Small acts of defiance in Canada raise question of what country can do against Trump’s tariff trade war

Published

2 months ago

March 12, 2025

admin

In Miche cafe and bar in British Columbia’s capital, Victoria, owner Allan Sinclair is turning around specific alcohol bottles on the top shelf to hide the labels from public view.

He picks up a bottle of Jack Daniels.

“This is from Tennessee and they supported Trump so we can’t have that,” he says.

How Trump’s tariffs could cost UK consumers

A bottle of Wayne Gretzky’s cream liquor is nearly finished.

“Once it’s gone, I’m going to get rid of it,” says Allan. “He’s shown he doesn’t respect our country anymore.”

Gretzky, once a Canadian ice hockey hero, has alienated many here with his steadfast support of the American president.

Allan also sells “Canadianos,” which he says, wryly, are stronger than Americanos.

They are quiet but considered acts of defiance in the face of a trade war started by the United States.

“It is a small protest in the form of a coffee,” he says. “What we can do is hope that they don’t follow up with all of this madness.”

Tuesday began with Donald Trump announcing a 50% tariff on aluminium and steel coming from Canada. Just hours later, that was revised back down to 25%.

There is a grinding, on-off, tit-for-tat nature to these economic punishments.

The British Columbia premier David Eby retaliated to the Trump tariffs by prohibiting the sale of American-manufactured alcohol in his province.

‘Buy Canadian Instead’

BC Liquor Store is just steps away from the premier’s office in Victoria.

On the shelves where Kentucky bourbon would usually be there are signs saying: “Buy Canadian Instead.”

Dozens of bottles of California and Oregon wine are wrapped tightly with cellophane.

But the threats from the Trump administration don’t end with tariffs.

The president has stated repeatedly that he’s keen to make Canada the 51st state. Even referring to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “governor”.

Premier Eby tells Sky News: “These are deeply unnerving statements for the president to be making, especially in the context of clearly expansionist policies related to Greenland and the Panama Canal.

“What we get continually about the president is to take him seriously, but not literally.

“I would love to have that kind of luxury… the danger, I think, is not taking him literally and seriously.”

‘I’m trying to buy anything but American‘

On the ferry which connects Vancouver Island with the mainland, tariff fatigue is setting in.

Passenger Nancy, a government worker, says she thinks Donald Trump is intent on causing mayhem. “He’s a menace, he’s just creating chaos where it doesn’t need to be.”

Her colleague Laura says the silver lining is that the tariffs have galvanised Canadians together.

“People feel hurt and angry,” she says. “We are trying to buy more Canadian products and travel anywhere other than the United States. I had a trip booked to Las Vegas and we’ve cancelled that. When I go to the grocery store, I look for the Canadian maple leaf that a lot of grocery stores have put on the shelves. I’m trying to buy anything but American.”

Richard thinks Donald Trump’s end game is to weaken the Canadian economy.

“I think Trump had an agenda from the beginning, without a doubt. I think he wanted to cause a collapse of the Canadian economy so it would make it easier for him and his colleagues to buy up whatever they wanted, if not to make us a 51st state – it had nothing to do with Fentanyl, that was just a ruse.”

Trump’s ‘fiction’ Fentanyl claims

He’s referencing the Trump administration’s repeated claims that Fentanyl, a devastating opioid that has ravaged parts of both America and Canada, is flooding over the Canadian border into the US.

It’s the reason, they say, for starting this trade war.

Dr M-J Milloy, director of research at British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, says that this simply isn’t true.

“There is no one who knows anything about drug markets in North America who would agree with the statement that Canada is a substantial part of the problem in the United States. It is a fiction.”

“No question that Fentanyl has devastated the United States. Fentanyl is devastating Canada. And so I think in that way, it might be a potent way for Mr Trump to whip up enthusiasm and to justify this aggression,” he adds.

Whatever the reason – invented or otherwise – for this trade war, it’s making an enemy of this ally.

The question is, what power does Canada really have in the face of its much bigger, far wealthier neighbour?

Business

Concierge firm founded by Queen’s nephew hunts buyer

Published

16 hours ago

May 17, 2025

admin

Concierge firm founded by Queen's nephew hunts buyer

Quintessentially, the luxury concierge service founded by the Queen’s nephew, is in talks to find a buyer months after it warned of “material uncertainty” over its future.

Sky News has learned that the company, which was set up by Sir Ben Elliot and his business partners in 1999, is working with advisers on a process aimed at finding a new owner or investors.

City sources said this weekend that Quintessentially was already in discussions with prospective buyers and was anticipating receipt of a number of firm offers.

Sir Ben, the former Conservative Party co-chairman under Boris Johnson, owns a significant minority stake in the company.

The Quintessentially group operates a number of businesses, although its core activity remains the provision of lifestyle support to high net worth individuals including celebrities, royalty, and leading businesspeople.

It also counts major companies among its clients and offers services such as organising private jet flights and performances by top musicians.

The sale process is being overseen by a firm called Beyond, although further details, including the price that the business might fetch, were unclear on Saturday.

One insider said parties who had been contacted by Beyond were being offered the option to buy a controlling interest in Quintessentially.

This could be implemented through a combination of the repayment of outstanding loans, an injection of new funding into the business, and the purchase of existing shareholders’ interests, they added.

Quintessentially’s founders, including Sir Ben, are thought to be keen to retain an equity interest in the company after any deal.

In January 2022, newspaper reports suggested that Quintessentially had been put up for sale with a valuation of £140m.

Deloitte, the accountancy firm, was charged with finding a buyer at the time but a transaction failed to materialise.

Sir Ben, who was knighted in Mr Johnson’s resignation honours list, turned to one of Quintessentially’s shareholders for financial support during the pandemic.

World Fuel Services, an energy and aviation services company, is owed £15.5m as well as £3.5m in accrued interest, according to one person close to the process.

The loan is said to include a warrant to convert it into equity upon repayment.

Quintessentially does not disclose the number or identities of many of its clients, although it said in annual accounts filed at Companies House in January that it had increased turnover to £29.6m in the year to 30 April 2024.

The accounts suggested the company was seeing growth in demand from clients internationally.

“During the last year, we have not only renewed important corporate contracts like Mastercard, but have also expanded by adding new corporate clients like Swiss4 in the UK, R360 in India, and Visa in the Middle East and South America,” they said.

In its experiences and events division, it won a contract to work with the Red Sea Film Festival and to provide corporate concierge services to the Saudi Premier League.

It added that Allianz, the German insurer, BMW, and South African lender Standard Bank were among other clients with which it had signed contracts.

The accounts included the warning of a “risk that the pace and level at which business returns could be materially less than forecast, requiring the group and company to obtain external funding which may not be forthcoming and therefore this creates material uncertainty that may cast ultimately cast doubt about the … ability to continue as a going concern”.

This weekend, a Quintessentially spokesman declined to comment on the sale process.

Business

Superstar Adele joins backers of music royalties platform Audoo

Published

1 day ago

May 16, 2025

admin

Superstar Adele joins backers of music royalties platform Audoo

Adele, the Grammy award-winning artist, has joined the list of music superstars investing in Audoo, a music technology company which helps artists to receive fairer royalty payments.

Sky News has learnt that the British musician and Adam Clayton, the U2 bassist, have injected money into Audoo as part of a £7m funding round.

The pair join Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney and ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus as shareholders in the company.

Changes to Audoo’s share register were filed at Companies House in recent days.

Audoo, which was established by former musician Ryan Edwards, is trying to address the perennial issue of public performance royalties, in order to ensure musicians are rewarded when their work is played in public venues.

Mr Edwards is reported to have been motivated to set up the company after hearing his own music played at football stadia and in bars, without any payment for it.

Estimates suggest that artists lose out on billions of dollars of unaccounted royalties each year.

London-based Audoo uses a monitoring device – which it calls an Audio Meter – to recognise songs played in public venues, and which is said to have a 99% success rate.

It has struck what it describes as industry-first partnerships with organisations including the music licensing company PPL/PRS to track and report songs played in public performance locations such as cafes, hair salons, shops and gyms.

“At Audoo, we’re incredibly proud of the continued support we’re receiving as we work to make music royalties fairer and more transparent for artists and rights-holders around the world through our pioneering technology,” Mr Edwards told Sky News in a statement on Friday.

“We have successfully reached £7m in our latest funding round.

“This funding marks a pivotal moment for Audoo as we focus on our growth in North America and across Europe, bringing us closer to our mission of revolutionising the global royalty landscape.”

Sources said the new capital would be used partly to finance Audoo’s growth in the US.

The latest funding round takes the total amount of money raised by the company since its launch to more than $30m.

Mr Edwards has spoken of his desire to establish a major presence in Europe and the US because of their status as the world’s biggest recorded music markets.

Adele’s management company did not respond to an enquiry from Sky News.

Business

The Sunday Times Rich List: Billionaires fall as King rises to match Rishi Sunak

Published

1 day ago

May 16, 2025

admin

The Sunday Times Rich List: Billionaires fall as King rises to match Rishi Sunak

The King’s personal fortune has shot up by £30m to put him on par with Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty, while the overall number of billionaires in the UK has plummeted, according to The Sunday Times Rich List.

The 2025 list, published on Friday, shows the King’s personal wealth grew from £610m to £640m, taking him up 20 places to 258 – level with former prime minister Mr Sunak and his wife.

The number of overall UK billionaires has fallen to 156 from 165 in 2024, marking the biggest drop since the rich list began 37 years ago.

Gopi Hinduja and his family, behind the Indian conglomerate Hinduja Group, topped the list for the fourth year running with £35.3bn.

Meanwhile, founder and chairman of global chemicals company Ineos Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who became part owner of Manchester United last year, dropped from fourth place to seventh after his reported wealth went from £23.5bn to £17.05bn.

Sir Jim’s £6.47bn losses marked the biggest on the list, while Russian-born brothers Igor and Dmitry Bukhman, who built a fortune on mobile games such as Gardenscapes and Fishdom, made the biggest gains with nearly £6.2bn.

New entries included makeup mogul Charlotte Tilbury with £350m and Ellen DeGeneres, who left the US for the Cotswolds last year.

The Sunday Times said the list was one of its toughest to compile due to Donald Trump’s tariffs and the subsequent stock market turbulence, adding many from previous years had dropped off the list and others were no longer eligible having fled Britain after Labour’s non-dom crackdown.

Overall, the combined wealth of those on the list stood at £772.8bn – down 3% from the last list.

Speaking to Anna Jones on Sky News Breakfast, Rich List compiler Rob Watts highlighted the story of Tom and Phil Beahon, who own sportswear clothing brand Castore which is now worth £1bn, as one of his favourites.

The brothers from Wirral have debuted at joint 345 on the list with an estimated wealth of £350m.

Calling their story “inspiring”, Mr Watts said: “They dreamed of being sportsmen as lads – one of them got onto the books of Tranmere Rovers and the other played cricket for Lancashire, but their sporting careers were over in their early 20s.

“And they say that failure was critical to driving them to create this £1bn sports kit business that you’ll now see being worn by the England cricket team and the England rugby team.”