"I don't start this tariff war, but we're going to win this tariff war. . . . My good friend, the governor of Kentucky, is losing his mind right now. I said you had better talk with your president."Doug Ford, Premier of the Canadian Province of Ontario.
90 second clip of Doug Ford
A category change isn't just a change from apples to oranges, in which Canada fits into Americans' category of "foreign countries," along with France, Germany, and Australia. That is a difference within a category.
Trump is attempting to change the very notion of Canada from essentially the USA, a place that is essentially "us" into "them." In my own mental categories, Texas is us, but with a special style coming from a cowboy legacy and oilpatch present. Alabama is us, but with that legacy of Confederacy slaveholding and residual racism. When I am thinking about Alabama as a place with a Toyota factory, Alabama is us. When I hear Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville talk about school vouchers or prayer in schools, I think barely-us.
Canada, especially the English-speaking Great Lakes province of Ontario, fits into my mental category of us, but rather more similar to Oregon than are Texas or Alabama. Canada is technically foreign, but with a quirky and amusing pronunciation of the word about as aboot, but otherwise us. It seemed presumptuous and rude -- but not entirely crazy -- when Trump suggests Canada might be a 51st state. As Trump put it, it was just a line on a map.
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| Ambassador Bridge connecting Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario. It is the busiest international crossing in North America |
To the dismay of Democrats, Trump's political instincts keep him well connected to his populist base. We are picked on! We are disrespected! We are the victim of bad trade deals! But I suspect a Canadian tariff will prove to be a political error for Trump. He has been successful in selling his idea of America as a victim of bad deals with foreigners. And yet the U.S. and Canada are operating under a trade agreement Trump himself authored; but that fact isn't the important one. What is important is that few Americans consider Canada as particularly foreign or a real threat. "Blame Canada" a punch line, in a South Park movie.
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| Laughable |
The idea of Canada as good and safe and mostly us will be difficult to dislodge.
The people who could screw up Canada's best protection against a tariff war would be Canadian politicians. Canadians expect and demand their politicians show some Canadian pride, and that they defend Canada against the American tariff war. There is an American audience, too. Canadian leaders must communicate that it is a reluctant soldier in this war, and we aren't enemies, now or ever. That is what Americans have thought for generations -- or more accurately it is what we have presumed. We don't think hard about Canada. Why would we?
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7 comments:
For many reasons, Americans like Canada a lot. The Occupant has jumped the shark. In his second term, he is proving himself to be his own worst enemy. He is drunk on ego and power and he cannot control himself. He needs an intervention stat.
The state of Washington borders Canada with lots of commerce between the two. Travel between the two is down, a couple of Hilton hotels that has 40 % business with Canadians is drastically down.
I would prefer a country that includes Canada and excludes the south as I have more in common with Canada than I do with the confederacy. I don’t feel so united to the states that have given us Trump.
I have traveled and vacationed in Canada many times. I have always felt welcomed as a friend by Canadians. But when I flew into Toronto and took a cab to our hotel, I had the privalige of been in the cab driving by a former Canadian Marine who regaled us with stories of how Canada kicked our butts in the War of 1812 as we drove by the place where Americans troops were repealed, another crazy war our government got us involed in with Canada. In this case, I suspect the risk to America is enormous while the reward is nonexistent. Sure Canadians are nice, but they are not pushovers. Canada will fight this trade war with every fiber of their being.
I think that given the recent political history of the United States, it might be smart to wait and see whether there is a method to Trump’s madness. He did, after all, win the presidency twice.
MT, I agree that there is a method to his madness—chaos. In the confusing arena of his creation, he is at liberty to maneuver as he pleases. The likely outcome is perhaps the destruction of our consumer economy and the weakening of our strategically sourced parts and materials for both commerce and the military.
The orangeanus showed his failures in his first term.
The orangeanus screwed up the country once and he'll do it again soon.
Michael will be thrilled to learn Russian.
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