Canadian officials are panicking about President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and they want motorists in Michigan and 11 other states to feel the same way.
Canadian foreign minister Melanie Joly told CNN highway billboards Canada paid to put up in Michigan and other states “send a message to the American people for them to understand what’s at stake, because this is going to hurt their livelihoods and have an impact on their wallets.”
In states that voted for Trump or border the country’s northern neighbor, the government is spending thousands to purchase what Lamar Advertising manager Richard Rickert described to the Detroit Free Press as “remnant space,” or unused inventory.
The message: “Tariffs are a tax at the gas pump.”
The billboards started going up when Trump threatened a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico in February. Those tariffs went into effect last month, and Canada was not included in additional tariffs imposed on a goods from more than 100 countries last week.
Nonetheless, those behind the Canadian ad campaign are hoping to scare Americans into taking action against the 47th POTUS in an attempt to convince the country to reverse course.
“We know very much these states are red states,” Joly said. “My message to hardworking Americans is please, talk to your senators, talk to your House representatives, to your mayors, to your governors, to send the message that you don’t want these tariffs. Nobody will win in this approach coming out of the White House.”
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Trump has suggested otherwise, extoling the levies as the beginning of a “Golden Age” for the U.S. – a position backed by the UAW and others frustrated with massive job losses tied to “free trade.”
“Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base,” Trump said. “We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers.”
Trump has predicted “thousands of companies” will relocate to the U.S. as a result of the tariffs, which he expects to generate $1 trillion in revenue over the next year, according to The Hill.
“In North Carolina, already furniture people are starting to move back in,” Trump said Sunday. “In Detroit and Michigan, which I won because of what I said, what I’m telling you, car companies are starting to open up. In Indiana, a big one is under construction as an example, Honda.”
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“They are moving in like nobody has ever seen before,” he said.
The 47th POTUS acknowledged tariffs are impacting the stock market in the U.S. and elsewhere, but argued Americans will ultimately benefit from his approach.
“I can tell you how our country has gotten a lot stronger,” Trump said. “And eventually, it’ll be a country like no other. It’ll be the most dominant country economically in the world, which is what it should be.”
UAW President Shawn Fain, who campaigned for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, has also hailed Trump’s tariffs as a “victory for autoworkers” after years of losing jobs to Mexico during the “free trade disaster.”
“These tariffs are a major step in the right direction for autoworkers and blue-collar communities across the country, and it is now on the automakers, from the Big Three to Volkswagen and beyond, to bring back good union jobs to the U.S.,” Fain said when Trump imposed auto tariffs last month.
The UAW noted: “[A]cross a dozen Big Three auto plants that have seen major declines, production has fallen by 2 million units per year in the last decade, while millions of vehicles sold here are made with low-wage, high-exploitation labor abroad.”
“At Warren Truck Assembly Plant in Warren, Michigan, for example, over 1,000 autoworkers are laid off while the plant sits underutilized and $100,000 Stellantis trucks are built in Mexico for $3 an hour,” the union said. “These layoffs were announced less than six months ago and could be undone. Those jobs could be brought back to Michigan immediately with well-designed auto tariffs.”
Other Michigan plants that could benefit include Ford Flat Rock Assembly, Ford Michigan Assembly in Wayne, GM Lansing Grand River, GM Factory Zero in Detroit and Hamtramck, and Stellantis Jefferson North Assembly in Detroit, according to Bridge Michigan.
In addition to Michigan, the Canada is paying for billboards in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.