Minding Their Own Business, Quite Literally
Think about the big Canadian banks. Take Royal Bank of Canada, for instance. It’s a behemoth, and the vast majority of its revenue comes from ordinary Canadians taking out mortgages, businesses seeking loans, and people simply managing their day to day finances. Do you think a tariff on steel is going to stop someone from needing a bank account? Of course not. The same logic applies to its peers, like the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Their fortunes are tied to the health of the Canadian household, not the mood of a trade negotiator in Washington.
These institutions are the plumbing of the Canadian economy. They are so deeply embedded in the domestic landscape that global trade squabbles are, to a large extent, just background noise. Their stability comes from serving a captive, predictable market.