be aware – and then being aware of the wrongs of the past and the continuing wrongs in the present doesn’t mean that we can’t be proud to be Canadian. Pride in being Canadian cannot come at the cost of that awareness,” he said.And while he says a “blind” shift towards patriotism doesn’t serve the broader goals of fixing injustices, it also reflects the “dynamic” nature of people’s relationship with their country.“There are going to be times where you’re going to need to just say, ‘We need to be strong and face forward if that’s what the country needs to get through the existential threat we’re facing,’” he said.Douglas is hopeful the current fixation on buttressing Canadian identity in the face of threats to the country will serve a broader purpose.“My love of the country, or rather the people of the country, is a love of what we potentially could achieve, and it is richer when I understand the complexity of where we’ve been and where we are. We can grow. But it’s important to remember that you can love something that’s imperfect.” More