Canada: Canada First

ZEIT ONLINE Canada: Canada First David Denk • 6 hours • 3 minutes read Trump's US policy is awakening a previously unknown feeling in Canada, its friendly neighbor: anger. A nationalism is also emerging that is more self-defense than ideology. Together against Trump: The US President's economic and expansionist policies are creating a new sense of unity in the neighboring country. Anyone who wants to book Canadian comedian Matt Puzhitsky can simply send him an email. The address is on his website. He apparently doesn't have a management team, although it's quite possible that he'll need one soon. Puzhitsky may not be a big name in his industry (yet), but he's become a minor hero to his nation since posting a video online in which he explains how Canada will surely win the trade war against the US: by banning US users from the streaming platform Pornhub, one of the most visited websites in the world. The porn site is owned by Aylo, formerly Mindgeek, a Canadian company. Puzhitsky's video has been liked more than 350,000 times on Instagram and shared more than 500,000 times. How sensible or practical his proposal is is secondary; what matters is that it strikes a nerve in a country that seems hell-bent on not being crushed by the US administration under Donald Trump, let alone annexed as the 51st state. This is underscored by retaliatory tariffs on US goods in response to Trump's various, now partially withdrawn, threats. Canada will "never, in any way, shape, or form, be part of the United States," said the new Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, in Ottawa on Friday after his swearing-in, responding to statements by Trump, for whom the nearly 9,000-kilometer border between the two countries is merely an "artificially drawn line" and thus a bargaining chip. Canada is a proud country and, not least, proud to be the better America, with a social market economy and universal health insurance – more than ever since Trump's return to the White House. We expect respect from the USA, added the new Canadian Prime Minister Carney in his inaugural address, but at the same time expressed hope to find ways to cooperate with the Trump administration. This dialectic is necessary because Canada needs the USA more urgently than vice versa. Our southern neighbors are by far the largest buyers of Canadian exports. A trade war with the USA would have far-reaching consequences. If Trump follows through on his tariff threats, economists say a recession is inevitable. So the country is fighting back as best it can, removing American products from supermarket shelves and promoting Canadian ones instead. To help consumers find them, there are online directories and apps that allow you to determine their origin based on the barcode. Even the Americano is now called the Canadiano in coffee shops from Vancouver to Toronto. Courage to Be Angry A central figure in the new movement is Wab Kinew, Premier of the province of Manitoba, a member of one of Canada's more than 600 First Nations, and a social democrat with no qualms about patriotism. "We will be here long after Donald Trump leaves office. We will be here as Canada," he recently posted on X. And, alluding to a hockey tournament between Canada and the US that resulted in boos and physical altercations in mid-February, he said: "We know when the time is right for a real fight." Kinew's counterpart from Ontario, Doug Ford, even announced that he would first significantly increase the price of electricity to millions of households in Michigan, New York, and Minnesota and later possibly cut it off altogether, "with a smile on my face." A spiteful phrase one would rather expect from Trump, especially since Canadians are known for their friendliness, just as they are for ice hockey and maple syrup. But in light of the threat posed by Trump's economic and expansionist course, they are discovering an unfamiliar emotion within themselves these days: anger. Within just a few weeks in office, US President Trump has managed to drive apart neighboring countries, so closely linked historically, economically, and culturally, and bring Canadian society together. In doing so, a brand of nationalism is emerging that is more self-defense than ideology, situational rather than structural, and therefore appears significantly less threatening than the movements it