Canada is pissed. So what?
For months, Donald Trump had threatened to impose tariffs on America’s two largest trading partners, Canada and Mexico. On Saturday, the hammer dropped. 25% tariffs were announced on virtually all goods coming into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico.
What followed was a whirlwind 48 hours that torpedoed global stock markets and whiplashed foreign exchange rates, all before we seemingly ended up right back where we started.
Who wants to tell him that this was all announced last year…?
I'm not sure exactly what the purpose of this whole exercise was. Was it to show the world how serious the new administration is? Was it to rally supporters? Was it to distract attention from controversial domestic moves? Was it to sow chaos for chaos’ sake? (Perhaps a little bit of all four?)
I've written before that I have zero background in government or public policy, so I’m not going to speculate on the administration’s objectives or end game. But I will say this: Canadians were — and are — pissed.
If you live in the U.S., you might have read a story on ESPN about Canadians booing the American national anthem and thought to yourself, "oh, how cute." You may have glanced over an article about “buy Canadian” signs popping up in stores across the country and thought to yourself, “that’s quaint.” You probably didn’t talk to any of the tens of thousands of founders who spent their weekends scrambling to figure out whether or not the tariffs would apply to their companies. The hundreds of thousands of lawyers, accountants, bookkeepers and other service providers who, instead of enjoying time with their families, worked throughout the weekend to help their clients prepare for what might happen on Monday. The millions of people across the country who tried to make sense of why their closest ally would take this unprecedented action.
To many Americans, this was simply an entertaining reality show to kick back and watch on social media.
But Canadians are pissed.
This week, I was in San Francisco for the C100 Summit, an annual gathering of Canadian business leaders from across the tech industry. The topic of tariffs, of course, came up — but very little of the conversation involved the actions of the administration. Rather, it was focused almost entirely on a shared observation: that none of us have ever seen this level of collective anger in Canada.
About anything.
Canadians are used to being disrespected by their southern neighbors. For whatever reason, the vast majority of Americans don't take Canada or Canadians very seriously. They disrespect Canadian culture, presume that Canadians have little-to-no pride in their country, and frequently joke about...well, pretty much everything to do with Canada.
Canadians have long since grown accustomed to this type of treatment. But this weekend was different. This weekend, the U.S. shattered the trust of an entire nation.
Canadians aren’t just pissed. They’re incredulous.
So what?
This may be a knee-jerk reaction, but I think that there is a very high likelihood that we will eventually look back at this weekend as having triggered a fundamental change in the relationship between Canada and the U.S.
While most American viewers of our shared political reality show have already moved on to next week’s episode, the ramifications north of the border have barely begun. The business community — and the Canadian public at large — was already deeply frustrated about the country’s direction. That pent-up anger just got redirected and multiplied a hundredfold. One person I spoke to this week suggested that it will take at least 4 successive U.S. administrations before Canadians fully trust the U.S. again. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable perspective.
For better or for worse, there’s no going back.
Nothing has changed. But everything has changed.
Did a full 180, crazy
Thinking 'bout the way I was
Did the heartbreak change me? Maybe
But look at where I ended up
I'm all good already
So moved on, it's scary
I'm not where you left me at all