Canada is so furious at the US right now

www.vox.com Canada is so furious at the US right now

Vox’s correspondent in Canada reports on the reaction to Trump’s tariffs.

153 comments

the US-Canadian border has been one of, if not the, most peaceful borders in the entire world.
the most peaceful and mutually beneficial border on Earth.
Tell me your views are extremely America-centric without telling me.
The only way you can have those views is if you know nothing about the EU at all.

Lmao, I’ve got a bullet for every magat fuck that crosses the border. Last thing they’ll hear is a tree speaking French

The problem is that there is a not-insignificant number of people that want the US to annex Canada.
In the US, about 15% of Trump voters would support annexation of Canada, even if Canada didn't want it. That's about 1 in 7.
https://vancouversun.com/news/trump-51st-state-most-americans-have-no-interest-in-canada-annex
The disturbing thing is that about 18% of Canadian Conservatives would support annexation. That's almost 1 in 5. Most of us know five Conservatives, so chances are you know someone who is essentially a traitor. I think Conservative supporters need to be aware that this is the company they keep.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/large-majority-of-canadians-reject-trumps-annexation-overtures-poll-suggests/
- Probably more Americans support being annexed by Canada than annexing Canada.
  
  I mean, yeah I'd love it, but at the same time I wouldn't want Canada to take on that kind of embarrassment and that much of a workload.
- The Vancouver Sun is owned by postmedia... so take whatever they,say with a grain of salt.
  
  Yeah I hear you 100%. At this point any of the Postmedia outlets should be considered American propaganda, and they cannot be trusted.
  However in this case the survey was from Angus Reid I believe. You can find the results elsewhere.
- The one in five conservatives who want to be annexed by America know its the only way they can get American citizenship since they are probably low education and low skilled labour that America doesn't even want. Otherwise they would just move to America.
- That 18% number is based on polls that may be kinda susp, but even if it were true a lot of what I've heard from the dumbass gallery has been:
  "Cool, then our dollar would finally be equal to USD" and "It'll be easier to get flights to the US and Disneyland" or "Then we can vote in a proper government they're and fix things"
  I doubt the appetite for such goes much past a lack of critical thinking into what the realities would be
  
  This may be so but as we've seen in other contexts - e.g., Brexit and the last US election - these are exactly the people that can do incredible damage that can last generations.
  
  Hi, American here.
  A lot of us have been saying that for about a decade and been wrong at about every turn.
- The grass isn't greener over here. It's pay to play in a bucket full of crabs.
  Also understand the psychological games being played. All this shit is psychological marketing social manipulation. You need a strong grasp understanding... I couldn't even say what specifically but... But it's almost impossible to get sucked into it even if you understand it.
  It's like just talking about the drama they are presenting is to already be failing at fighting it. But the paradox is you still have to fight it... Somehow.
- This is just the reality of living in a free-thinking world.
  
  I don’t think you’re being open minded enough. Sounds like your head needs some ventilation
  
  Oh please fuck right off with this apologist bullshit.
  I don't care what people think, and it wouldn't matter if I did, as long as they keep their treasonous sympathies in their own head.
  The moment they voice it or act on it, then it becomes expression. And freedom of expression does not extend to treasonous or seditious speech or action, as it's defined in the criminal code.
  And anyway, where freedom of expression applies, it only protects against government suppression or legal repercussions. It has nothing to say about me making their lives miserable and making sure everyone knows they're treasonous Yank sympathizers and just generally untrustworthy pieces of shit. And these people know that which is why they rarely make their views known publicly.
  Well that, and they know that if they out themselves they'll be the first up against the wall if shit gets ugly.
  
  Horrible thought that so much of the population is that fucking stupid

"Great state of Canada"...
To be fair, I heard a news anchorwoman in British Columbia refer to the US as "the lower provinces" lol. I had never heard this before, but since it was used casually on a newscast I assumed it was a fairly common expression. Maybe Bonespurs heard about that and got a burr in his diaper.
- I'm down with that. In fact, can Canada just annex Oregon and Washington? I would consider emigrating to Canada myself. But...that's hardly a trivial thing to do. Plus packing is such a pain in the ass. Plus, selling a house, moving companies and all that. Ugh. What an effort. It would be a lot more convenient for me if we could just move the border a good ways south.

I just was involved in a yelling match this morning about Polievre.
Just some background: I'm a farmer in N. Alberta. We farmers love coffee and visiting. There's half a dozen of us around the shop talking about this, and I safely would say everyone was against Trump, even weirdos that defended him during the election. Even then, though, I'd say the Trumpists here were about 1:10. Now it's zero.
But one person tried to stand up for Polievre this morning, saying he wasn't going to back down to Trump. Everyone else, and these are all what you would call older men, between 50 and 70, had a crack at this guy. The prevailing attitude is that Polievre isn't telling the truth, doesn't have our backs, and nobody is willing to take the chance that he's not lying.
That's in backwoods, buttfuck Alberta. I don't know if this holds true across the prairies, but this is an area where the word Liberal is an epithet. But I wouldn't be surprised to see the CPC get decimated at this point, even in rural ridings.
I'm worried Trump will back down when an election is called, and it will take the edge off, and Polievre will get in. I don't trust the fucker, but most rural voters just need the barest hint of a reason to not vote for the Liberals. In the end, nothing that happens west of Ontario matters, but I imagine if it's like this here, it's way more obvious in the East.
- I live in the Ottawa region and the attitude around here is simply that Trump handed the Liberals the win. I don't think this election is unsalvageable for the Conservatives (and frankly I think it's dangerous to think so) but they've got a mountain to climb, that's for sure.
  Ontario's demographic in Toronto and Ottawa could be summed up as "urban conservative". Interestingly many of them think of themselves as left-wing or progressive and think the same of the Liberals. The reality is very different: they view public servants, the poor, and any other right-wing punching bags as undesirables, they protest any efforts to get housing built, and they even harass striking workers. But hey they're down with "the gays" so they're forward thinking right?
  
  I'm sure enough about Polivre to stump for the Liberals. I'm just worried about bursting into flames when I cast a ballot with an L on it.

After reading about Rubio's stupidity during the G7 meeting, Brussels should ask Canada to join the EU. It would force the UK to vote again, the EU would be number one in GDP and Putin's Fucking Sock Puppet would have an aneurysm.

This headline is subtly dismissive.
"Angry" and "right now" both suggest a transient state. That's not what we're seeing.
"Canada has finally had enough of the USA" would be a more apt title; or "Canada reaches its breaking point."
Alongside of the #Never51 hashtag is an almost equally frequent #NeverGoBack. Canada, as a nation, as a people, are making the decision to go their own way, and never be so beholden to any country as we have been to the USA since 1959.
Never. Go. Back.
- I used to be angry.
  I still am, but I used to be, too.
- I hope you're right, but the public's memory is short.
  
  Yea, in the US it lasts less than 4 years.
  
  The public's memory is immaterial. The public really has no long term power. Decisions are made for us by politicians and businesses.
  They're the one's who need to remember that the US has threatened their positions.
  Voting with your wallet doesn't make for sustained, long term change. It requires too much work, and it's umder constant attack by marketing.
- What happened in '59? Avro Arrow?
  
  The other thought I had was NORAD but my quick googling points to 1958 for that, and 59 for the arrow.
  another one issue that I considered was the King-Byng affair, but that was in the 20s

You’re goddamn right I’m furious.
And no less furious at the weak-kneed Democrats who do nothing as their own country is ripped from them by a clown. “Oh sorry; we’ll try again in 4 years” they say. Fuck your thoughts and prayers, how about do something. You won’t get a free election in 4 years, dummies.
Oh yeah, I realize you’re super busy and with your sportsball games and your reality TV marathons. Your inaction today will haunt your future.
And no this isn’t a call to action or a cry for help. We’re going to be just fine. You’re the ones who have to live there, and live with yourselves knowing you did nothing.
- And no less furious at the weak-kneed Democrats who do nothing as their own country is ripped from them by a clown.
  Republican voters enabled another trump dictatorship, not “democrats”.
  Their vote made it so that "democrats" have no power in the house, the senate, the office of the presidency, the supreme court, or the dozens of federal agencies that are now being gutted.
  Blame them. Blame only them for voting the way they did, because the outcome is exactly what they voted for.
  
  Their vote made it so that “democrats” have no power in the house, the senate, the office of the presidency, the supreme court, or the dozens of federal agencies that are now being gutted.
  Actually, today Senate Republicans needed help from the Democrats to pass a bill to keep the government funded. And 10 Democrats helped them, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
  
  It doesn't matter who's to blame. The question is where is your nation going, and what are you going to do about it? Are you going to let all the terrible things happen because "it's the other guys' fault"?
  
  Funny how the Republicans always manage to stall everything when the Democrats are in power
  
  No, fuck this. The best analogy I've seen is that the republicans are a school shooter, and the democrats are the uvalde police department. I'm not going to forgive a group thst somehow becomes utterly ineffectual any time they're needed. This has been brewing for decades. If the democrats were just tooooooooo weak to do anything to prevent it in all that time, what fucking use are they?
  
  There was lots of things they could have tried, especially when they had the whitehouse. They didn't because they were trying to believe civilised democratic norms back into existence, or something like that.
  
  Republican voters got them elected, Democrats are standing by doing nothing as their country is ruined.
  There are no attempts to secede, there are no wide-scale protests or strikes. Their democracy falls while they sit back and fret, laughing along with Jon Stewart and smug in their knowledge they are better that Republicans. For all their much-touted "second amendment" they are idle as a tyrant solidifies power.
  I do blame Republican for their actions. But I blame Democrats for their inaction. I'm furious because what I see in them I recognize in myself -- it's a challenge for me to not be complacent and fight for my own country. Because if we coast like they do, we will suffer the same fate.
  
  Nearly 90 million voters sat home on election day. That's more than either candidate. Disenfranchisement plays a part, but it's more about the complete apathy the American voting population exhibits that's the problem. If even half those people showed up on election day (much less during primaries) the entire country would look completely different. That is a significantly bigger factor than either party shitting the bed.
  That being said... Democrats, for the most part, are playing it way too safe. Their leadership is too neo-liberal and too dependent on the status quo to want to shake things up too much, because their main tentpoles (which eerily match the Republicans) revolve around stagnation and a lack of real societal progress. They bandy about social progress with racial, gender, and sexuality policy reforms, but only when it's already well past the point that it'd be possible to enact them. Where it would make them look weak if they didn't do something, and they get quick and easy points by doing the least possible to improve peoples lives.
  There's a ton of reps in the Democratic party that want change, and want to see things move forward at a faster pace... but they're constantly pushed to the sidelines by the old guard that has a stranglehold on their leadership. Used as scapegoats when they want to distance themselves from more progressive elements, and fodder when they want to push another milquetoast reform that ultimately changes nothing. The problem is they're hampered by a two-party system. They can either jump ship to a third party, and end up primaried or relegated to pointlessness, or continue on as near-impotent figures that only get soundbites on twitter or facebook.
  And that's only on the American "left". The more moderate elements on the right are too scared to speak up lest they feel the ire of the Trump cabal, and end up toeing the line. Even if they feel they're on the wrong side of history.
  So there's plenty of blame to go around, it's no one thing or another. The biggest problem, though, being an American populace who refuses to band together and listen to each other, and work for each other instead of just themselves.
  
  You may not be able to say that Trump's actions towards Canada specifically could be predicted in any detail but there was an absurd amount of evidence that he would be erratic, self-serving, and antagonistic towards allies in general. We still elected him. There's tons of reasons for that and many of us want to latch on to some of them in order to absolve ourselves of individual responsibility for this shitshow, but other countries don't give a fuck about any of those reasons and we should not expect them to.
  If you're an American, you own this administration in the eyes of the world and that's exactly how it should be. In fact, I would argue that changing course is not possible until the vast majority of us accept that fact and let it inform our actions going forward.
- What about the democrats that did something how should they feel?
  
  Bluntly, what have you done for me lately?
  What Democrats did is a meaningless platitude.
  What are all of you doing right now?
  What the fuck should we do with your "we did our part"?
  Simply put, You the People cannot be trusted to keep fascism at bay.
  If you are ever allowed to vote in a free election again, one third of you will vote for more of this bullshit, and one third of you will refuse to vote.
  Collectively, you are untrustworthy.
  
  If they took action and failed I don’t hold anything against them. It’s better to try and fail than not try at all.
  Unfortunately the scale of what’s happening right now is existential, so they find themselves in the crossfire.
  
  I have the utmost sympathy and care for democrats and independents who tried and failed. I can't tell them how to feel, but I'd feel scared and helpless.
  
  There's no relevance to "did". There's "doing" and "not doing".

I just hope people remember than even AFTER the government changes, the companies and people behind them are still the same.
- The anger I'm seeing isn't just at Trump, it's at Americans in general.
  They voted for this lunatic, twice. How can we possibly trust that shit like this won't ever happen again?
  
  Not to mention the 1/3 of eligible voters who couldn't fucking be bothered to vote at all. Fuck them too.
  
  Let's leave a little bit of anger for those at home who are enthusiastically supporting Poilievre. They would happily lead Canada down the same path as the USA.
  
  That's one of the biggest things. The first time they voted for Trump, we could forgive them, since it was hard to predict that he would be quite that awful. But this time? They knew. They knew what he was, what he stood for, and what he would do. They knew, and they chose him anyway.
  
  We can’t and whatever comes after trump will be worse. The US cannot be trusted and is not reliable.
- Oh the North Remembers.

What I can say for sure is the odds that there will be some kind of political or economic rupture between the US and Canada that lasts decades into the future have gone up substantially just over the course of the past few months.
Yup. Trump's legacy will not be a glowing one at all.
- I doubt that. He fucked up the first time around, broke shit, wrecked things, stole classified documents, convicted of 34 felons, stole PPE from blue states to kill them during covid and millions needlessly died during covid. What happened? Nothing. People don't really remember any of that. He was never punished for any of his actions or crimes.
  Trump is the prime example of American hubris and apathy.
- It might be a glowing one. I'm more worried about nuclear war now than I have been since the late '80s.
- Trump’s legacy will not be a glowing one at all.
  It might literally be glowing at this rate. Also smouldering.
  
  A boy can dream…

Damn right we are fucking mad.

Trump's goal was to sow division
Everything's going to plan
- as instructed by daddy putin
- Except he got divisions in the USA and unexpected unity in Canada.
  
  That's EXACTLY what Putin wanted. Hell, that's what Putin's aide wrote as a blueprint for destruction of the west, a decade or so ago.
  
  With a division between the US and Canada

As they should be. This administration is trying to bully them into being the 51st state for absolutely no reason. So dumb and unnecessary!
- You have oil. Always look at what he or putin sees as bringing in lots of cash.
  
  And water. Remember he just ordered the release of the reservoirs in California so now they’ll have none in the summer. One guess where he’ll come looking for some

Elbows Up!

Trump is ruining relationship with all of our allies to set up to flip on Russian side.
- Canada is surrounded by the USA to the south and Russia to the north. Trump and Putin will be working something out. Being on friendly terms with the USA was foundational to Canada's security, and now it's gone.
  
  inb4: Alaska allows Russian military base and Russian military exercises near Yukon and BC

We will fuck those muricans up! ELBOWS UP!!!

I’ve been unhappy with them for years tbh its kind of nice that i’m not alone now. Is anyone else finding it hard to access things on reddit now? Just today, I can click to read about pandas and fluff but try to click on anything canadian tarrif related and nothing happens, can’t read it?

Hate.

Rightfully so

Trump did not campaign on a war with Canada. No one elected him to do this. Everyone who isn’t mad has brainworms.
- He literally started this tariffs thing last time too. No one can claim to be blindsided by this.
  Everyone who voted Trump - including those mad because they did not elect him to do this - has brainworms.
  It's just that Americans don't care, so they wouldn't remember how Trump tried to strong-arm Mexico and Canada using tariffs in his first term. Americans will burn the rest of the world in the hopes of cheaper gas. Now, increasingly burning themselves in hopes of cheaper gas.
  
  The threats to Canadian sovereignty feel very new and the reaction from Canada feels very different this time.
  To be clear, I think Trump voters are idiots being scammed, but are too morally repugnant to be sympathetic, they 100% suck. Even if Trump stuck to the things he promised, those things would also be very bad.
  I do care, I served with Canadians and have Canadian friends. I hate what we’re doing to our neighbors and am ashamed to see a flag I served twice, more and more resemble a nazi flag.
- Problem is, tens of millions of ignorant people elected him to do whatever. They just liked that he hated educated people, brown people, trans people, women, gays, foreigners, and so on. Apart from that they didn't really care about the details.
  
  But that’s the thing, they elected him based on his campaign and he never mentioned anything like this during his campaign. If what you say is the case, why did he talk nonstop about grocery prices right up to the election? Did they like the hate? Very much, conservatives are hateful people. It just doesn’t pass the smell test. Invade Mexico? That kind of matches all his other hateful rhetoric for everyone south of the US, but a country full of white people? We only do that if your asian ally bombs us first usually.

You don't say?

75 million of us studied for the test, took the test, passed the test, and still failed.
Standing in a street with a sign isn’t going to fix this. 60% of us still need to work 5 days a week just to eat, or at least sort of eat while our kids actually eat. The DNC didn’t even ask for a single recount they quietly rolled over and gave been laying on the floor ever since, and they’re the ones with all the money.
So, in your fury, what would you suggest?
- If there's 75 million of you, get out and fucking obstruct things. Stop asking people in other countries how to clean up your own mess, learn a little about civil disobedience, and start doing it.
  Like everyone here, I have no patience for your passive aggressive "this isn't myyyyy fault" attitude. Is it mine? I'm in a foreign nation, for fuck's sake. Maybe you really can't do anything from your own situation, I understand that, but then don't come in here acting sanctimonious about it. Your labour is providing for the military machine that's threatening me and my family. I have no sympathy.
  
  Thing is, that the reason why Biden dropped out of the race is because a not insignificant portion of that 75 million was okay with fascism over a second Biden term.
- I'm in Canada. Don't be so fucking sanctimonious. It's going to hurt you and your family to stand up for your own country and yourselves. If you don't it's going to hurt mine so fuck you and them too.
  But my job and my house. Fuck you. For me it's my kids and my family and my friends. My trauma kit is stocked and my gun cabinet full and ready should I or anyone else need to do your fucking job because you have to go to work.
  Asshole.
- Standing in a street with a sign isn’t going to fix this.
  People often say that. But standing in the street with a sign can be the first step in encouraging and recruiting people to do some actual resistance. The power of protest is that it brings people together and shows them others are also willing to show their discontent. From there, you can build your networks and move on to other things.
- Guns. Americans own lots of guns. You have the 2nd amendment that is exactly to be used for just this sort of thing.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Rifle_Association
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redneck_Revolt
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_P._Newton_Gun_Club
- Standing in a street with a sign isn’t going to fix this.
  75 million people standing in a street with signs would be a start.
  75 million people blockading government buildings, preventing the Nazis from doing their job would definitely help.
  How many people protested Vietnam? How many people were involved in the Stonewall riots? For fuck's sake, how many people were involved in the January 6 attempted coup? They may have been fascist thugs, but they got things done instead of sitting around saying "I can't do anything, it's the government's fault!"
  FUCKING ACT! If signs don't work, then get more signs. Barricade government buildings. BREAK THE FUCKING SYSTEM and stop whining about it!
  
  You mean 75million people typing "don't blame meeeee, I didn't vote for the guy" won't make a difference?
- So, in your fury, what would you suggest?
  Get organized and ramp up your activism, whatever kind fits your life and priorities.

153 comments