Years ago, Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin, was roundly condemned for shutting off energy exports to Ukraine and much of Europe in the dead of winter over payment disputes. I recall reading that someone in Serbia, which got its energy from pipelines from Ukraine, froze to death. Putin was unmoved.

Then, after full blown war was declared in 2014, Putin went for electricity shutoffs, in 2015, and in the past year, through cyberattacks on the country's grid. It was terrible for Ukraine, which had to scramble for alternative suppliers as well as turn to its nuclear reactors to get what it needed. But it was understood by all that this was the wages of this kind of war.

Seems Canada is not waiting around for warfare to start.

Its premier of Ontario has almost instantaneously gone the full nuclear option over tariff disputes with Trump, vowing to shut all electrical exports to Michigan, Minnesota and New York, if President Trump's 25% (and now 50%) tariffs against Canadian alumninum and other goods goes through.

He's gonna let 'em freeze.

Trump has since declared a national emergency in response, which presumably will ease the way for these states to obtain electricity from other sources.

According to Mint:

President Donald Trump said today he intends to declare a "National Emergency on Electricity" in states that could be affected by Ontario's imposition of a 25pc surcharge on electricity exports and further threat to cut off exports entirely.

The emergency declaration will allow the US to alleviate the "abusive threat" from losing electricity imports from Canada, Trump wrote in a post on social media. Trump said in response to the surcharge, he would double existing tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, and warned Canada that it would pay a high cost if Ontario cuts off the flow of electricity to the US.

"Can you imagine Canada stooping so low as to use ELECTRICITY, that so affects the life of innocent people, as a bargaining chip and threat?" Trump wrote. “They will pay a financial price for this so big that it will be read about in History Books for many years to come!”

It stands in stark contrast to all the soft and fuzzy ads we have been seeing on Fox News and elsewhere about the friendliness and business benefits of Ontario to Americans. Anybody want to see one of those again after a threat like this?

Trump had a dispute about reciprocal tariffs, vowed 25% tariffs on some Canadian (and Mexican) goods, and rather than negotiate those disputes away, Ontario's governor, Doug Ford, whips out the reciprocal tariffs, O.K., and as those escalated one on top of the next, whipped out the cutoff tool.

I'm not a fan of trade wars, but it seems negotiations about Trump's concerns about equalizing tariffs might have gone a better place than making Grand Rapids, Duluth, and Buffalo freeze as a first step.

Mexico, for one, has explained that it isn't into this Ontario stuff at all, which in the words of one Mexico observer on X, basically "threw Canada under the bus."

"No, we're respectful," is what President Claudia Sheinbaum tersely replied to someone who asked about a trade war, which is about the most withering response I've ever seen to this impetuous behavior.

Many observers have also noted that cutting off electricity in international law is viewed as an act of war.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has since stated that the escalation has gone down now, and the negotiations that should have been the first tack, will now beginwith Ontario tomorrow, hopefully to wrap this up.

According to CNBC:

Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Tuesday said he was temporarily suspending his province’s planned 25% surcharge on electricity exported to the United States after U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick agreed to renewed trade talks.

Ford said that he and Lutnick “had a productive conversation about the economic relationship between the United States and Canada” earlier Tuesday.

“We have both agreed, let cooler heads prevail,” Ford told reporters, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump escalated an already hot trade war by saying he would raise tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports to 50%.

He said Lutnick agreed to meet with Ford and the U.S. trade representative in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to discuss a renewed United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

Thank goodness we have Lutnick's smooth hand at negotiations. But even as this resolves, we'll never be able to look at those warm and fuzzy Ontario ads quite the same way again.

Image: Tony Webster, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed