Things Have Changed, and We Won't Go Back

Canada is rejecting the U.S. like a bad kidney

I’m hoping for a more vibrant red this Fall. Last year’s drought left the forest fairly drab and brown. | Photo by Guillaume Jaillet on Unsplash

Some people are still living under delusion when it comes to Trump’s blundering on the international stage. Some people still don’t get how badly he has damaged the reputation of the United States amongst its formerly close allies.

I still see a lot of people, mainly Americans, stating their hope that Canadians will forgive the U.S. and come back to visit and spend our tourism dollars when Trump is gone.

I’m sorry. But no. That ship, much like the Hantavirus Petri Dish cruiseliner, has well and truly sailed.

As I fill up the store shelves with giftware and lifestyle brand goodies at work, I’m struck by how many of them carry Canadian flag stickers now. It used to be that the only staunchly Canadian things in any stores were in the Canada Day merchandise section.

Not so these days. Now they’re everywhere. The Canadian flag now flies over homes in my neighbourhood alongside the more common Pride and Progress flags of times past.

The boycott of U.S. travel and goods is still going strong, and local companies and creators are taking full advantage. The numbers are in; popular tourist spots in the U.S. are taking heavy hits from a lack of visitors and open wallets.

In a service-based economy like the U.S. with so many jobs dependent on the tourism industry, that’s a big yikes. In an economy that Trump has torn to shreds with reckless abandon, it’s an even bigger one.

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It’s not just Canadians avoiding the place, but we’re your closest and largest trading partner. The loss of traffic from our border is a huge blow to the economy.

We are a polite people, overall. But we do not take kindly to being taken for granted.

We don’t take insults laying down. Especially not from a country for whom we’ve sacrificed so much — and who then turns around and spits in our faces the second their man in the Oval Office tells them to do it.

Trump’s actions are the main cause. But he’s not the only one at fault.

It’s his voters. It’s the whole MAGA cult. The administration and all of his Yes Men.

The tens of millions of Americans who went along with him, who parrot his rhetoric, who sneer at us and call us the 51st State because he gave them the talking point and off they ran with it.

As I’ve said before, you can’t spell ‘hatred’ without a red hat.

And even the sane Americans are taking us for granted right now. Saying oh, they have hope, they don’t believe we’ll be staying away forever. Someday soon, we’ll be back to being the very best of dear friends.

I’m sorry. No. The bridge is burnt. You don’t get to assume that we will graciously accept abuse, forgive, forget, and come running back to you as if nothing ever happened.

You yourself may not be the cause, but you are being disrespectful to us now by minimizing what’s happened. This is a far more brutal, and serious breach of trust than you’re willing to see, let alone admit.

This is the kind of rupture in diplomacy, of personal betrayal, that takes at least a generation to mend.

We Canadians who lived through this time are not going to let our guard down again.

We will not be taken advantage of again.

It sucks that we’re here. But them’s the brakes. The consequences are stark, but they aren’t avoidable. Friendship and trust are not given for nothing. That shit needs to be earned.

And once gone, it’s very hard to get it back.

Solidarity wins.

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