Surrounded by a friendly labour audience in Vancouver on Tuesday, Premier David Eby talked tough in the face of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s threat to slap a 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian imports.

“We’re going to stand together, and we’re going to ensure that we negotiate from a position of strength,” said Eby. “That we negotiate hard and we ensure any decisions that are made are in the best interests of British Columbians and Canadians.”

A position of strength.

The line played well for the hyper-partisan, NDP-loyal, Trump-hating audience at the BC Federation of Labour, where the crowd could be relied upon to shout “shame” and applaud on command. But back in the real world, you’d be hard-pressed to describe the Canadian position as anything remotely resembling one of strength.

For starters, nobody saw this move coming by Trump. There was no preparation for 25 per cent U.S. tariffs in the multi-week post-election “transition” effort between the Eby government and the, er, Eby government. Nor did the Canadian government have in place a scenario for such a move, so early, before Trump has even officially taken office.

B.C. has no co-ordinated strategy to work with highly exposed sectors of B.C.’s economy in response. The Canadian diplomatic corps has been caught........

© BIV