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by Eric S. Margolis
February 8, 2025
Canadians are among the world’s calmest, most polite, and gracious people. They are also, in my experience, peaceful, honest and modest. You never see them angry – except for now.
Donald Trump, with his absurd megalomaniac claims to Greenland, Canada, Panama and now Gaza, has managed to do what no one else has done. He has made the United States hated across Canada, even in usually pro-American Alberta.
Trump has looked at foreign affairs in the same way he viewed leasing store locations, as a simple straightforward business function, like renting property in New York City. Fury over his Mussolini-like claims to Canadian land will eventually abate but the damage has been done.
What the newly reminted president fails to understand is that what holds together the American empire is trade and access to the giant US market. Japan and Germany were rebuilt after World War II thanks to America’s wise, generous trade policies after the end of WWII.
I well recall when superb Japanese electronics and superior German cars appeared in US and then European markets. Everyone benefitted by this new trade. Postwar Japan and Germany were rebuilt thanks to their access to America’s market. Complaints about trade imbalances and German or Japanese surpluses were brushed aside as essential to building strong allies that would become a bulwark against Soviet expansionism.
In fact, joining America’s ‘greater co-prosperity sphere’ was seen as a huge benefit across war-battered Europe and Asia. Trade imbalances with new allies were seen in Washington just as they were regarded by Imperial Britain in the 19th Century, ‘a cost of empire.’ Access to the vast American market is seen today as the glue that holds the empire together.
Canadians would love to pay lower US taxes, and benefit from America’s much better health system. Large numbers of Canadians are already residents in sunny Florida. Miami even has a French-language newspaper for Quebecois refugees from Canada’s fierce winter.
Canadians love Florida, but they love dear old Canada even more. Maybe Trump the Master Builder would be willing to trade Florida to Canada for oil-rich Alberta?
Seriously, most Americans don’t understand how fragile Canada is as a nation. Canada’s territory is vast, even larger than the US, though much of its lies in extreme cold. West Coast Canadians with strong links to Asia don’t have much in common with French-speaking Quebeckers or Maritime fisherfolk. One of the word’s largest boreal forests extends from Canada’s east up to the beautiful Pacific northwest.
Canada has always been a collection of inward-looking regions. Its 40.1 million people often have little in common. East coasters resent the west; the west looks down on Eastern Canada. In the leading province, Ontario, the third most spoken languages are Hindi and Cantonese. Strange religious sects dot the West.
Throughout its history, Canada has been overshadowed and sometimes menaced by a much more powerful United States. Its easy-going, liberal ways have outraged right-wing Republicans. One remembers former US President Lyndon Johnson picking up a Canadian prime minister and calling him rude names. Belgium often suffers the same bullying treatment from France who rudely dismiss the Belgians as ‘les petits Belges.’
Trump’s threats against Canada have outraged one of America’s most important military and trade allies. And for what purpose? To make Trump feel powerful and virile.
Remember when Chancellor Adolf Hitler proclaimed ‘anschluss’ (reunion) with neighboring Austria? Many Austrians were delighted at the time, unlike today’s not happy Canadians.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2025