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“It seems to me that this is the wrong target and, from what I understand of American public opinion, I don’t think even Trump supporters think the Canadian trade relationship is the problem.”

Canada is staring down the barrel of Trump’s potentially devastating threats to impose a 25 per cent tariff on autos crossing into the U.S.

Their imposition would provoke immediate retaliatory moves by Canada but the government knows that even this might not deter a president who former CIA director Michael Hayden said Sunday is “unstable, erratic and thin-skinned”.

But something Harper said hints at Canada’s real leverage – the consumer choices made by its people.

Senior officials have bandied around the idea of a national effort similar to the Second World War “Victory Gardens” – a symbolic but material patriotic mobilization that saw individual Canadians build vegetable plots to help the war effort.

The government is wary about being seen as an advocate for such an effort but it is keen to broaden the involvement of individual Canadians by encouraging them to express their displeasure by boycotting American goods.

The Town of Halton Hills in Ontario voted Monday on a motion that would see it encourage its residents and businesses to consider avoiding U.S. goods, “where Canadian substitutes are reasonably available, and communicating with U.S. businesses and individuals Canadian concerns about the decisions of the U.S. government.”

Maclean’s columnist Scott Gilmore has launched his own effort, encouraging his readers to boycott companies associated with the Trump family.