Dallas Looking over at the television in between hockey playoff scores in Calgary before flying home in the predawn, a soundless commercial of some kind was playing. It was hard to figure out without sound, but it became clearer. The video was of three very clean-cut young people doing clean cut regular things. The tag line at the end said, Coca-Cola, made by Canadians in Canada. That short 30-second clip speaks volumes about how President Trump, his tariffs, and especially his 51st state delusions about the country have imprinted on Canadian politics, commerce, and life. He hasn’t won friends, but he has influenced people up there.
I was there for the spring meeting of the ACORN Canada head and lead organizers, a well-traveled and sophisticated crew, but also very politically astute. Walking to visit the ACORN office in Calgary, I listened to them discuss the election on the horizon in only a few short days.
Trump and his antics had upended the race completely. The Conservative candidate had seemed to have a lock on winning enough seats to become premier. Justin Trudeau after a long stint in office had worn out his welcome and inadvertently encouraged the odds that the Conservatives would once again come to power. Trudeau’s popularity had fallen so far that he was bringing down his entire party, and, like Biden, stepped down, so that an alternative could come forward. Trading charisma for bland, a former head of the federal banking system emerged as the standard-bearer, looking as much like a sacrificial lamb as a contender.
All that was before Trump inadvertently became his campaign manager. One organizer remarked that in the day’s news, Mark Carney, the current and now likely future premier, had once again reported on a recent call with Trump, where he claimed the 51st state program was still front and center. The organizer noted that every time there was one of these conversations and the 51st state up, you could see the polls jump up for Carney. Of course, his opponent had also helped by having earlier hitched his star to Trump, before he turned the world upside down.
What do I know, but they all seemed to think the conclusion was now foregone at the top of the ticket, the question was the size of the victory. Much of the rest of the conversation, when it wasn’t about the surprising success of the Toronto Maple Leaf’s, who later won an almost unprecedented 3-0 lead in the playoffs, perhaps the first this century, from what I gathered, was about the fate of NDP, the New Democratic Party and many of its MPs from ridings where we had extensive membership. ACORN is nonpartisan in Canada, as it is everywhere, but our organizing program benefits in parliamentary formations when there is a coalition government, rather than a majority party, which doesn’t have to make any compromises that would benefit our members. The NDP had been part of the recent government, but now with the Conservative threat and the deep Trump provocation and Canadian resistance, was in danger of falling below the dozen seats allowing it to be a ballot line party. The “wave” for Carney could sweep away a number of MPs that had delivered for ACORN in the past, as well as this leverage on our campaigns. The head of the party, who I had heard speak at several national conventions was endangered. It seemed that someone from Hamilton’s downtown riding where we have a lot of members and activity, was going to be harder to displace. It went like that as they went down the list while we walked between zebra crossings and running man signals.
Canadians were still, whether from conviction or habit, universally nice to me in the meetings, on the street, and even on the plane leaving. They know it’s not us, but Trump. Nonetheless, they are making adjustments. One of our board members and her whole posse has canceled an annual trip to Hawaii as their own protest. My Uber driver to the airport was from Ethiopia and volunteered that even after 18 years in Canada, he and his friends were afraid of crossing the border to the south now.
The Trump Tsunami is sweeping a lot more away in its wake that we can’t see from the American borders between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Canadians have a clear view from the north, and they aren’t liking what they are hearing and seeing. This may take some time to heal, if we ever want to get back to normal with our neighbors.