Beware the angry Canadian.
Famous for their mild-mannered, earnest perseverance, Canadians have united in protest against US President Donald Trump’s latest trade war escalation.
“WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!” Trump posted this week.
Ontario premier Doug Ford, an outspoken Trump critic whose province is one of the hardest hit by tariffs, spoke for many fellow citizens when he said of the US president: “As far as I’m concerned, he can kiss my ass.”
Trump on Monday said he would increase tariffs on Canadian cars and automotive parts to 50 per cent from January 1 shortly after launching new 50 per cent levies on $20bn worth of goods.
Canada on Tuesday announced “dollar-for-dollar” retaliatory tariffs.
But some want tougher measures. “Everything is on the table,” said industry minister Mélanie Joly, adding, “but you don’t play all your cards in the first hand. We have options.”
Ford has threatened to switch off Ontario’s hydropower electricity, which keeps the lights on in millions of US homes, and has mooted targeting other vital products Canada supplies to the US.
“We should be charging him (Trump) triple on the oil, triple on the potash, on our uranium, our metals and rare earths,” he said.
Jason Kenney, a former premier of the oil-rich province of Alberta, has also floated imposing “export taxes” on the 4mn barrels of Canadian crude that flow to the US every day, helping to fuel the world’s largest economy.
“It would be crazy to rule out using our economic levers in energy, by warning Trump of a possible export tax on our potash, oil, gas and hydroelectricity,” Kenney told the FT.
He added it would send a “very strong economic message” because Canada supplies the US with 80 per cent of its potash, about two-thirds of its crude oil and close to all natural gas imports.
For the past 18 months, Canadians have faced relentless US hostilities on their sovereignty, character and economy from Washington. Trump’s attacks have become so bad that some members of his Republican Party are speaking out against the bullying of their closest and oldest ally.
“You’re at war when you’re attacked, and we got attacked,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said on the weekend after trade talks with the US collapsed.
He added appeasement was not an option with a president whose “signature was written in pencil”.
In response to Canada’s defiance, the White House has been doubling down with memes meant to illustrate America’s greater clout, sparking a tit-for-tat online meme war.
By walking away from Washington’s “bad deal”, despite the potentially tough economic consequences for Canada’s smaller economy, Carney has tapped into a national psyche that values resilience and overcoming adversity, traits forged by harsh winters and vast geography.
“American protectionism is really Canadian destructionism. No Canadian government could ever accept it,” said Bob Rae, Canada’s former ambassador to the UN.
From acclaimed author Margaret Atwood to comedian Mike Myers and rock singer Neil Young calling on Americans to “rise up” against the White House, Canadians are united in their fury towards Trump.
Even Conrad Black, the disgraced Canadian newspaper proprietor pardoned by Trump in May 2019 after he served over three years in prison for fraud, is outraged.
“Since Canada has not historically been an assertive country, President Trump apparently assumes that it is not a resilient one. He will discover that this is not true,” he posted on Tuesday night.
Carney’s tough stance is also a political calculation that draws from the groundswell of anger towards Trump’s aggression.
An Angus Reid Institute poll on Sunday found 76 per cent of those surveyed supported the prime minister’s decision to ditch trade talks with Washington while two-thirds said that despite the hit to their own economy, Canada will ultimately emerge “stronger”.
“Canadians are angry,” Joly said. “Canadians are also anxious. But Canadians are extremely proud.”
From their first meeting in the White House in May last year, Carney was unequivocal that “Canada is not for sale”. Trump joked that he helped Carney get elected. The prime minister’s election campaign was filled with wartime rhetoric against the US and rallied around the “elbows up” slogan that references rough ice hockey play.
Some critics at home caution the “elbows up” response treats emotion as strategy and that retaliation is not real leverage, considering the size and might of the US economy.
But the Trump-inspired anger has sparked a domestic tourism boom. Newfound Canadian patriotism has helped shape Ottawa’s “buy Canadian” policy, which was one of the red lines the US targeted in recent trade talks. The switch to buying more local goods has sparked a mild stimulus, offsetting some of the tariff pain.
Nearly 260,000 Canadians have also signed an online petition for US ambassador Pete Hoekstra to be expelled from Ottawa for publicly repeating Trump’s threat to annex Canada as the “51st US state”.
Another petition urging the government to strip the Canadian passport from SpaceX owner Elon Musk, a loyal supporter of the US president, has attracted nearly 377,000 signatures.
“We will not allow any nation to determine our future,” Carney said on the weekend. “We will set our own course to keep building Canada strong for all.”
