Canadians grapple with sense of betrayal
One of the world’s most durable and amicable alliances – born of geography, heritage and centuries of common interests – is broken.
As Canadians come to terms with Donald Trump’s trade war and his threats to make Canada the 51st state, one thing has become abundantly clear: one of the world’s most durable and amicable alliances – born of geography, heritage and centuries of common interests – is broken.
Canadians are feeling an undeniable sense of betrayal after the US President declared a trade war against its northern neighbour and longtime ally.
Trump keeps threatening Canada’s sovereignty and vowing to put sweeping 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian products, though both sides on Monday postponed any tariffs by at least 30 days.
In Canada, discussion and disapproval are everywhere. Canadian hockey fans have even booed the American national anthem at last week’s National Hockey League games. Addressing the nation at the weekend, Prime Minister JustinTrudeau channelled the betrayal that many Canadians are feeling, reminding Americans that Canadian troops fought alongside them in Afghanistan and helped respond to myriad crises from bushfires in California to Hurricane Katrina. “We were always there standing with you, grieving with you, the American people,” he said.
The Canadian jitters, some worry, could go beyond the moment.
“The damage is going to be long-lasting,” said Robert Bothwell, a professor of Canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto. “The Americans won’t be trusted anymore. The 51st state stuff is just contemptuous. It treats Canada like we don’t even exist.”
The ties between the two countries are without parallel. Nearly $C3.6bn ($4bn) of goods and services cross the border each day. Canada is the top export destination for 36 US states and 77 per cent of Canada’s exports go to the US.
Each day, about 400,000 people cross the world’s longest international border. There is close co-operation on defence, border security and law enforcement, and a vast overlap in culture, traditions and pastimes.
“He wants to come after us?” said Doug Ford, the leader of Canada’s most populous province of Ontario. He has said that it felt like being stabbed in the heart by a family member. “I’ve yet to hear one American citizen say Canada is the problem,” he said.
Some Canadians are circulating lists of Canadian products they can buy instead of American items and others are cancelling holiday plans to the US. Canada is the top source of international visitors to the US, with 20.4 million visits last year.
“What he is doing now is unprecedented and highly damaging for the relationship. ... He is eroding Canadians’ trust towards the US in ways that will make it hard to repair the relationship,” said Daniel Beland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.
“It’s certainly one of the worst moments in Canada-US relations since the creation of Canada in 1867. His talk about making Canada the 51st state is a direct attack against the country’s sovereignty. Even if we exclude that threat, he shows no respect for Canada’s sovereignty and institutions.”
Mr Trudeau noted that the US and Canada had built the most successful economic, military and security partnership the world has seen – a relationship that had been the envy of the world.
“As President John F. Kennedy said many years ago, geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends, economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies,” he said.
Mr Trump has also threatened a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian energy. Canada provides more than 4.3 million barrels of oil a day to the US, which consumes about 20 million barrels a day. It has been producing about 13.2 million barrels domestically.
Yet Trump keeps saying the US doesn’t need Canada for anything and said again on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) that he’d like to see Canada become the 51st state.
His Vice-President dismisses Canada, too.
“Spare me the sob story about how Canada is our ‘best friend’,” JD Vance posted on X.
“I love Canada and have many Canadian friends. But is the government meeting their NATO target for military spending? Are they stopping the flow of drugs into our country?”
Canada announced a billion-dollar plan to secure the border, even though far fewer migrants and less drugs enter the US through Canada than Mexico.
The pause in the tariff threat didn’t make Canadians feel much better. “30-day pause on wrecking our economy in exchange for some border theater to stop an almost non-existent cross-border problem,” Toronto Star columnist Bruce Arthur posted on X.
As with most close relationships, there have been rough spots before. Limited trade wars over lumber, pulp and paper and other products have flared for decades. In the early 1960s, there was a bitter rift because of personal enmity between Mr Kennedy and Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, who defied US pressure to be more aggressive in Cold War manoeuvrings.
Later the Vietnam War caused some divisions, as Canadians – including Trudeau’s father, then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau – welcomed American draft evaders who crossed the border. And some Canadians, notably the Ontario intelligentsia, tend to regard Americans as more crass and gun-happy than people north of the border.
Mr Trump attacked Canada during his first term. But nothing like now. He posted that Canada would cease to exist as a “viable country” if there weren’t a “massive subsidy” from the US.
Respected Globe and Mail reporter Steve Chase hit back: “Asking Canada to submit to annexation is the conduct of a hostile foreign power.”
The booing continued at an NBA game in Toronto on Sunday where the Raptors played the Los Angeles Clippers. One fan chose to sit during the anthem. Joseph Chua, who works as an importer, said he expected to feel the tariffs “pretty directly”. “I’ve always stood during both anthems. I’ve taken my hat off to show respect to the American national anthem,” he said. “But today we’re feeling a little bitter about things.”
AP
‘Tortured’: Israeli family begs for release of blinded hostage
Alon Ohel’s family is told he’s starving and seriously injured by shrapnel as freed hostages tell how they were kept chained and repeatedly told, falsely, that they were to be released.
We’ll need a bigger axe, says Musk
The White House’s DOGE has drawn scrutiny for the rapid work of its technology team burrowing into multiple agencies, but it also says it has identified and cut more than $US1bn in spending.