Very interesting article in the Atlantic about the effects the tariffs are having, on one farmer in particular in New York, who was surprised to learn that HE was responsible for paying the tariff, not his Canadian supplier.

I am sorry that people like this farmer are getting caught up in this insanity, but I hope everybody quickly realizes who pays tariffs. It’s not the foreign supplier. It’s the American purchaser.

Excerpt -

Last month , Nicholas Gilbert received a delivery of grain for the 1,400 cows he tends at his dairy farm in Potsdam, New York, 20 miles from the Ontario border. The feed came with a surprise tariff of $2,200 tacked on.

“We have small margins,” he told me. “I had a contracted price on that grain delivered to my barn. It was supposed to be so much per ton. And they added that tariff right on top because it comes from a Canadian feed mill.”

Gilbert cannot increase the price of the milk he sells, which is set by the local co-op. He cannot feed his cows less food. He cannot buy feed from another supplier; there aren’t any nearby, and getting it from farther away would be more expensive.

When he got the delivery, he stared at the tariff for a while. Shouldn’t his Canadian supplier have been responsible for paying it?

“I’m not even sure it’s legal! We contracted for the price on delivery! If your price of fuel goes up or your truck breaks down, that’s not my problem! That’s what the contract’s for.”

But the tariff was legal, and it was Gilbert’s responsibility.

apple.news/AA5h2HxJ7…

I signed up for a paid Wired subscription - because they’re doing some good reporting lately - and to my surprise, they sent me a sheet of laptop stickers.

I cannot personally imagine any circumstance where I’d put one of these stickers on my laptop, but the thought was nice.

I remember watching the funeral of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 2000, and seeing his son Justin, aged 28, speak an eloquent eulogy. At the time we didn’t know a whole lot about him. He was teaching secondary school in Vancouver, and this eulogy seemed like our first chance to get to know this guy.

I’m sure I was not the only person who thought - this guy is good, he might have a career in politics.

I particularly like the story he tells at the 6:00 mark, of his dad taking him to the Parliamentary cafeteria, when Justin was in grade 3. Justin remembers telling a childish joke about one of the other politicians that was there, and his dad insisted that that was inappropriate and took him to meet this other politician, and explained that differing opinions don’t mean a lack of respect for the others, that mere tolerance is not enough, and we need genuine respect for each human being. (He doesn’t say who it was, but I suspect it was former Prime Minister Joe Clark.)

And he did have a good career in politics. With challenges at the end, with a lot of angry Canadians making unwarranted personal attacks, but I think history will look kindly on his career as Prime Minister. It might take a few years for some to calm down, though.

And he may have hung on too long.

But … he’s been particularly good the past few weeks, responding to US trade sabre-rattling. It seems that once you announce you aren’t running again, once you don’t need to worry about re-election, you’re empowered to say what we all need to hear.

Yesterday, Mark Carney was elected as the new Liberal leader to succeed Justin Trudeau. I wish him well. I hope he can embody the dignity, compassion and toughness that both Prime Ministers Trudeau showed Canada when we needed it.