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.
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.
Advertisers compete with claims that their products are “proudly Canadian.” YouTube, news media and newsletters vigilantly follow the latest indignation. Polls track plummeting positive attitudes toward America and surging pride in Canada; the latest Pew poll found that 59 percent of Canadians now view the United States as the “greatest threat” to their country. Bourbon and California wines are nowhere to be found, and Canadians are canceling trips south in droves. 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.”
Even King Charles III, the British monarch and Canada’s head of state, chimed in. Presiding over the opening of the Canadian Parliament and delivering the Speech from the Throne in May — only the third time a sovereign has done so and the first time in decades — Charles III was cautious not to assail Mr. Trump directly. But he offered clear support to Canada by quoting from the national anthem: “The True North is indeed strong and free.”
Here in the Laurentians, where I’ve been spending summers for much of my life, a French Canadian spots my District of Columbia license plate and offers, with a hint of sympathy, “Il est fou, ton Trump!” (“He’s nuts, your Trump!”) Fortunately, Americans visiting Canada still seem to be generally regarded as fellow sufferers, not enemies. Not yet.
It’s all so sad. Because Washington’s targeting of Canada is so unnecessary and so undeserved. A “national emergency” that justifies huge tariff increases because Canada is purportedly failing to halt a “tremendous” (Mr. Trump’s word) flow of fentanyl and immigrants over the U.S.-Canada border? Only a minuscule fraction of the fentanyl seized in the United States, or of illegal crossings into the United States, come from Canada. But that doesn’t stop Mr. Trump, or the Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, or the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, from trumpeting a northern border crisis.
