ontario, canada
North America was in a trade war for two days. On February 1, President Donald Trump announced he was following through on his threats of imposing tariffs on Canada and Mexico. On Truth Social, he announced:

Today, I have implemented a 25 percent tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada (10 percent on Canadian energy), and a 10 percent additional tariff on China. This was done through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (ieepa) because of the major threat of illegal aliens and deadly drugs killing our citizens, including fentanyl.

The order includes a retaliatory clause that the president can raise the tariffs if there is any retaliation.

Hours later, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a dollar-for-dollar retaliation in a televised address to the nation. Attempting to take a stern, threatening, yet conciliatory tone, Trudeau unveiled his plan to tariff $30 billion worth of goods in a week, eventually building up to $155 billion over the course of 21 days, targeting a wide variety of food stuffs and goods. With Parliament prorogued, Trudeau is navigating the crises without any oversight or opposition.

The next day, Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre unveiled a seven-point response to the tariffs that is almost the same as Trudeau’s. Both called the tariffs unjust and unfair. It seems Trump has done the impossible: united the country with something other than disdain for Trudeau.

Within hours of this tough talk, Trudeau capitulated to Trump’s demands. He promised to add 10,000 border personnel, appoint a “fentanyl czar,” create a joint task force on drug trafficking, and added more details about the $1.3 billion plan to increase border security. Due to these actions, Trump delayed the tariffs on February 3 for 30 days as he looks to renegotiate Canada’s trade relationship with America.

Canadian politicians and the media are working overtime to capitalize on Canada’s general anti-Americanism and the discontent of being targeted by Trump. The message is the tariffs are unjust, discriminate and even unlawful. But before being sucked into the narrative, stop and think. This trade war might be a tremendous blessing.

In the long history between the two nations, it is common for both sides to use tariffs as leverage in political disputes. However, this time it is different. We are living in significant prophetic times. This trade war is intertwined with the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. There are three “fronts” to this trade war that are important to understand, but it is more vital to see the grand prophetic picture.

The Political War

What is Donald Trump trying to achieve? Is he looking to increase border security, stop illegal immigration and drug trafficking, generate revenue from tariffs, or cause regime change in Canada? Or is it part of a larger plan to rearrange dynamics of the world order? Perhaps it is all the above.

In many ways, the tariffs are exposing and reining in a Canadian government that has been undermining the United States. Justin Trudeau is a friend and disciple of Barack Obama—not America. He undermined Trump during his first term, participating in the Russia hoax and supporting the election steal. He has adopted destructive policies like open borders and China-friendly policies, which have exacerbated drug trafficking and foreign interference. Canada may be a traditional ally, but Trudeau has betrayed America.

As Gerald Flurry explained in the March 2025 Trumpet, God miraculously preserved Donald Trump’s life to stop the radical left in the U.S. Obama-led Communists were on the brink of blotting out the constitutional republic, but were miraculously stopped. Obama has been silenced, but many of his disciples, like Trudeau, remain. However, Trump’s tariffs pushed Trudeau out of power. No leader in Canada is opposing the radical left. This trade war is a continuation of the war against Obama; Trump is seeking total victory over every vestige of Obama’s influence.

But don’t count Trudeau down and out yet. He is a shrewd political operative, and he is not acting like someone about to disappear into the sunset of retirement. In many ways, this trade war is the crisis Trudeau needs for his own political resurrection. Trudeau has not only enacted retaliatory tariffs but is promising massive pandemic-level relief, which will plunge the nation into further economic affliction. There is also evidence the Trudeau government has done little to avert a trade war. By focusing the nation on the enemy of Donald Trump, Trudeau is hoping to salvage the Liberal Party, and perhaps himself, in this year’s election.

The Economic War

At the heart of the dispute is the trade imbalance between the two nations. Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. subsidizes Canada for over $200 billion per year, when the trade deficit, national security and other considerations are taken into account. Trump has said Canada is “not a viable country” and has offered for Canada to become the 51st state.

What is the truth? In 2023, the trade surplus between the two countries was $32 billion favoring Canada. However, if you remove oil and gas from the trade equation, America has a surplus of $58 billion. Canada sells oil and gas to America at lower prices because there are no international travel fees; it is all delivered through pipelines.

When you look beyond the balance of goods, America has an advantage in every trade category. America has a surplus of $26.6 billion in the service trade. Per capita, Canadians spend 648 percent more on U.S. products—$10,800 per year on average, while Americans only pay $1,443. When looking at foreign direct investment—investment in corporations, banks, financing and insurance—Canada invests over $100 billion more into America than the other way around.

The U.S. already has an advantage: Canada is more or less America’s bulk barn, selling resources and services at a discounted rate.

But the call for tariffs is exposing Canada’s economy as a house of cards.

First, North America has a complex supply chain for key industries. Due to economic integration, many manufactured products must pass over the borders of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico several times before a product is completed. The best example is the auto industry. Most American-made cars are assembled in Mexico. According to the Cato Institute, a single capacitor used in a car seat crosses North American borders five times before it is finally assembled. It would take years to reverse the current arrangement. Trump wants to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S., which could cause a loss of 500,000 jobs in Ontario alone.

Most of all, these events are showing Canada is in a productivity crisis. It is no longer producing goods and cultivating resources for others to buy. Our economy is based on consuming, not producing. Oil, mining, manufacturing, construction and technology industries are lagging behind in labor and output.

The statistics are shocking. Canada has one of the lowest economic growth rates among its Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development peers, averaging 0.6 percent since 2014. It is last in projected growth. It produces only $62 in gross domestic product per hour worked, second-to-last among the G-7 nations. Its standard of living lags far behind the other G-7 countries. It never recovered from locking down the economy during the covid-19 pandemic. Canada’s productivity has contracted and is shrinking year by year in key industries.

If you live in Canada, you don’t need stats to tell you this reality. Drive through any large community or any downtown core, and you see these numbers playing out in people’s lives. Shuttered businesses, homelessness, record numbers living off government programs, high prices, high rent, and the only solution from the government is to print more money and send out relief checks.

How did this happen? Trudeau’s government deliberately dismantled Canada’s economic productivity. Heavy regulation and bureaucratic processes have slowed productivity. A complex tax code stymies growth. Unprecedented legal immigration has exacerbated these issues and hidden our economic recession in the statistics.

Driven by green energy and climate policies, Trudeau has canceled or suspended $670 billion in natural resource projects since 2015. Most of these are liquefied natural gas development, tar sand locations and oil pipelines that would connect Alberta to eastern Canada without passing through the U.S. The only pipeline feeding eastern Canada 45 percent of its oil is Line 5, which goes through Michigan.

Canada actually has an “America first” approach to our energy infrastructure: Nearly all oil and electricity lines run to America and are not shared among the provinces. This makes us vulnerable and divided. Our leaders have lacked ambition to overcome Canada’s geographic and cultural challenges to realize the greatness of our own resources. The Canadian people have lacked the will, choosing health care and social safety nets over national greatness.

We are the second-largest country in the world, but we have a housing crisis. We have some of the most important natural resources in the world, but we don’t procure them. We produce massive amounts of oil, but import what we need and have high gas prices. Looking at the facts, it is delusional to enter a trade war with America.

The Border War

The other pillar of the dispute is border security. Trump is demanding Canada clamp down on illegal immigration and drug trafficking, especially fentanyl. Many Canadians believe it unfair to be treated with the same severity as Mexico on these issues when fewer drugs and illegal immigrants pass through the northern border. But this exposes another uncomfortable truth for Canadians: The nation has become a safe haven for America’s enemies and criminals.

In 2024, illegal crossings from Canada into the U.S. spiked from averaging 100 per month to 1,000 to 4,000 per month, mostly through corridors from Ontario and Quebec. This is a small number compared to the southern border. But historically, Canada has a problem of letting terrorists and other bad actors use the country as a base of operations against America.

“Canada, they soon learned, was an extremely effective base from which to spread terror throughout the world,” writes Stewart Bell in Cold Terror, referring to al Qaeda, Tamil Tigers, Sikh liberation groups and other terrorist groups. He continues:

The list of specific government failures is extensive, from an immigration system seemingly incapable of deporting even known terrorists, to laws that have proven ineffective at shutting down charities and ethnic groups fronting for terror. But it all stems from a political leadership unwilling to take a stand. … Canada’s official terrorism policy—in effect, denying that there is a problem—is merely a public relations strategy intended to manage Washington in order to prevent the Americans from imposing border security measures that would slow north-south trade.

Trump is the first American president willing to make Canada face its terrorism problem. The massive pro-Hamas protests in Canada after Oct. 7, 2023, show this is a major issue in our cities and universities. These terrorists, their front groups and supporters make up valuable voting blocks in key Liberal Party ridings.

The same can be said for the drug trade. Mainly conducted through organized crime, these organizations also hold a powerful sway in Canadian politics. The Chinese Triads based in Vancouver and the Italian mafia based in Montreal are responsible for moving large amount of drugs into Canada (from China and France) and then into the U.S. However, even the Canadian government is providing drugs for the black market. The Western Standard revealed that large amounts of drugs provided by pharmacists and doctors in British Columbia’s safe injection sites are being trafficked.

While a small amount of fentanyl moves through Canada’s borders, China sends the ingredients through Canada. That is why Trump’s executive order suspended de minimis treatment on shipments from Canada. De minimis is a loophole where shipments worth less than $800 are not subject to customs fees. Last year, the U.S. received nearly 1 billion shipments with no declaration of what they are: Many were the ingredients to make fentanyl.

These are major national security matters; Trump is using tariffs to force weak Canadian leaders to take action.

Our Sickness

Whether the trade war resumes or not, it is bringing light to some terrible issues in the heart of Canada. This is why Trump’s tariff threats are actually a blessing in disguise: They are forcing us to look in the mirror and recognize national diseases that need to be healed.

The Bible reveals this is how God views Canada, the U.S. and British Commonwealth nations: “Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment” (Isaiah 1:5-6). This is a sharp reality check from God. The facts line up exactly with Bible prophecy.

Canada needs a physician. While the tariff threats are exposing some of these issues, Donald Trump is not our physician. Only God can heal our nation. We must take stock of who we are as a nation and as individuals. God is using this trade war to help bring about national and individual repentance. These national symptoms are merely downstream from individual morality. We need to see the sickness of our human hearts.

God reveals the solution: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

The Bible shows the path Canadians need to choose. These important prophecies are explained in a book you need to read: The United States and Britain in Prophecy.