(AFP) – They’re booing the American national anthem, canceling holidays in the United States, and boycotting American products: Canadians are responding to US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats with anger and patriotic spending.
“What Donald Trump is doing to Canada, I find it completely disgusting,” says Huguette Beaudoin. Wandering the aisles of a Montreal supermarket, the 80-year-old stops to look closely at the label on a box of onion soup to determine whether it was made in the United States. For her, like many others, buying American products is now out of the question — even if it means going without certain items. “We have to react,” she says.
Trump, who roared back into the White House this month, had announced sweeping tariffs of 25 percent on Canadian imports to begin Tuesday, accusing Ottawa of not doing enough on illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday said the US levies would be paused for 30 days after he promised Trump he would tighten the border with the United States, appoint a “Fentanyl Czar,” and crack down on money laundering.
But he had initially announced retaliatory tariffs, urged Canadians to buy local, and consider vacationing within Canada instead of the United States. His comments appear to have been taken to heart, with several people in multiple cities who spoke to AFP before the pause was announced saying they would do just that.
Pamela Tennant, who lives in Ontario, had been planning a trip to South Carolina in March but changed her mind, annoyed by the American president’s attacks — including his oft-repeated threat to make Canada the 51st US state. “I’m afraid that Americans will end up believing what Trump says,” she told AFP. “He considers us a bad neighbor. He tells the whole world that we are bad people and that we have taken advantage of them,” but it is “all lies.”
On social media, lists of American products to boycott began circulating widely. Several provinces — including Ontario, which sells almost Can$1 billion worth of US booze annually through its government-run retail stores and to 18,000 local restaurants and bars — said they would immediately stop selling American beer, wine, and spirits in protest. “We didn’t start this fight, but we’re going to win this fight,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on Monday.
The boycott will have an effect on American producers and companies, but Canada remains “a relatively small market” for them, and so it will be “above all symbolic,” commented Julien Frederic Martin, an economics professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). On the other hand, Canadian tourists choosing to go elsewhere “could have a significant economic effect” for American states such as Maine, Florida, California, and Arizona, according to Lorn Sheehan, a professor who specializes in tourism at Dalhousie University.
The United States is the top vacation destination for Canadians, and in 2023, more than 25 million trips were made to the United States for work, leisure, or shopping. Canadian sports fans have also expressed their anger, booing the US national anthem at a Toronto Raptors’ home NBA game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday. Boos were also heard during “The Star-Spangled Banner” at a National Hockey League game on Saturday between the Minnesota Wild and the Ottawa Senators.
“There has always been a latent anti-Americanism in Canada but, with Trump, it has soared,” said Guy Lachapelle, a professor at Concordia University. The current boycott, he added, is directed “not so much against the United States, but more towards the American president.”
– Anne-Marie PROVOST
© 2024 AFP
