We are picking a fight with Canada

Do any of my readers dislike Canada?

Does anyone think Canada was a bad neighbor, a threat, or that it was taking advantage of us?

Does anyone feel a happy twinge of national pride when we see our president troll, insult, and start a trade war with Canada?

I don't.

The Trump administration is destroying over a century of good relations with a neighbor, ally, and trading partner, and for what? So that the U.S. would look bigger on a map? So that we could absorb Canada and then ourselves have to deal with the Canadian issues such as Quebec's French culture? So we could bring our own success and expertise to relations with their indigenous people? 

Trump posted this image on Truth Social. Take that, Mark Carney!

I don't get it. Bullying Canada is bad economics, bad foreign policy, bad trade policy, and bad politically for Trump. This is the baggage Republican candidates carry as the price of not having the courage openly to criticize their party leader. If they reject the baggage, then object, loud and clear. Silence is consent. Silence says this is normal and OK.

My Canadian college classmate, Sandford Borins, is professor of Public Management Emeritus at the University of Toronto. Originally an economist, he began to study and teach political narrative. His comment on relations with the U.S. was published at http://sanfordborins.com and republished at his own Substack: https://substack.com/@sandfordborins

Guest Post by Sandford Borins

Since the Government of Canada rejected a trade agreement with the Trump administration on August 22, Trump has “renamed” Lake Ontario and released numerous memes disparaging Canada and Canadians (Trump bodychecking “Governor Carney” to the ice) and his cabinet secretaries have followed his lead (Bessent calling Canada a “little yippy dog,” Hegseth ridiculing a Canadian Armed Forces recruit). One wonders if the cabinet secretaries’ response is coordinated in some way, such as with a memo from the Chief of Staff, or if they know that an essential job requirement is to mimic Trump’s puerile verbal attacks.

Not Just Dissing

Prime Minister Carney has referred to this as “doing memes” and “throwing shade.” Similar terms, originating from contemporary culture, would be trolling, dissing, or talking trash. But all these terms connote reciprocal actions. People diss, troll, or talk trash to one another. This round is almost entirely one-sided, with few if any Canadian public figures or even ordinary citizens responding to Trump and his acolytes in kind.

Something more substantial is going on, and I think it is important to call it by its name. Using lies, ridicule, and threats, Trump has launched a campaign of psychological warfare against Canada, so that he can live rent-free in Canadians’ heads, distracting and demoralizing us. It has similarities to psychological warfare used by both sides during World War II and during the Cold War (Radio Free Europe, Radio Moscow). The big difference is that in the past psychological warfare relied on official radio stations. Now it can readily be waged through the universally accessible affordances of social media.

Trump’s campaign against Canada might also be intended to build support for the Republican Party in the mid-term elections by defining another enemy and encouraging Americans to unite behind his party to fight us. My concern here is not whether such a campaign is plausible or effective. Given the history of solidarity in war and cooperation in peace between the two countries, such a campaign would strain credulity. It will be for American pundits and pollsters to probe its effectiveness in the weeks leading up to the midterms.

The psychological warfare is intended to capture attention, which it does very effectively because Canadian media report every attack and the Canadian public then discusses the attacks at length. The attacks contain two contradictory messages, the first that Canadian individuals and firms are dishonest, taking advantage of the US, and the second that Canada and Canadians are weak. The first is easier to shake off. Canadians follow the law when they do business with the US. There is no dishonesty. The message of weakness is more problematic, because of the US’s advantage of scale as an economy and a population that are an order of magnitude larger.

Fall in Line – Or Else

The message of weakness has several dimensions. The Trump administration is saying that it can inflict more economic damage on Canada than Canada can inflict on the US. The renaming of Lake Ontario is intended to convey the message that the US can redefine our geographic reality. The threat is that the US can make Canada, in Trump’s words, “fall in line” in terms of its culture and its trade, strategic and military alliances with the rest of the world – in effect to make Canada a vassal state.

The timing of these intensified verbal attacks may be a response not only to the impasse in negotiations but to the Alberta separation referendum. Perhaps Albertans who feel that Canada is weak will vote for separation, not necessarily because they believe Alberta on its own would be any stronger, but rather because they see Alberta separating from Canada as the first step towards its annexation by the US.

The timing is also ironic because the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of 9/11 is also a commemoration of everyday, but extraordinary, acts of Canadian solidarity with the US. Perhaps Trump and his lackeys are hoping that their verbal attacks will obscure recognition of our shared history.

Fighting Back

Prime Minister Carney has said that Canada will not negotiate with the US until Trump and his followers cease their attacks. In the next few days before the Trump administration’s counter-counter-tariffs take effect, we will see if he maintains his resolve.

How should the Canadian public respond? First, we should recognize that while Trump has been waging psychological warfare against Canada almost since the day he was elected in 2024, the current trade impasse has led to a major intensification. It is important to call this what it is. We might wish the media would not keep reporting the latest anti-Canada memes, but that is impossible. Just as Prime Minister Carney’s Davos speech was an important act of truth-telling about the Trump administration’s hegemonism, it would be equally important if he or someone else in the government would engage in truth-telling about Trump’s psychological warfare. Then we can discuss what patterns of thought and action can help evict Trump and his administration from our heads.

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