Dear Canada. We’re Sorry. (And no, I’m not saying it with a funny accent, like sore-ee. I truly mean it.) We have elected a buffoon, not once, but twice, and we feel horrible that he has – for no apparent reason – started a chaotic trade war with one of our favorite countries.
After President Trump imposed 50% tariffs on over $20 billion dollars of Canadian products this weekend, Prime Minister Mark Carney finally had enough, and issued a dollar for dollar retaliatory tariff against the United States. And when you piss off a Canadian, especially one as sweet and polite as Mr. Carney, you know you’ve operated in bad faith. Canada is doing what’s in the best interests of Canada, its families, farmers and small business owners. Go figure, eh? Seems like OUR best interests would be not to fight with friendly neighbors and rock-solid allies, but things are clearly wackadoo here as of late. (As an example of the madness, Trump demanded on TruthSocial that Canada change its French language and Quebec culture as a condition for reversing tariffs. Perhaps he’d like Nanaimo bars for life as well.)
Frankly, I’m surprised more countries haven’t banded together to fight our economic threats (much less military ones…an apology to Greenland is ALSO long overdue). My family has roots in Ukraine — and we all thought supporting their democratic aspirations and mighty struggles against the Ruskies would be a no-brainer… “Both sides?” Think not!
As a lifelong Seattleite, this breakup with the Land of the Maple Leaf hits particularly hard. In middle school my folks hosted Canadian kids for sleepovers when we played soccer against youth Snowbird teams in the pouring rain and laughed our asses off aboot each other’s accents. As a teen, we sailed in international regattas in the Strait of Juan de Fuca at Camp Nor ‘Westor and the Hosers had the prettiest girls, by far. In the 90’s, we crossed the border to smoke semi-legal weed in Vansterdam. (And of course your drinking age is still only 18.) My go-to Valentines Day date for decades was taking the Victoria Clipper to a cheap bed and breakfast. Hell, my family just jammed into a Kenmore Air seaplane and flew directly into the gorgeous Vancouver Harbor. And we’ve been jealous of your universal health care system since 1971.
Just know, my sweet Canucks, that we dislike Trump almost as much as you do: His job approval rating is 33% – among the worst in U.S. history. Here in Washington State almost sixty percent of us voted for Kamala Harris in 2024, and that we are doing everything in our power to win the midterms this November to begin the long process of change and accountability. (Right?!) In fact, as a token of my humiliation over this tariff lunacy, I’m making a contribution to the Canadian Red Cross. (Regarding your wildfires, we know firsthand how dangerous and devastating they are, and that it has everything to do with climate crisis, and nothing to do with “raking the forest,” whatever the heck that means…)
This nonsense will hit our own state especially hard, as over fifteen percent of our exports go over the northern border: Aerospace parts, mineral oils, heavy farm equipment, fish and seafood, apples, and onions to name a few. Our own Office of the United States Trade Representative estimates that exports support 147,000 jobs in the Evergreen State. Same is true with other border States including Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio which export tons of auto parts and vehicles to Canada. In 2025, our two countries exchanged about $872 billion in goods and services. As far as Mango Mussolini’s most recent executive order renaming Lake Ontario (an indigenous name used long before EITHER nation had formed), instead of Lake America, may I suggest Lake Epstein?
If another country tried to bully us with haphazard tariffs and threats of takeover, we’d be rightly pissed off. So we understand you wanting to strike back. Just know that the vast majority of Americans are embarrassed about this idiocy, and are working toward change. We know this relationship will take time to mend, and we’ll be fine with you tossing your Levis and Starbucks coffee and Pearl Jam CDs into English Bay. But please don’t cut off maple syrup, Martin Short, Crown Royal, or your visitors. We love you (all).
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I’m a fourth generation Whatcom County resident. A branch of my great grandfather’s family settled in Canada, I had a great uncle who owned property on both sides of the 49th parallel. His cattle fences crossed the border. Our family visited the Stanley Park Zoo several times a year. The Pacific National Exhibition was a yearly event for us. A best friend lives in Edmonton. This toddler tantrum is absurd.
Thank you, Michael. The irrational clown in the Oval Office is a chaos agent, a threat domestically and internationally. The discord with Canada makes no sense no matter how one looks at it. I have family roots in Canada. I have friends who reside there. Canada is a great country. Trump’s trade war is yet one more aberrant example of his political and personal derangement.
Think again folks.
Carney will not tell people in Canada why he rejected this trade deal at the 11th hour. He says the US wants to squash indigenous culture.
Translated, that means the US does not like Canada aiding and abetting China to get around tariffs. Foolishly, Canada is now going to lose 2 million jobs.
And Canada’s economy, weak as it is, is about to go into recession. Canadians are the classical Lemmings, and they’re following this Pied Piper Carney right over the cliff. He’s leading them in to an economic freefall.
Canada announced that it’s going along with the EU countries that are boycotting Israel products.
So I assume Canada will also be initiating a boycott against Nigeria because of the slaughter of Christians.
And that Canada won’t be letting in any products from Afghanistan given that we know the Taliban are killing women.
Canada, I’m sure will be looking at certain places in Cuba that
are disturbing because they have people in jail, political prisoners.
And of course you’re going to be breaking that deal you made with China because they have a million Uyghurs in labor concentration camps and that offends your sensitivities.
Instead, Canada wants to concentrate on a tiny little country, not because of any oppression they might be committing, but because they’re Jewish.
So the reason that we have this disagreement is not because of Donald Trump. It’s not that Trump brags about renaming Ontario, or that he wants to troll you and say Alberta should be the 51st state.
It’s because Canada, you still refuse to man up and pay your fair share of your own defense needs (2% of GDP), even though you have extravagant claims to the Arctic, and unenforceable claims to the entire Northwest Passage. And yet you only have 88 jets that are 45 years old and a Navy of 80 little ships.
And as for Canada joining the EU – a nonsensical idea because Canada is headed in a EU direction at full speed when most of the EU is making a total U turn as nationalism sweeps the continent due to the recent mass migration.
And who do you think is going to knock down ICBMs if they ever fly even close to your borders Canada?
Of all the western industrial nations in terms of per capita GDP, you are the slowest growing at 1.1%. And your birthrate is pretty bad at 1.25 which is among the lowest of western countries compared to the US (about 1.7).
If you’re an American, you have a per capita share of GDP at about $95,000. But if you’re a Canadian, right across the border, it’s about $40,000 less.
You’ve signed a series of visa, travel, cultural, and military arrangements with China. And of course, China at this point wants to dump aluminum and steel below the cost of production. And they can’t do it with us because we’ll tariff it. So what does China do? They say if we can send it into Canada, they can assemble it into Canadian products and then send it to the United States cheaper and it won’t be tariffed. It’ll come in under lower tariffs and that way we can evade. So you are aiding and empowering communist China. So when you get Mr. Carney on television and he starts ranting about Donald Trump and how mean he is, do you understand who your ally is? China destroys the patent – the whole idea of patents, international patents, international copyrights and dumps product below the cost of production. And that’s your new partner? A country with the greatest mass murdering legacy any country in the world with Mao’s death toll of 75 million.
Canadian citizens are the only people in the world that can come to the US for 6 months and do whatever they want unmonitored at all.
There’s now something going wrong with Canada, it’s not the Canada we all love anymore. And it’s not the same Canada that Canadians have always loved either. 45% of the people were not born there and have come from failed states. Canada does not have the money with their socialist/entitlement government to take care of them. They need to feed, house, and give them an education, and all the things a middle class society needs, but they just don’t have the money because they’re a socialist economy.
And ironically, the guy who’s whipping up all this anti-Americanism went to college here – his 2 kids went to college here, his 2 kids live here, 90% of his money is invested in the US. And he’s putting jobs at risk by whipping up all this anti-Americanism?
Carney is going to wreck the Canadian economy and only a few see it.