Ten years ago, I wrote a piece called “To Get the Hip is
to Get What it Means to Be Canadian.”
By using our national obsession with The Tragically Hip, a rock band most Americans had never heard of, I tried to pry the lid off the reticent
Canadian noggin and give you a glimpse inside.
I especially tried to explain our complicated relationship with America. At the time, Obama was still the president, and Donald Trump had just
landed the Republican nomination. We had no idea what was to come.
Who did? Seriously, who could have predicted the last 10 years?
Since then, a lot has happened. But most of what I said
10 years ago still stands. It just needs an update, because now, Canada and the U.S. are actively at war.
A trade war, true. But a war, nonetheless. Those are words I never thought I’d
say 10 years ago.
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First of all, I’m happy to tell you that Canadians still hold a place in our oversized and slightly frostbitten hearts for the Tragically Hip.
This weekend,
Canadians got together from coast to coast to coast to watch a rebroadcast of the show I talked about 10 years ago. The numbers were fewer, but the love was the same. The music still touched something
deep in our souls.
This same past weekend, trade talks between the U.S. and Canada broke down. Prime Minister Mark Carney called negotiators back from Washington after a list of last-minute,
impossible demands were presented by their American counterparts.
On Saturday morning, Carney delivered what was -- for a politician -- an unusually frank assessment of what went wrong.
One phrase stood out: When dealing with Trump’s America, “sometimes the signature is written in pencil.”
Ouch!
Ten years ago, I used an analogy to try to explain the
weird mix of emotions Canadian have baked into our relationship with the U.S.: “Living next to you is like becoming friends with the kid who lives next door and who lives in a much bigger house.
One weekend, you’re invited for a sleepover. You bring your toys and pack your sleeping bag. The good news is that for breakfast, you finally get to eat all the sugared cereal your mom would
never buy for you. The bad news is, you have to give all your toys to your friend. Sure, you can still come over and play with them any time you want, but they’ll never be yours
again.”
Here’s what’s changed in the past decade. Those mixed feelings from then -- which included envy, some passive-aggressive resentment, a genuine love, and a nagging
feeling that our relationship is taken for granted -- have now taken a much darker turn.
One thing that was true then, which isn’t today, is that we trusted the U.S.
We trusted you
so much, we integrated our entire economy with yours. We tore down our fences, gave you the keys to both our house and garage, loaned you our car and said help yourself to anything in our fridge.
You did the same. We never, ever, ever dreamed we’d have to protect ourselves from you.
It’s a stunning shock to us that this is no longer the case. It’s taking time
to sink in. But it is.
In a recent Pew Survey, 59% of Canadians polled identified the U.S. as the biggest threat to them. That put you miles ahead of China (at 17%) and Russia (11%).
Your other neighbor, Mexico, is even more worried. There, 68% put the finger on the U.S. as the biggest bully on the block.
Look, I get that this may be coming as news to you. We Canadians
are painfully aware that we think about you much more than you think about us.
If you scan a Canadian news site, the breakdown in trade talks dominates over 80% of the above-the-fold story
headlines. On CNN, we’re pushed into one tiny corner. Updates on the Iran conflict dominate most of the page.
But at least we made CNN’s home page. Fox didn’t think a massive
rupture with your biggest trading partner was as newsworthy as, say, Trump waving a green flag at a NASCAR race, or a 69-yard field goal kick in the NFL.
You do see where our insecurity
with our relationship might come from, don’t you?
But here’s my point. You may not be paying much attention to this, but you should.
Consider Canada the canary in the coal
mine you’re diving into (Note: I wish this was a figure of speech, but it’s literally the truth. Trump is investing heavily in a resurgence in coal power).
When your next-door
neighbor is saying you can’t be trusted, you should listen.
Because it’s trust -- the kind we Canadians have banked on for the past several decades -- that has gotten you where you
are. It literally put you on top of the world. It’s the currency that gave you the power your president is now flexing.
And that trust has disappeared. According to the 2025 RepCore
Nations Study, The U.S.’s international reputation slipped 18 places, from 30th to 48th place, putting you squarely between Kuwait and Kazakhstan in the “weak” reputation
category.
Nothing against Kazakhstan, but it that really the neighborhood where you want to hang out?