David Eby is Ready for a Trade War—a Q&A with BC’s Premier

By Katie Underwood
Maclean’s Magazine
January 27, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

David Eby

Back in January, with an inconveniently prorogued Parliament and the US president pressing with some very un-ally-like tariff threats, Canada’s premiers decided to defend themselves. …For David Eby, BC’s premier, however, it meant war. He adopted an economic eye-for-an-eye approach, and nothing was off the table—not export bans, not travel boycotts and certainly not retaliatory import tariffs, right down to Florida orange juice. …Just how much damage could tariffs cause your province? For us, it affects about half our exports. We’re also talking about a potential loss of 100,000 jobs. And there would be tariffs of almost 50 per cent on lumber headed for the US. I don’t expect them to last once everyday Americans realize that their electricity and gas cost more; that one in four sticks of lumber that they use come from Canada and that they’re suddenly 50% more expensive. And that American lumber outlets will match prices.

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