JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Canadian government is pushing back against President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on Canadian imports with a series of new digital billboards across the country, including in the Jacksonville area.
“We are launching ads in the US to make sure all Americans know that tariffs are taxes on everything they buy,” Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly told CNN.
The ads carry messages including “Tariffs are a tax on hardworking Americans,” and “Tariffs are a tax on your grocery bill.”
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The messages have been seen on billboards around Duval County, including on a billboard near the Jacksonville International Airport.
Canadian officials are calling it an education campaign.
The billboards were placed in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as well as Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas, according to CBS.
Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) told The New York Post the campaign won’t win over Americans.
“I think what they’re trying to do is to let the people know that, my gut it is, tariffs are a tax and it’s not good for the American people, and it’s not good for Canada and it’s the wrong direction to head in,” News4JAX Political Analyst and Founding Director of the Public Policy Institute at Jacksonville University Rick Mullaney said. “Unfortunately we do have a very estranged relationship with Canada right now. The prime minister of Canada said recently that the area of cooperation and collaboration with the United States is over, and we are entering into a trade war that’s what’s going on.”
Trump said he wants to implement tariffs on Canada as punishment for not doing enough to halt the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S.
A small fraction of the fentanyl that comes into the U.S. enters from Canada.
Customs and Border Protection seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the northern border during the 2024 fiscal year, and since January, authorities have seized less than 1.5 pounds, according to federal data.
Meanwhile, at the southern border, authorities seized over 21,000 pounds last year.
After weeks of White House hype and public anxiety, Trump announced a barrage of self-described “reciprocal” tariffs on friend and foe alike.
The new tariffs, a 10% tariff on all countries and even more on key trading partners like Europe and China, are a bid to boost U.S. manufacturing and punish other countries for what he has said are years of unfair trade practices.
But by most economists’ assessments, the risky move threatens to plunge the economy into a downturn and mangle decades-old alliances.
