Is Washington Underestimating Canada’s Control Over Critical Mineral Markets?
As trade tensions flare, Ottawa is decoupling its critical mineral and uranium stockpiles from American demand, reclaiming energy sovereignty and turning cross-border supply chains into economic bargaining chips.

When Washington dialed up the trade pressure on its northern neighbor, Ottawa decided against polite hand-wringing and went straight for the light switch.
Canada is officially recasting its vast reserves of critical minerals and clean energy from friendly cross-border assets into potent geopolitical leverage against the Trump administration. As the trade war between Washington and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government intensifies, Ottawa is making it clear that the era of treating Canadian energy and resource sharing as an automatic entitlement for the United States is officially over.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, a former executive at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), made that posture unmistakable during a cross-country tour highlighting new mines and energy infrastructure. Breaking ground in Prince George, British Columbia, on the North Coast Transmission Line, a grid expansion managed by provincial power utility BC Hydro, Hodgson openly mused about keeping Canadian power strictly within Canadian borders. Rather than feeding American power grids, British Columbia plans to use its doubled electrical capacity to run domestic processing facilities, extract critical minerals near the Alaskan border, and ship liquefied natural gas across the Pacific to Asian markets.
That aggressive stance hits Washington where it hurts most.




