By Henry Srebrnik, Moncton Times & Transcript
We know that a large percentage of Canadians have become disenchanted with the United States since Donald Trump assumed office and began berating Canada and imposing tariffs. Canadian politicians regularly take potshots at Trump. In October former prime minister Jean Chrétien in a CBC interview warned that Trump is a threat to democracy because the U.S. president “does not care much about the rule of law.”
But it’s a two-way street. Many Republicans, including U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra, a former Republican Representative from Michigan, have publicly criticized Ottawa for its policies on immigration and terrorism, and have also accused Ottawa of interfering in domestic American politics.
Americans are more aware of what goes on north of the 49th parallel than you might think. Some American publications have even begun to report Canadian news regularly – and not always in a positive way. One journalist, former National Post staffer Rupa Subramanya, writes “This Week in Canada,” a weekly newsletter, in the popular and nonpartisan Free Press, published in New York. Others also pay more attention.
This has been a long time coming, going back to before Trump again became president after 2024. The right-wing media in the U.S. was already angry with former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland for freezing the bank accounts of Canadians who has donated money to the truckers who had occupied downtown Ottawa in 2022 during the COVID pandemic. Parallel demonstrations occurred in provincial capitals and at key border crossings with the United States.
The confrontation lasted about a month and drew support from many Republicans south of the border. The freezing of bank accounts belonging to Canadian “Freedom Convoy” truckers and donors in 2022 generated significant controversy and anger among some Americans, particularly U.S. conservative politicians and activists who supported the protest. Canadian banks froze nearly eight million dollars held in 206 accounts.
Many American right-wing activists and conservative politicians cheered and helped fund the Canadian truckers’ protests against COVID-19 restrictions. The financial measures were viewed by many in the U.S. as a violation of fundamental rights, and the subsequent legal challenges in Canadian courts were closely watched. For many Americans, seizing people’s cash, even temporarily, if they are not guilty of a criminal offense, is unthinkable and worthy of a dictatorship. One’s savings are “sacred.”
Several Republican representatives drew parallels between the Canadian government’s actions and those of authoritarian regimes. They pointed to the use of the Emergencies Act to freeze the financial assets of truckers protesting against COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Congressman French Hill of Arkansas underscored the potential for government overreach inherent in financial surveillance. And Scott Perry of Pennsylvania echoed these sentiments and warned against complacency regarding government powers. “We should learn the lessons from the oppressed citizens everywhere from Canada to the communist Chinese before it is too late,” Perry declared.
The current displeasure followed a Global TV News report that ran Nov. 19. “The Canadians in Hamas” asserted that about 450 people with assorted roles in Hamas have ties to Canada. The source, who spoke on the condition of not being identified, stated that the list was comprised of permanent residents, as well as those with family or associates in Canada, and included citizens.
Two days later, Vance weighed in on Canadian politics, calling out the country on Nov. 21 for its “immigration insanity.” He blasted Canada on X: “While I'm sure the causes are complicated, no nation has leaned more into ‘diversity is our strength, we don’t need a melting pot we have a salad bowl’ immigration insanity than Canada. It has the highest foreign-born share of the population in the entire G7 and its living standards have stagnated.” He added in a follow-up tweet that it had “nothing to do with Donald Trump or whatever bogeyman the CBC tells you to blame. The fault lies with your leadership, elected by you.”
Two days later, the influential online New York-based news site Tablet ran a piece, “The Great Canadian Crackup,” alleging that the country is admitting militants from the developing world into the country. It went on to claim that “Canada is also losing its remaining sources of national coherence,” quoting a Statistics Canada report that 42 per cent of the country’s babies were born to foreign-born mothers in 2024, compared to 22.5 per cent in 1997.
As for Hoekstra, he condemned the Ontario advertisement that he says ended trade negotiations with the United States, accusing Canada of creating a “new precedent” that Washington won’t ignore.
Speaking at the National Manufacturing Conference in Ottawa Nov. 18, Hoekstra dismissed suggestions that the fallout is overblown, saying Canadians “don’t understand” the seriousness of what happened. No one can ever remember a “circumstance where a foreign government came into the United States” with political advertising targeting the president.
The ad, paid for by Doug Ford’s Ontario government and later pulled, featured the voice of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs. It aired days before U.S. midterm elections and ahead of a U.S. Supreme Court hearing on the legality of Trump’s tariffs.
It’s become clear that this spat will not be easy to repair while Trump remains president. And should he be succeeded in 2028 by Vance, watch out.
No comments:
Post a Comment