No deal is better than a bad deal – that’s the message Prime Minister Mark Carney and his team keep selling to Canadians as their efforts to find a deal with Donald Trump falter.

That message became harder to sell Friday night as duties on softwood lumber skyrocketed to 35%.

It’s a major blow to Canada’s industry, which a year ago saw duties rise from 8.05% to 14.54% under the Biden administration. The Trump administration had recently bumped those tariffs up further to 20.56% and now, as of Friday night, the total cumulative tariff is 35.19%.

B.C.’s Forestry Minister Ravi Parmar called the move “absurd and reckless,” but in the early hours after the change was made public there was no comment from the Carney government.

Since Carney won the election, tariffs on steel and aluminum have

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