To My American Neighbours Who Represent The Largest Number of Readers of This Website

This is a departure from my musings about science, technology, society, the past and the future. The newest disruption resulting from the re-election of Donald Trump is about to fall on North America and the economic and social relationship between our two countries. This has not been brought on by something we in Canada have done or are not doing. This is purely an act of malice on the part of the U.S. executive branch trying to bully us.

Canadians are known for saying “Sorry” even when it isn’t called for. Someone bumps into us and we say “Sorry.” On Saturday night at a National Hockey League game played in Ottawa, our nation’s capital, the American national anthem was booed. On Sunday night, in Toronto, at a National Basketball Association game, the anthem was booed again. This is hardly typical behaviour for Canadians.

Most Canadians take a great interest in the United States. We can name your 50 states and most can name their capitals. Most of us follow American news, watch American television, and buy from Amazon.

We are your largest trading partner, importing and exporting hundreds of billions of dollars in goods and services annually. The cars built in Canada contain parts made in America. The cars built in the U.S. contain parts from Canada. Your refineries in Texas use Canadian oil. Electricity flows across the border to keep your lights on. Our links through trade are more north-south than east-west. Our Canadarm robot helps Americans and astronauts from other countries on the International Space Station. A Canadian is one of the crew that will fly on the upcoming Artemis II mission around the Moon.

Canadians winter and own homes in Florida, Arizona and California. Americans own cottages in the Muskoka and Haliburton Highlands of Ontario. We cross the Peace Bridge to cheer for the Buffalo Bills. Our Blue Jays baseball team has minor league franchises in Dunedin, Florida, Manchester, New Hampshire and Buffalo. Canadians flock to these cities to see games.

American-made movies play in our theatres. Canadian actors are often headliners in them. Broadway shows tour our country and shows developed in our country find their way to New York. We read books authored by Americans and you read books by Canadians. Most of the time you don’t even know that the person you are watching on screen or the author you are reading comes from here.

When the wildfires recently enveloped Los Angeles neighbourhoods, Canadian water bombers were dispatched and fire department volunteers from across Canada put themselves at risk on the frontlines to help save American lives and homes.

When Hurricane Milton struck Florida, Canadian utility crews arrived on the scene to help reconnect Florida homes to the grid.

When Tropical Storm Helene struck North Carolina, Canadian volunteers were soon onsite to restore power while others set up emergency shelters to provide material relief to those who lost their homes.

This is what neighbours do in times of need.

I feel fortunate to have a large American reading audience. You represent almost half of those who regularly visit the 21st Century Tech Blog site. Many of you read content from the blog on social media sites. It is to you, my American readers, that I write this message.

The future of Canada and our relationship with the United States is under threat and you need to know why.

The administration of Donald Trump has launched a trade war against Canada and Mexico, the two partner countries with which he negotiated the USMCA Free Trade Agreement in his previous term as President.

Why he’s done this may be because he can, having won the Presidency for a second time. Another reason may be because he once read or was told about William McKinley, the 25th President of your country who presided over the Gilded Age, an era of robber barons when wealth disparity between the richest and poorest in America was at its extreme. Today, it appears that those extremes are once again visible in America with tech billionaires aligning themselves with the Trump administration.

McKinley liked tariffs. He had an “America First” agenda. He also unleashed the Spanish-American War that led to the U.S. “liberating Cuba” from Spain and the acquisition of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. He also annexed Hawaii.

McKinley was an imperial president and his Manifest Destiny credo was copied by his successor, Theodore Roosevelt, who incited and supported a Panamanian revolution to separate the province from Colombia. The bill for American support got them control of the Panama Canal project and zone.

Since McKinley and Roosevelt, no American president has sought to plant the flag of the United States on foreign soil. Trump, however, appears to be following the McKinley playbook. How so?

• He is bullying Denmark to relinquish control of Greenland and even threatening to use military force to achieve his aim.
• He is making similar threats to Panama, reversing the terms of a treaty that the U.S. signed under Jimmy Carter that gave sovereignty of the Canal Zone to Panama.
• He is sending American troops to the borders of the Continental United States in the south. Will this soon be followed in the north?
• He has written on social media repeatedly, and as recently as this weekend, that if Canada agreed to be annexed as America’s 51st state, he would make the tariffs go away.

Canadians will not agree. Canadians may seem like Americans, but we are not. We don’t aspire to lead the world.

In sports, we don’t call a baseball championship the World Series when it is largely played in America except for one city in Canada while baseball is played in many other countries and never invited to compete in this “world championship.”

We don’t declare the winner of the Super Bowl played by American football teams to be “world champions” when professional football is played in Canada, albeit under different rules.

Canadians are NATO and NORAD partners. Canadians serve as United Nations peacekeepers around the world. We don’t have a big army, navy or airforce but we do have a big heart and a desire to serve and help the planet.

So we are not Americans and not “sorry” about this.

If you are unaware, as of Tuesday this week, Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods and services sold to the United States are being countered by Canadian tariffs on American imports. Our tariffs will match Trump’s tariffs in lockstep. Canadians are no longer willing to accept being bumped and bullied while saying, “Sorry.”

What I hope my American readers can do is act in both our countries’ interests by reaching out to elected representatives to remind them that Canada is not America’s enemy and that our sovereignty is not for sale to bullies.

If what I have written here can be of help when contacting your political representatives, please feel free to share it.