- Megan Giles Cooney | Columnist
- Mar 8, 2025
We can all relate to a time when we have hurt someone near and dear.
Life, being life, has consequences; the rules of physics dictate that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
I went to a family wedding in Canada recently and ugh! The overwhelming and prevailing sentiments shared by the Canadian Cooney family over wilting friendliness with the U.S. can be expressed in two words: What and why?
The turbulence of President Trump’s trade tariffs, whenever imposed, will cause economic pain for all cross-border relations. I am concerned our North American neighbors will not recognize us if we continue to squeeze our friends and family unpredictably.
If we continue to agitate with no clear, rational strategy, we soon may no longer recognize ourselves.
My time in Ontario’s Niagara Municipality Region was brief, 48 hours. But the burn felt by Canadians is real, visceral and visible. I saw 18-wheelers emblazoned with red adverts reading “Big Mac? Not without Canadian Farmers.”
A family email chain included a firm call for a boycott of American retailers who have stores in Canada or sell goods there: McDonald’s, Amazon, Starbucks, Walmart, Costco, Home Depot and the list went on.
Call centers for Canadian subsidiaries of American companies are inundated with inquiries about the specific origins of ingredients and the manufacturing of products heretofore involved seamlessly in cross-border transactions.
Personal calls for boycotts are underscored by official ones. A visit to an Ontario Liquor Control Board outlet shows bare shelves where U.S. wines and liquors were yanked. Canada is the largest export market for American wines and Kentucky bourbon.
Doug Ford, premier of Ontario Providence, has vowed to retaliate in every way possible, including cutting off electricity via exported energy to border states “with a smile on my face.” Canada is the largest source of U.S. energy imports.
Canadians are generally quieter and seen as less erratic than Americans in behavior. Visits there sometimes seem sleepy, but the rolling in and out of disruptive tariffs without a coherent strategy is a poke in the eye, awakening our northern neighbors to punitive reality.
It would be a mistake to confuse Canadian kindness with weakness.
On the surface, all seemed fine; the family wedding went on, the bride and groom were gracious, and drinks (non-American brands) flowed. But the slight hesitancy in the receiving line toward the U.S. cousins was perceptible.
Canada’s changed attitude toward America is real. The unfavorable feeling will not be forgotten (or forgiven) any time soon.
Megan Giles Cooney is a columnist for the Traverse City (MI) Record-Eagle. Reach her at megan.cooney1@gmail.com
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