I AM CANADIAN

Patriotism is back, baby.

Oh Canada.

As I write this post, the American President is musing about taking Greenland, Panama, Canada, and more. The list is long, it’s hard to keep track. His casual remarks about Canada have had an unlikely effect. They’ve awakened something dormant in our national psyche: Canadian Pride.

And as Canadians, what do we do? Five of our former Prime Ministers—crossing political party lines, have written a joint statement asking us to fly the flag this weekend. It happens to be the 60th anniversary of our national flag on Saturday, the red and white Maple Leaf. 🇨🇦

Yep, America’s President is threatening our sovereignty and we’re going to fight back by collectively raising our flag—on our homes, our driveways, backpacks, cars and digital accounts.

Doesn’t that sound just like us? Quintessentially Canadian. You guys come in with threats and tariffs a-blazing, and we say, “Sorry, not today. We’re Canadian. And here’s our flag to prove it.”

This ad from 25 years ago—the famous Molson Canadian "I Am Canadian" rant— has been dusted off and is currently making the rounds. Ironically, a product that may not be available to our American friends soon, along with eggs, ketchup and car parts.

The U.S. President is threatening tariffs for reasons that are only known to him, because the reasons he gives don’t make sense. They’ll hurt American citizens as much as they will damage the Canadian economy. So, I guess we’re all in this together?

But something unexpected is happening in response up north. Walk into any grocery store across Canada, and you'll see a remarkable shift. We're scrutinizing labels not for ingredients but for origin. Grocery stores are adding prominent signage to highlight Canadian-made products.

This trade tension has evoked a fierce sense of loyalty that spans from coast to coast, even uniting French and English Canada—a feat that's historically been hard to achieve.

The Premiers of each Province in Canada are musing about the retaliatory measures they’ll take if the 25 percent tariffs come into play. In Ontario, Premier Doug Ford is prepared to rip up a $100 million Starlink contract with Elon Musk’s company, evoking an “oh well” response from Musk.

All of the premiers are prepared to remove American liquor from stores shelves across Canada. In British Columbia, where I live, our Premier made a point of saying he’d focus on not purchasing American liquor from Republican-led "red states." A nod to our neighbours in California no doubt. “Hello, we don’t want to hurt you guys, after the wildfires and all. You guys are good to keep selling your products here.”

Even in a trade war we’re partial to wanting to be nice. 🤦🏼‍♀️

How did we get here?

Because Americans elected Trump as their President. And this time around, instead of Steve Bannon standing behind him pulling his strings we’ve got Elon Musk.¹ (Who’s mother is Canadian, although it doesn’t seem to have helped him with humility or politeness. He’s quintessentially un-Canadian.)

The one thing that might prevent Musk from getting turfed to the side like Bannon, (or anyone else who took the spotlight away from him in his last presidency), is Musk’s gajillions of dollars.

I can’t help think, Trump will tire of his new boy toy and Elon and his baby minions will get locked out of the Treasury Department, along with all the other government agencies they are currently raiding.

Government raid…I mean downsizing.

I can only imagine what it must be like for the career civil servants, who have spent a lifetime serving the American public. To see pimply faced teenagers, barely graduated from HIGH SCHOOL, let alone university, rampaging through the cubicles, hell bent on getting rid of ‘waste.’

No doubt government is rife with waste and redundancies. Having worked in and with several government ministries, I know there is waste and savings to be had. But, there’s a way to go about doing it, that doesn’t involve the bully in the playground approach of toddlers. (Literally, picture Musk with his toddler in the Oval gleefully reporting on government waste.) I would’ve thought we’d be beyond that, but apparently not.

I have been involved in a few government downsizing operations.

In my case, I was working with a crown agency, the BC Lottery Corporation. There were programs that had ballooned over time, so doing the core review, line by line, gave the agency a chance to give sober second thought to not just programs, but capital assets, property, offices. Everything was on the table.

In the end, major cuts were made, people lost their jobs, and long established programs were cut. Was it necessary to get budgets and costs under control, yes.

No doubt there needs to be some clean up in the U.S. civil service. But, there’s an adult way to do it and then there’s the reality television way. I guess we’re into the reality TV era of the U.S. Presidency.

But, I digress…

As Canadians, we owe a deep thank-you to the American President for shining a giant spotlight on our complacency as a nation. He’s awoken the very best in us.

And while I hope the pain of tariffs don’t hurt workers on either side of the border, I am certain of one thing. I’ll be looking at our Canadian flag with a little more pride this weekend.

Lest we forget. 🇨🇦

P.S. Here’s a video that went viral this past week. This is what life looks like in our grocery stores these days…It’s not too far off!

What say you? I’d love to hear from you:

1. American or Canadian, are you changing your purchasing habits as a result of the potential trade war?

2. What’s up with Elon Musk and the President? How long do you give it before that relationship goes sideways?

3. Looking on the bright side, is there any good that can come out of this sabre rattling, other than renewed Canadian pride?

Photo by Isabel Piñeiro on Unsplash

1. Did anyone else notice the similarities in Trump’s recent press conference with Musk and the one with Bannon after his 2016 election? It felt like deja vu.