Trump is forcing Canada to ask who it is and why it exists

Something unusual is happening in Canada these days: calls for patriotic mobilization are emerging from the right and the left. The reason is Donald Trump’s breathtaking attack on the very existence of the Canadian confederation and his desire to merge it with the United States.

The right and the left in Canada denounce the president-elect, and issue an equal judgment between him and Putin and the fascist dictators in Europe a century ago.

He uttered the call for the first time on December 3, during a meeting with the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. The immediate reaction was a chuckle, or at most a nervous chuckle. This is Trump, the gigglers explained, a man prone to theatrical exaggerations. He only teased Trudeau, who is 25 years younger than him. There was never any affection between them. The premier of Alberta responded with a loud laugh. “It’s a joke,” she explained.

Nobody thinks like that anymore. Canadian newspapers, from French-speaking Montreal, through Toronto and Ottawa and ending in Edmonton, published two words at the top of their front pages: “No joke.” A French newspaper in Montreal wrote, in English, Oh, God!, and added in French, “Trump is serious.”

Toronto’s “Star” wrote on Thursday that “the joke is over. The central government is signaling that it takes Trump’s threats seriously… His latest, most extreme, words about erasing Canada’s sovereignty have captured the ranks of the government.”

“Deer in the lion’s mouth”

Likud Sherein is no small matter. This crisis is happening at the worst time. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Trudeau announced his desire to resign. In this, he became, in fact, the prime minister of a transitional government until the ruling liberal party chooses his successor, at the end of March. At his request, the Governor General of Canada (a nominal representative of the British Crown, the equivalent of a president in a parliamentary democracy) suspended Parliament.

A right-wing commentator wrote that Canada’s position vis-à-vis Trump is similar to that of a deer, trying to negotiate with a predatory lion while its head is already inside its mouth.

Trudeau, at the end of nine years in power, has been emptied of almost all power and influence. On the eve of his resignation, one opinion poll gave his party only 16%. The elections should be held this year. In Canada, with a personal election system, where the winner is the one who comes first in each district, even without a majority, such a rate could shrink the party to the size of a tiny faction in Parliament.

Trudeau has never given the impression of being overweight, but in the past year he has become light as a feather. It was a rebellion within his government that brought him down. The rebellion was a direct result of Trump’s threats to impose heavy tariffs on imports from Canada. In 2023, the total of Canadian exports was 717 billion dollars, and three-quarters of them were intended for the USA. The impact of American tariffs on the Canadian economy would be fatal.

A debate broke out between the prime minister and his deputy about the mode of action. The deputy, Chrystia Freeland, who was also the finance minister, resigned, condemned Trudeau, and announced that she would run for his succession. Trudeau hesitated for nearly a month, straining Canada’s nerves during the year-end holidays. Finally, on January 7, he announced that he would retire. In good times, Canada could manage without a government, at least for a while. But suddenly the times stopped being as they were.

On the eve of Trudeau’s resignation, Trump fired ballistic missiles. He announced that he intends to force Canada “by economic means” to unite with the US. No, he will not send an army, but he will punish Canada severely for its refusal. At the same time, a senior presenter on the Fox network called for a voluntary “merger”, and if Canada Refuse, a “hostile takeover”, as things were supposed to be in exchange for costs of a commercial corporation, declared a Republican congressman. that “honor is to Canada” that the president-elect wants to annex it.

“There is no basic identity”

Canadians are not known for patriotic fervor. Institute of public opinion polls, Angus Reid, shows that 40 years ago, almost 80% of those surveyed said they were “proud to be Canadian”. This rate has now decreased to 34%. Does that mean they are ashamed to be Canadian? Not really. In a liberal country like Canada, which has many ethnic communities, races and languages, a national identity causes discomfort.

In the first week of his reign, nine years ago, Prime Minister Trudeau told the “New York Times” that Canada is becoming a “new kind of country”, defined not on the basis of the European history of its founders but on the basis of the inclusion of every immigrant. “There is no basic identity, no central character (mainstream). There are shared values ​​- openness, respect, compassion, a desire to work hard, to stand by each other, to strive for equality and justice. These qualities are what make us the first post-national country.”

In May 2023, Trudeau caused considerable consternation when he ordered a series of national symbols omitted from Canadian passport pages, ostensibly to protect the passport from counterfeiting. His critics, usually from the right, said he used the opportunity to erase Canada’s historical memory. One of them wrote, “We are in real danger if whoever is chosen to be the head of our government does not come to the defense of our country, and despite this openly works to reduce our sense of self-worth and our pride, at home and abroad.”

Canada, it should be said, was born almost as a historical accident, in 1867. The USA has just recovered from a terrible civil war, when the British decided to establish the “Canadian Confederation”, and give it self-government. The border between the USA and Canada could have been erased years before. The US annexed half of Mexico in the middle of the 19th century. It could have annexed half of Canada as well. The hand of chance prevented such a possibility. Most political borders in the world are tied to the hand of chance. They were accepted, sometimes with gritted teeth or With a shrug of the shoulders, in favor of the proper order of international relations.

From time to time, Americans and Canadians have toyed with the formulas of an alternate history, in which a giant union stretches from Alaska in the far northwest to Florida in the southeast. The economic and strategic advantages such a union would yield are absolutely fantastic. The expanded USA will be a superpower, with unparalleled land and mineral resources.

But it won’t happen. The lawlessness of Trump’s rhetoric is evoking patriotic outbursts not seen since the height of World War II, when Canadians sacrificed themselves in the killing fields of Europe. One newspaper in the city of Calgary, in Alberta, declared on Thursday on its front page, “Love it, or lose it”, Canada, that is. “Can Canada muster enough patriotism to oppose Trump?” he asked.

Unwittingly, the president-elect is helping Canadians focus on the answer to a question that Justin Trudeau didn’t even have room to introduce: Why Canada?