In the News

By Anthony Man

Canada is attempting to school Americans on economics and tariffs, via billboards in red states and political battlegrounds, including multiple locations in Florida.

“Tariffs are a tax on your grocery bill,” “Tariffs are a tax at the gas pump,” and “Tariffs are a tax on hardworking Americans,” are among the rotating messages on the electronic billboards.

The billboards are aimed at the people who will end up paying the import taxes ordered by President Donald Trump, who has spent much of the early part of his second presidency imposing tariffs, waiving them, reimposing tariffs, and announcing more.

“They’re taking their case directly to the public,” said Aubrey Jewett, a political scientist at the University of Central Florida, telling the public that “that tariffs are indeed a tax, and that Canadians don’t pay that tax. It will be Americans that pay that tax.”

Jewett saw one of the billboards near Tampa on Sunday as he was driving to an academic conference in St. Petersburg. The billboards have also appeared in Hollywood, Miramar and Winter Springs, and in multiple other states.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat whose district includes Hollywood and Miramar, said via email she hadn’t yet seen one of the billboards, but the message was on target.

“This billboard is dead-on. Trump’s tariffs threaten the largest tax hike in history on every middle-class family who drives past this ad. Trump is tanking our economy and ruining our relationship with Canada and all its visitors to Florida, and that ugly truth needs to be shared everywhere,” she said.

Trump has expressed particular animus toward Canada — the U.S.’s second-largest trading partner — since his November election, and has imposed tariffs on the country’s goods coming into the U.S. The president has announced plans to impose what he calls “reciprocal tariffs” on many nations’ exports on Wednesday.

John Babcock, spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, said the digital billboards were placed in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and in Washington, D.C., and in surrounding areas.

Babcock didn’t say how many were in Florida, where they’re located, when they went up and how long they’re staying up.

Jewett said the placements in those states, which are either Republican leaning or hard-fought battlegrounds in presidential elections, is notable. “It’s an interesting strategy for Canada to take their case directly to the American public in a number of red states or battleground states,” Jewett said.

Babcock described it as “an educational campaign to inform Americans of the economic impacts of tariffs. The campaign is a strategic investment in Canada’s long-term economic interests, and its trade relationship with the United States. Tariffs are a tax on hard-working Americans in their daily lives. They lead to increased costs on everyday essentials, including fuel and groceries.”

And, he said via email, “the purpose is to increase the understanding of the American public and to counter misinformation.”

Tariffs end up included in the cost of goods. For the most part Trump has claimed they’re paid by foreign countries or exporters — an assertion repeated over the weekend by a presidential adviser — though Trump himself has more recently acknowledged they’ll lead to price increases.

Over the weekend, Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press that he didn’t care if the tariffs on automobiles and car parts going into effect this week raise the prices of cars. “I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American-made cars.” He believes that short-term pain will ultimately be offset by an economic renaissance for the United States.

Analysts writing on the website of the bipartisan Council on Foreign Relations said tariffs are bad for the economy because they raise costs for businesses and consumers, reduce purchasing power and business profits, which leads to lower spending and investment. Also, “the inevitable foreign retaliation damages business competitiveness and lowers exports,” and tariffs on foreign competitors mean “domestic producers can safely raise their prices.”

Peter Navarro, the White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, appearing on Fox News Sunday, disputed what once was the accepted truth about tariffs. He said the Trump administration’s “message is that tariffs are tax cuts, tariffs are jobs, tariffs are national security, tariffs are great, for America tariffs will make America great again.”

Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign minister, said in a CNN interview her country’s message to people in the U.S. is that tariffs would “hurt their livelihoods and have an impact on their wallets.”

“My message to hard-working Americans is please, talk to your senators, talk to your House representatives, to your mayors, to your governors. Send a message that you don’t want these tariffs because nobody will win in this approach coming out from the White House,” she said.

Jewett said going with a medium that developed in the 20th Century, billboards, was a good strategy in the social media world of the 21st Century.

“Today, you wouldn’t normally think of that as being the best way to reach an audience,” he said, adding that “by going old school they’ve been able to generate even more publicity for their cause.”

A nationwide Fox News poll released March 20 found that 69% of voters said imposing tariffs on products imported from other countries makes the products they buy more expensive. Just 7% said tariffs made products less expensive and 17% said they made no difference.

More than 53% of voters said imposing tariffs on products imported from other countries hurts the U.S. economy. The poll found 28% of voters believe tariffs help the economy.

Still, Jewett said he isn’t sure the advertising campaign will have an immediate impact. “Most Trump supporters are still with the president,” Jewett said. “Once the tariffs actually go into effect, if he leaves them up for any length of time then prices almost certainly will go up. And it’s at that point some months down the road that the billboards might make at least a little difference, because they’re sort of priming the pump in the average person’s mind that a tariff is a tax.”

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2025/04/01/canadian-billboards-warn-floridians-theyll-pay-for-trumps-tariffs/