Thank you. Merci. Vive le Canada.
If you paid attention to Donald Trump’s insane ramblings during his cultish rallies, you might have picked up on an actual policy promise. Shocking, I know, but something the President constantly harped about was his plans to tariff the U.S.’s closest trade partners. Besides the asinine idea to make easy trade hard, there’s also the fact that another Trump presidency has soured relations with nations they should be attached at the hip with.
So, who are the main nations Trump is targeting?
A country that already despises him in Mexico, a country that loves his incompetence in China, and a country that is supposed to be his best friend. Canada.
25 per cent tariffs on your closest ally might be the most brain dead move I’ve seen from a President in my life. But it’s not the fact that this will raise prices for your own people. It’s not even the fact that retaliatory tariffs would be inevitable. It’s the fact that while he conducts his show of power, he constantly refers to our country as “the 51st state.”
The amount of anger I felt when Trump went on the record saying that “We don’t need them for the cars, we don’t need them for lumber, we don’t need them for anything, we don’t need their energy,” and claiming that “[Canada] as a state, it’s different.” It’s unfathomable. You really could not fathom it.
It’s like he’s forgotten that Canada provides them with roughly 1.6 million barrels of crude oil per day. But I digress. I’m not alone, sitting in my room writing a list of products to not buy. Canadians all over the country are furious. Trump has unintentionally done something many Prime Ministers have failed to do: His ridiculous threats to our sovereignty during his tariff threats has brought Canada together. Anti-American sentiment has never been this high in my life, and his statements have been so brash that Justin Trudeau gave a memorable speech. Yes, the man who stepped down as Liberal Party leader because he was so disliked, gave a rousing speech championing Canadian national identity, and it was good. Canadian hockey fans from conservative hub Alberta to federal home Ontario were booing the “Star Spangled Banner” (props to Senators and … Flames fans I guess). He may cause prices to be raised, and he may cause our economy to suffer, but Donald Trump’s foreign policy this term has ignited our nation. I welcome these attacks from the states. As our Prime Minister said in his address to the nation, “I’m sure many of you are anxious, but I want you to know we are all in this together. The Canadian government, Canadian businesses, Canadian organized labour, Canadian civil society, Canada’s premiers and tens of millions of Canadians from coast to coast to coast are aligned and united. This is Team Canada at its best.”
Graphic by Forrester Toews
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