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Soccer fans booed the U.S. national anthem on the weekend as Canadians reacted to news that trade talks between the two countries had broken down again.
The Canadian Press reported jeers echoing through Vancouver’s B.C. Place ahead of a Major League Soccer game between the Whitecaps and FC Dallas on Saturday, following booing at Stade Saputo, where CF Montréal hosted the L.A. Galaxy earlier in the day.
This came hours after Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended talks with the United States and recalled his negotiators, saying the U.S. made unreasonable demands at the last minute after previously agreeing to a tentative framework.
The U.S. followed through on its threat to impose 50 per cent tariffs on a wide swath of Canadian goods, and Canada promised to match the U.S. tariffs dollar for dollar by Sept. 8, a move that was largely backed by premiers across the country.
Many Canadians who spoke with CBC News over the weekend seemed to echo the sentiments from those inside the stadiums.
‘We’ve got to stand up’
Niiamaa Laryea in Vancouver said the tariff news is “horrible” but that it’s important for Canada to stand up to the U.S. “We’re in a tough situation, but I think Carney is doing the right thing,” he told CBC Vancouver. “We’ve got to stand up eventually. We can’t let the U.S. bully us into submission.”
In Ottawa, Lesley Combden said the economic pain will get worse before it gets better, and she would like to see Canada continue to diversify its trade away from the U.S.
“I think that Carney made the right decision in walking away,” she told CBC Ottawa. “Why would we want to deal with the U.S. when they won’t take away tariffs, they want us to make concessions?”
The sweeping tariffs will cover about $28 billion worth of Canadian exports, or about five per cent of products sent to the U.S.
Ontario, B.C. and Quebec are expected to feel the biggest impacts, with some of the most affected industries including agriculture, textile, electronics, furniture and plastics manufacturing.
University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe estimates some 87,000 jobs could be lost across the country as a result of the new duties.
After Canada-U.S. trade talks broke down, U.S. President Donald Trump hit Canada with 50 per cent tariffs on various items. Analysis from economist Trevor Tombe indicates that if the tariffs last, Canada would shed tens of thousands of jobs.
Retaliatory tariffs questioned
Some callers to CBC’s Cross Country Checkup on Sunday were more critical of Carney.
While few criticized the prime minister for ending negotiations, some questioned the wisdom of retaliatory tariffs.
Peter Arndt in Pickering, Ont., said Carney “100 per cent” had to walk away based on what he’s heard about the U.S. demands, but he said retaliatory tariffs are not the right way to go off the bat because they’ll also hurt Canadians.
“Tariffs are just a bad plan all around,” Arndt said.
Economists have also told CBC News that retaliatory tariffs will further hurt Canadians financially.
Cathy Wouldzia in Vancouver said it’s hard to know what to make of the prime minister’s decision without having more details about what exactly was on the table in the negotiations.
“I really think that before Sept. 8, it would be nice to have some transparency about the deal that was rejected,” she said. “Without really knowing what was offered and why it was rejected, we can’t meaningfully compare that option with the economic consequences of the current 50 per cent tariff environment.”
Asked for specifics of the Americans’ last-minute changes to terms of a trade deal, Prime Minister Mark Carney outlined three examples. He said Americans looked to change the scope of tariffs on Canadian auto content, made efforts to restrict Canada’s ability to have other trade deals around the world and made efforts to restrict Canada’s protections of language, culture ‘and in effect, our sovereignty.’
Officials have not released many specifics about what was on the table, but Carney said the U.S. made unacceptable demands at the last minute on culture, autos and sovereignty — and ultimately “asked too much and offered too little.”
Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette said the Americans had proposed negotiating matters around the province’s French-language legislation, such as the requirement that French be included on consumer devices like electronics or household appliances and user manuals.
Trump, writing on his Truth Social platform early Sunday in his first public comment since the talks broke down, did not mention the negotiations specifically but said Canada “wants the benefits” of being a U.S. state “without being one” and accused Canada of imposing “massive amounts of Tariffs” on American farmers for years.
Canadians feeling ‘betrayed’: pollster
Matt Ambida in Markham, Ont., said he thinks the Canadian government is doing a “great” job in its negotiations and needs to take a more serious approach to trade with other countries.
“At the end of the day, we have to hold firm on our stance,” he said. “We’re not dealing with the same America that we were dealing with before, and that means that we have to make tougher calls.”
David Coletto, founder and CEO of polling firm Abacus Data, said most Canadians have indicated they are feeling “deeply betrayed” by the U.S. and are willing to endure short-term economic pain for a better deal in the future.
“I get a sense from my polling that the majority of Canadians have decided that deeper integration with the United States, continuing to be reliant on them, is not going to do Canada well in the long term,” Coletto told CBC News Network on Sunday.
