Years before he became U.S. president, the Republican standard-bearer made it clear that he would use tariffs to build up American industry at the expense of other countries.
“Vote for the Republican ticket, stand by protective policy, stand by American industries, stand by that policy which believes in American work for American workmen, that believes in American wages for American laborers, that believes in American homes for American citizens.”
Donald Trump wasn’t the one to give that speech (though he surely agrees with its sentiments). It was delivered in 1885 by future president William McKinley, then an Ohio congressman. Five years later, he was instrumental in introducing steep increases to U.S. tariffs that created an economic and political crisis in Canada.
The Republican secretary of state at the time ventured that Canada, its economy starved, would come begging to join the United States. The talk of annexation ignited nationalist fervour in Canada, then a mere 24 years old, becoming a central issue in the federal election.
All of which is to say: Mr. Trump’s bullyboy tariff tactics are anything but new, and nothing that Canada hasn’t managed to rally against in decades past, to surprisingly good effect. In an interview, Queen’s University history professor Rosanne Currarino noted that the United States has often wielded tariffs as a way of asserting its power, especially during periods of national anxiety.
Before the McKinley tariffs of the 1890s, there was the economic sortie against Canada by the Republican administration of Andrew Johnson shortly after the end of the U.S. Civil War. The United States was deeply displeased by Britain’s stance during that conflict, when it had flirted with the idea of giving diplomatic recognition to the Confederacy.
The British government ultimately demurred, but Washington was still aiming to mete out punishment. The colonies of British North America were the easiest target, and killing a trade treaty was the handiest weapon. So in 1866, the Johnson administration abrogated the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854. Annexationists in the United States hoped that the British colonies would be enfeebled and fall into American hands.
Instead, the treaty’s repeal helped to precipitate Confederation, and the creation of a new country on America’s northern border. Not for the first time, U.S. pressure on Canada would backfire.
Flash forward to 1890, when the McKinley tariffs – for which Mr. Trump has professed his admiration – were being implemented. (Mr. McKinley was much more of a free trader by the time he took up residence in the White House in 1896, a fact that Mr. Trump has managed to ignore.)
The McKinley tariffs were much higher than what is being proposed today, and threatened to gut the Canadian economy, which had become dependent on north-south trade flows after Britain ended its preferential trade policies with its colonies in the 1840s. Secretary of State James G. Blaine had some basis for boasting that the U.S. could force Canada to embrace annexation by throttling its economy.
That’s not what happened. Conservative prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald, turning a crisis into an opportunity, fought his last election campaign on a platform of tariffs and turning away from the United States. He won a majority but died three months later, and would not see what a resounding success his policy would become.
Canadian agricultural exports to Britain more than quadrupled between 1889 and 1892, writes historian Marc-William Palen. In 1893, federal Minister of Trade and Commerce Mackenzie Bowell pointed out that U.S. tariffs had backfired: ”Our neighbours are cutting off their own noses to spite us.”
What do those moments from our history have to teach us about today’s crisis, in which Mr. Trump continues to issue threats disguised as mockery about Canada becoming the 51st state? The first lesson is: Don’t panic. Canadians have weathered such storms before, and will navigate this one too.
We should take comfort, yes, but also draw inspiration. Earlier generations of Canadians looked at U.S. tariffs and annexation talk, and made a country. A quarter-century later, they came up with a new economic vision that turned a crisis into a new chapter of opportunity for Canada.
Boastful threats from the United States sparked determination among Canadians in 1867 and 1891. And, thankfully, history seems to be repeating itself.