President Trump said, “We get nothing from Canada.”  Wrong, very wrong.  Canada is responsible for 61 percent of all oil imported into the United States. It sold us 4.3 million barrels of heavy crude oil a day, at a discount.  Or at least it did, prior to Trump’s instituting tariff taxes on their export oil and running rough-shod over Canada’s representatives and threatening to annex Canada.   As a result, Canada has subsequently established a 15-year contract to sell this oil to China, not to the U.S.  
For those of you who believe Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” program will solve the problem of loss of sales from Canada, it won’t. 
The U.S. produces light weight crude oil that is incompatible with many of our domestic heavy crude oil refineries.  Can the U.S. find a daily alternative supply of heavy crude oil?  If so, there will be additional cost for oceanic transportation, assuming there are enough tankers, and there is additional cost of transportation to mid-America.  Building oil refineries is a very expensive alternative and could take years to complete.
There is another factor that Trump did not consider.  It is the high voltage electric transmission lines coming over the border into the U.S. that directly serves 1.5 million American homes including some in Minnesota.  If Trump continues to provoke Canada, they might flip the off switch.
Canada might also try to retaliate for Trump’s tariffs by establishing truck highway tolls or tariffs on critical supplies going to Alaska, such as food, clothing, building materials, machinery, etc. because most supplies have to go by truck over extensive Canadian soil.  Canada, many do not realize, is not a small country, its land mass is larger than the United States.
The antagonism between America and Canada is totally unproductive for both countries.
It’s very unfortunate that the long, long allied friendship through wars and depression is disintegrating due to our poor U.S. leadership, but the Canadians did win THE hockey game.
I think Governor Walz should intercede, and perhaps, in conjunction with other border state governors, open a dialogue with the Canadian border provincial leaders.
Gerry Snyder
Ely