I’ve not seen anyone in real positions of power panicking, nor failing to assess the method to the madness. They’ve been stipulating potential responses partly to signal our own resolve to the U.S. audience, both consumer and political, and to reassure Canadians that they aren’t sleeping on this.
There’s been haste in some things, but haste is in order.
While tariffs seem to probably be a ‘not immediately’ thing, that hasn’t become clear until today, and what we were being told was that it very much would be.
A fast-developing asylum seeker rush on the border is definitely still in the cards, with significant quick executive action expected there south of the border.
Tariffs are the single largest and most direct threat, but far from the only significant or imminent one.