What responsibility do financially secure homeowners have to help Canada during tough economic times?

Hello, readers! Welcome back to Business Cycle – a look at what The Globe and Mail’s business columnists are talking about this week. In this edition, we’re talking about Trump’s false remarks on U.S. banks in Canada, Shopify Tobi Lütke’s comments on the federal government’s tariff response and how homeowners could help other Canadians during tough economic times.?

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Just what was Trump thinking when he said ‘Canada doesn’t even allow U.S. banks’?

By John Turley-Ewart PhD, MBA, CAMS

On Monday morning before agreeing to a one-month pause on tariffs, U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned Canada's banking sector in relation to trade tensions, specifically suggesting that U.S. banks are not allowed to operate in Canada. It is a false claim considering 16 U.S. bank subsidiaries and branches carry on business in Canada and manage assets that exceed $100-billion, or nearly half of total foreign bank assets in the country.

Contributing columnist John Turley-Ewart PhD, MBA, CAMS asks Canadians to question what Trump was thinking when making those claims, and suggests that he could learn quite a bit from the long history of how U.S. banks have learned to work with – and not against – Canada.?

"These banks are all active in key parts of the Canadian economy, serving small, medium and large businesses as well as wealthy individuals and families, delivering competition that our large domestic banks must contend with. The ‘art of the deal’ for U.S. banks operating in Canada has been to learn how to work with Canadians for everyone’s benefit. If only one could say the same for Mr. Trump."

What do you think of Trump’s U.S. bank remarks? Check out the full opinion piece here.

Shopify’s Lütke and other appeasers miss Trump’s real agenda on tariffs

By Andrew Willis

Another tech executive has entered the chat on Trump’s tariffs. Tobi Lütke, founder of Ottawa-based Shopify, took to X last Saturday to criticize the federal government’s decision to impose retaliatory tariffs on the U.S., saying the move is “simply the wrong choice” and that better options were available.

Columnist Andrew Willis writes that Lütke’s support for Trump tariffs comes as a surprise, especially seeing that the Canadian government boosted Shopify’s customer base during the pandemic, and the comments miss Trump’s real agenda on tariffs.

"Does Shopify’s boss, or any other business leader, really believe Ottawa is negotiating with Mr. Trump over a trickle of illegal immigration and minimal amounts of drug smuggling? By now, it should be clear the U.S. President’s persistent riffs on turning Canada into the 51st state speak to his true goals. The 30-day delay in rolling out tariffs announced on Monday doesn’t change the fact that Mr. Trump wants to replace decades of free trade between two countries with a one-sided business relationship where Washington sets the rules."

What do you think of Shopify founder Tobi Lütke’s tariff comments? Check out the full opinion piece here.

Financially secure homeowners have a patriotic duty to help Canada meet this moment

By Paul Kershaw

It’s a myth that the economy – and inflation – is hurting almost everyone, columnist Paul Kershaw writes. He argues that the message is dangerous because: “If everyone is hurting, nobody can be expected to help.”

He argues that privilege is not just geared to the top 1 per cent of Canadians. Instead, he argues that top 40 per cent – or financially secure homeowners whose wealth and savings are up – have a “patriotic duty”? to protect lower- and middle-income renters, for whom the burden of housing, grocery and energy inflation is heaviest.?

"We must ready ourselves to protect Canada in these challenging times by recognizing the relative privilege that owning a home provides to our personal finances, and acknowledging that this privilege implies obligations. The obligation may be to expect less, or pay more. Less, for example, from Old Age Security, so that government can repurpose revenue without raising taxes to address international pressures or subsidize deeply affordable housing for those struggling with inflation. Or perhaps we should expect more fees and taxes, to fight climate change, pay for long-term care for the aging population and meet North Atlantic Treaty Organization expectations."

Do you agree that homeowners have a “patriotic duty” to help Canadians struggling with inflation? Check out the full opinion piece here.

More business headlines we’re following this week:?

• Why banks are closing accounts without explanation, leaving Canadians scrambling
• Inside corporate Canada’s rush to tariff-proof itself
• If tariffs do come for Canada, here’s what would get expensive first

The Globe's business opinion pieces are commissioned and edited by Ethan Lou. If you would like to write in this section, please send pitches to [email protected].?

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