Opinion: How are Canada’s leaders diagnosing – and treating – today’s anger? - The Globe and Mail

The rat-a-tat-tat of a nail gun and high-pitched whine of a buzz saw echo through the two-storey home as Joe Koch’s carpentry crew completes the final touches. Koch, the vice-president of operations for his decades-old family business, had hoped there would be three or four other new builds going up in this Ohio subdivision about now, but the U. S. trade war with Canada and many other countries has scuttled that plan. "People are just going to not build that house this year. They're going to wait 'til interest rates lower. They're going to wait 'til the tariffs subside or the political landscape changes," Koch said. He sees his business challenges as a microcosm of what’s happening across Ohio. President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canadian and other nations' goods have not only raised the prices he pays but costs for consumers more broadly. One of Trump's top deputies has been unsatisfied with trade deal on the table for Canada, sources sayCarney says trade deal became untenable when U. S. 'asked too much and offered too little'Koch used to buy Canadian shingles. Now he buys from a local company.