It has been awhile, but I got a note last week from my Canadian friend Peter.
He and I got to know each other because for years we stayed in the same hotel during baseball spring training in Arizona. He and his wife were among the thousands of Canadians who fled the winter winds for a few weeks in the U.S. South, just like many of us from Wisconsin.
I use the past tense, because many of them, including Peter, have decided they're not coming any more.
Peter (I'm purposely not using his last name to shield him from repercussions) is a big hockey guy, volunteers for the Petersborough, Ontario, Petes of the Ontario Hockey League and consequently is well-acquainted with UW hockey and its proud history, as well as its alumni who wound up playing pro in Canada.
His email talked about the good times we had discussing everything from sports to politics, but he clearly wanted to get something off his chest about the U.S.
"Something came to me the other day," he wrote. "Donald Trump has always promoted MAGA, Make America Great Again. Well I think it’s time Canada started promoting CIGN. No that’s not a spelling mistake. CIGN stands for Canada Is Great Now.
"I remember when Trump threw his hat into the Republican primaries that I predicted he would become the candidate," he reminded me. 'Then I predicted he would win. None of my U.S. friends believed me. God, I wish I had been wrong. Can I use the word God in the U.S. today?
"Now that he has been reelected, I’m not sure who upsets me most. The Republicans who find they cannot consider a candidate from another party. The Democrats who can’t convince their own followers to get out and vote. The independents who don’t know when they are getting hood winked. Or those lazy sods who can’t manage even a mail in vote. I guess I’ll just be upset."
Peter, as we all know, is far from alone in his frustration with a country he thought he knew so well. His email coincidentally arrived the same day that the New York Times ran a column by Serge Schmemann, one of its opinion writers, who had just spent some time in the Laurentian Mountains in the Canadian province of Quebec.
"Even here, among the sparsely populated lakes and thickly forested hills of the Laurentians, it is hard for an American not to feel the anger and incredulity President Trump has stoked with his tariffs, talk of a 51st state and offhand insults," he wrote.
"Much of that may be lost on Americans buffeted by the ceaseless rush of crises and clashes generated by the president’s agenda. But up here, in what used to be the most friendly neighbor a country could possibly ask for, the rage is tangible."
He went on explain how advertisers compete with claims that their products are “proudly Canadian” and polls track plummeting positive attitudes toward America and surging pride in Canada.
The latest Pew poll found that 59% of Canadians now view the United States as the “greatest threat” to their country. American bourbon and California wines are nowhere to be found, and Canadians are canceling trips south in droves, just like Peter has.
"T-shirts display the latest anti-American slogan, whether 'Canada is not for sale' or "Elbows up' — a classic hockey gesture that means 'stand up and fight back,' which the Canadian comedian Mike Myers famously (at least for Canadians) displayed on 'Saturday Night Live.'" Schmemann noted.
What grates on many Canadians is not so much the tariffs Donald Trump constantly threatens, but the continued taunting about a 51st state, calling the prime minister "governor," calling the border a fiction.
When Krisiti Noem, the former South Dakota governor and famous dog killer who Trump has made secretary of Homeland Security, visited a well-known library straddling the Canada-Vermont border in January, she hopped back and forth over a line marking the frontier, saying “U.S.A. No. 1!” on the U.S. side and “51st state!” on the other.
"And when the White House press secretary, asked about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s scrapping of a disputed tax on American tech giants after Trump threatened to abort tariff negotiations, responded: 'It’s very simple. Prime Minister Carney and Canada caved to President Trump and the United States of America.' 'Caved' made many a headline here." Schnemann wrote.
"As with all of Mr. Trump’s actions, it is hard to predict where the discord with Canada may lead," he concluded. "But it is a strong example of the extraordinary damage the 47th president is wreaking on America’s standing in the world, whether he’s slapping tariffs on goods, talking about buying Greenland, humiliating visitors to the White House, canceling lifesaving aid, barring citizens from a dozen countries, bullying Ukraine or otherwise undermining the soft power America used to wield around the globe."
Ah, yes, making America great again!
