Canadians united in determination to protect their sovereignty from Trump political agression caused by tariffs

Excerpts from a Conversation published in the Boston Globe by 
Shirley Leung and Anna Kusmer :

Canadian journalist Stephen Marche says he’s experiencing the most powerful moment of Canadian politics in his lifetime.

The trigger was Donald Trump’s presidency, and his antagonistic stance towards Canada, one of the nation’s closest historic allies and trading partners. On this episode of “Say More,” host Shirley Leung talks to Marche about the ways Canadians are reacting to Trump’s aggression, their fear and heartbreak, and what the future holds for Canada in a new political world order.

Canadians are really upset❗ Americans must pay attention.
Canada has never been a flag-waving country, but Trump made it into one.

You never take a friend for granted. I’m afraid that’s what’s happening between the US and Canada right now. It all started with Trump talking about imposing big tariffs on Canadian goods.

Then there was talk of Canada becoming our 51st state. In the US, late night comedy talk hosts have been having a field day…

But the longer this tiff with Canada drags on, the less funny it gets. What does it mean for the US to be alienating its closest ally?

People I know have been going to protests at US embassies and bringing their kids. I get a lot of texts from my Canadian friends saying things like, “What is wrong with your country❓” Or like, “What’s going on over there❓”

And to be honest, when they send those texts, I don’t even know what they’re referring to. I’m like, “Can you just specify what news item you’re referring to?” Because when I look at the news, there’s probably at least four or five headlines they could be reacting to.

We have a Canadian colleague here who says her family won’t come to visit her. They won’t even cross the border to come see her. If you dare to go into Canadian social media, you will be surprised about how passionately people feel about this and all the memes being shared among Canadians. There’s a classic 2000, Molson beer ad, which is a Canadian beer, that’s all about Canadian pride.

2000 Molson beer ad (clip): Hey, I’m not a lumberjack or a fur trader. And I don’t live in any igloo or eat blubber or own a dog sled, and I don’t know Jimmy, Sally or Suzy from Canada, although I’m certain they’re really, really nice. I have a prime minister, not a president. I speak English and French, not American…

Jeff Douglas, re-released the ad with new language, which is entirely directed at the US.

“We Are Canadian” 2025, videoan (clip): They mistake our modesty for meekness, our kindness for consent…and ends with this extremely dramatic moment.

“We Are Canadian” 2025, video (clip): We’re not the 51st anything. We’re the first to unite a crisis, the first to build bridges not walls, and the first to stand on guard for the, my name is Jeff and ‘We are Canadian.’

Then, there’s all this kind of hockey talk. There’s this term, “elbows up.” Have you heard this? It’s a term in hockey that’s used to describe this defensive move that a player will do if they’re being attacked.

Now “elbows up” is this slogan that Canadians are embracing, directed at the US. It’s like, ‘Okay, Canadians, let’s get in formation here, elbows up, let’s defend ourselves.’ Even though a lot of Canadians are able to create these kinds of funny memes, I think we should not discount how deadly serious people are about this.

Another thing that is very real is the economy. What Trump is doing, threatening these tariffs. It could really send Canada into a recession, right? That could also hurt the New England economy as well, because Canada is its largest trading partner. So what do you think of the impact on us here?

New England's economy is extremely reliant on imports from Canada. It’s New England’s largest trading partner. Things like fuel, oil, seafood, precious metals and natural gas could be affected. And there are a lot of products like airplanes, seafood products, and wood products that cross back and forth across the border.

So there’s one phase of manufacturing that’s in Canada, one in the US. There are all these industries that could potentially be extremely disrupted by that border becoming less easy to cross or expensive to cross. The Canadian consulate says that 90 percent of Logan airport’s jet fuel comes from Canada.

You can only imagine what the potential impact could be. Are prices gonna go up? Right now the plan is 10 percent tariffs on energy imports from Canada.

Also, the Canadian tourists. Massachusetts relies on tourism from Canada. I think this year Massachusetts had expected a record number of tourists, 880,000, but they’re probably not gonna hit a record this year because you have leaders in Canada telling Canadians ‘Don’t come to the US.’

Hotels in the US and a lot of tourist attractions, they’re bracing for what could potentially be an unexpected slowdown.

And it’s gonna be very location specific. there’s all this kind of hockey talk. There’s this term, “elbows up.” Have you heard this, Shirley?

Leung: I’m only learning this now through this fight between the US and Canada.

Kusmer: Yeah, so it’s a term in hockey that’s used to describe this defensive move that a player will do if they’re being attacked.

Now “elbows up” is this slogan that Canadians are embracing, directed at the US. It’s like, ‘Okay, Canadians, let’s get in formation here, elbows up, let’s defend ourselves.’ Even though a lot of Canadians are able to create these kinds of funny memes, I think we should not discount how deadly serious people are about this.

Leung: Another thing that is very real is the economy. What Trump is doing, threatening these tariffs. It could really send Canada into a recession, right? That could also hurt the New England economy as well, because Canada is its largest trading partner. So what do you think of the impact on us here?

Kusmer: Yeah, the New England economy is extremely reliant on imports from Canada. It’s New England’s largest trading partner. Things like fuel, oil, seafood, precious metals and natural gas could be affected. And there are a lot of products like airplanes, seafood products, and wood products that cross back and forth across the border.

So there’s one phase of manufacturing that’s in Canada, one in the US. There are all these industries that could potentially be extremely disrupted by that border becoming less easy to cross or expensive to cross. The Canadian consulate says that 90 percent of Logan airport’s jet fuel comes from Canada.

You can only imagine what the potential impact could be. Are prices gonna go up? Right now the plan is 10 percent tariffs on energy imports from Canada.

Also, Canadian tourists. Massachusetts relies on tourism from Canada. I think this year Massachusetts had expected a record number of tourists, 880,000, but they’re probably not gonna hit a record this year because you have leaders in Canada telling Canadians ‘Don’t come to the US.’

Hotels in the US and a lot of tourist attractions, they’re bracing for what could potentially be an unexpected slowdown.

And it’s gonna be very location specific. Thousands of Canadians will go to a town in Maine called Old Orchard Beach.

I saw a recent interview, I think it was a hotel owner, who said that he went from being entirely booked over the summer to having like hundreds and hundreds of cancellations. Very specific places are gonna be hit extremely hard because either they’re very integrated with Canada or there are bad vibes from the Canadians to the US.

Will this just be a short term thing or will Canadians leave us for a long time?  It’s embarrassing to imagine that one US president could fumble such a long term, good relationship. 

If relations are not good, that’s just very sad for the US.

Keep your chin up on US-Canada relations. Maybe we’ll all come around. Not only keep my chin up, I’ll also in solidarity, be keeping my elbows up because I stand with my Canadian brothers and sisters.

So, talk about this moment in 2025, US-Canada relations. How big of a deal is it?

It’s probably the largest moment in Canadian identity since the founding of the country. I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that I think the entire nature of the relationship with America has been basically altered overnight.

And because of that, it’s going to have profound changes to our entire economic, political, military, geopolitical structure. These things are all being negotiated incredibly quickly in a frankly shocking degree of unity and solidarity by the Canadian people. There’s really never been anything like it in my lifetime. because either they’re very integrated with Canada or there are bad vibes from the Canadians to the US.