Consumers on Both Sides of the Border and Pols on Both Sides of the Aisle Decry Trump’s Canada Trade War as ‘Wrong’

 

Consumers on both sides of the United States-Canada border believe the recent and escalating tit-for-tat trade spat has been damaging to bilateral relations, and the majority think President Donald Trump is at fault.

According to polling data released Wednesday by Politico, 83 percent of Canadians and 56 percent of Americans believe the U.S. commander in chief was in the wrong for imposing tariffs on Canada in the first place. Just 26 percent of U.S. respondents said the action was justified.

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Conducted by Politico and Public First from Sept. 13-15, the survey of 2,064 U.S. adults and 2,119 Canadian adults illuminated the glaring unpopularity of current tariff policy, and it showed that most North Americans view the U.S. as the culprit in the trade war.

What’s more, the enmity felt by Canadians for the U.S., along with the national pride, are swelling—a worrisome unintended consequence that could have impacts on American exporters.

According to the polling, 57 percent of Canadians believe Canada should put tariffs on goods imported from the U.S. to match the tariffs the U.S. has placed on the Canada, and 54 percent of Canadians believe Canada should do so to protect its domestic makers, even if consumers have to pay higher prices at retail on locally made goods.

More than half (57 percent) of Canadians said they have their leader’s back in his decision to take Trump by the horns, and that his unwillingness to capitulate to the U.S. leader is worth the higher prices they might be seeing at retail. The vast majority (71 percent) of Canadians (and one-third of Americans) said Prime Minister Mark Carney was in the right to hit back with reciprocal tariffs.

Canadians’ nationalism has reached a fever pitch, 58 percent saying they feel strongly that Canada should not make any concessions on trade to the U.S., even if it means the tariffs remain in place indefinitely.

Americans, for their part, are perturbed by the prospect of paying more for tariffed Canadian goods, and they worry about what else the trade war could cost them. Half of those surveyed said Trump’s desire to stand up to Carney isn’t worth the cost, and 44 percent believe that the bombastic president’s tough trade stance could not only raise prices, but risk American jobs.

More than half (56 percent) of Americans said that instead, the U.S. should treat Canada as a close and essential economic partner and take a more wholistic view of the relationship when developing trade policy.

Trump’s rhetoric since taking office has already taken a hit on U.S. businesses that export into Canada; in 2025, U.S. goods exports to Canada fell 4.8 percent from the previous year to $333.6 billion, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

American lawmakers worry that that trend could continue if the U.S. administration doesn’t get a handle on the bilateral relationship with the country’s neighbor to the north.

Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins has been vociferous in her denouncements of Trump’s tariffs, breaking ranks with the president to defend Maine’s workforce, which she said earlier this month has been pummeled by the breakdown in the relationship. Collins told Politico that she’d spoken to Vice President JD Vance and USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer, urging them to return to the negotiating table with Canadian officials.

Collins said she believes the administration “has very much underestimated” the tariffs’ impact on Maine residents, including small manufacturers and farmers. While the federal government views trade policy as a “macro” issue, the “micro impact on a state like Maine is considerable,” she added.

In a midterm election year, Collins has openly worried that the administration’s increasingly unpopular trade policies could imperil Republicans running for reelection.

It’s a sentiment shared by Trump-backed former New Hampshire senator and congressman John Sununu, who is now running for the Senate seat soon to be vacated by retiring Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen. He told local public radio earlier this month that the legislative branch should wrest back control over tariff policy.

“We’ve given the executive branch too much power over funds, the power of the purse, and too much power over tariffs,” he told NHPR. “So Congress needs to step up, review those powers that they’ve given to the executive and in a bipartisan way, take back the power that was granted to Congress in the first place.”

Opponents of the administration have wasted no time in calling out the tariffs’ impacts on their districts and constituencies, knowing that coming out against the duties is a winning stance.

In Texas, Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico is running on the platform of eliminating the president’s tariffs. He’s said that voting to reverse the policies is a top priority should he win his race.

At a press conference Tuesday at the Northland Workforce Training Center in Buffalo, N.Y., Democratic Congressman Tim Kennedy, who is up for reelection in November, warned that local manufacturing could suffer under the weight of the trade war and cost his constituents their livelihoods.

“Not only does it raise costs across the board, it closes off markets,” Kennedy said of the tariff policy. “New York sends nearly half a billion dollars in aluminum and a quarter billion in steel to Canada every single year, and two weeks ago, Canada hit back with a $20 billion retaliatory tariff on steel, aluminum, farm equipment, appliances, and electronics. That hurts businesses in Western New York.”

Meanwhile, a group of Senate Democrats including Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), along with independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, wrote to Greer this week demanding an update on the tariff refund process for Trump’s now-defunct International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) duties.

They demanded to know whether the USTR had a plan to ensure that the refunds reach U.S. consumers that paid higher prices as a result of the duty hikes. “We write to seek information about what steps, if any, the Administration will take to make consumers whole for the illegal IEEPA tariffs—and, if President Trump’s replacement tariffs are also struck down, for those tariffs as well,” they added.

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