Deal or no deal? The latest deadline for Canada and the USA to come to a trade agreement is tonight at midnight. What do you think will happen?

I suspect that for most people trade talks are deadly boring, so I have not been spending much time here on the ongoing trade dispute. It mostly exists in Donald Trump’s head, but these days that is all that matters in America. If Trump says it, it must be true. Disagree, and bad things will happen to you.

From a Canadian perspective there isn’t the same urgency to get the deal done. Trump’s punitive tariffs, set to come into effect at midnight, are of dubious legality. Which doesn’t actually matter since no-one in the USA is wiling or able to hold the president accountable. He could shoot the vice-president dead in the Oval Office, and would face no charges as long as he maintained the shooting was done officially.

The rest of the world marvels at what America has become, where such a ridiculous event would be considered legal. Tariffs are a small thing compared with such a crime.

Maybe if there is a deal we will explore it together. there are ways to make trade talk interesting, and there is no doubt that trade agreements have a direct impact on each of us, even if we aren’t aware of them.

So what do you think will happen before midnight? Deal? No deal? More tariffs? A moratorium? Trump ordering an invasion of Canada if he doesn’t get his way? Time to make your prediction.