President Trump's "Liberation Day" unveiling of sweeping tariffs on just about everything imported into the United States pushed the world to the brink of a potentially destructive trade war. One of Trump's apparent aims is to coerce Canada into becoming an American state. This has been tried before! In this episode, University of Exeter historian Marc Palen takes us back to the 1890s when American leaders tried to make Canada bend to U.S. economic coercion through protective tariff rates. The McKinley tariff was named after Congressman William McKinley, "the Napoleon of protection." The punitive tariff didn't work: Canada drew closer to Great Britain, and the Republicans were shellacked in the midterm elections of November 1890.

Further reading:

Pax Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World by Marc Palen

Using Tariffs to Try to Turn Canada into American State Backfired in the Past by Marc Palen (article at Time.com)