BLAME CANADA?!
What used to be a joke has become a menacing threat
At the Oscars in 1999, a classic act had the entire nation laughing. The late comic Robin Williams came out on the stage with a hilarious bit called “Blame Canada.” Blame Canada!
Blame Canada!
Everything’s gone wrong
Since Canada came along
Blame Canada!
Blame Canada!
There were lyrics that referred to serious issues like who gets to own Celine Dion and it was all one big joke, see, because obviously we didn’t have a beef with Canada! The idea of blaming Canada for anything was so absurd that the song was received on both sides of the border as a very funny joke.
Well thanks to our bully-in-chief now occupying the White House, it isn’t funny anymore. The United States is waging economic warfare on Canada, and even worse, the President is doubling down on his menacing message that Canada should become our fifty-first state.
President Trump wrote on social media today, “The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Canadians taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem.”
Canada’s having none of that, and why would they? They’re the ones with universal healthcare, not us. They’re the ones whose schools come in fourth in internationally rankings, while we come in at 22. They’re the ones who, according the US News and World Report. rank in the top 5 internationally in terms of quality of life, while the US ranks anywhere between 13 and 22.
Their newly elected Prime Minister, Mark Carney, made this point right out of the gate. “America is not Canada,” he said. “And Canada never, ever will be part of America in any way, shape, or form.”
Trump justifies his aggressive (and imperialistic) behavior by saying Canada is responsible for a large number of undocumented migrants and a significant amount of fentanyl coming into the United States.
But neither claim is supported by fact.
One per cent of the number of people who crossed into the United States from Mexico came through our northern border in 2024, and only one per cent of the fentanyl in our country came from Canada. By most estimations more drugs (as well as illicit firearms) are flowing from the United States to Canada than from Canada to the United States!
In fact, our relationship with Canada had been a good one until the President decided to pick this fight. We’ve enjoyed the world's most comprehensive trading relationship, supporting millions of jobs in both countries. We’ve been each other's largest trade partners with $2.7 billion worth of goods and services crossing the border each day. Most economists would say, “You don’t mess with that. Take the win!”
Yet the President doesn’t want that win, claiming erroneously that Canada has been taking advantage of us for years. He placed 25% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, then Canada responded with equal tariffs of American electricity, to which Trump responded with a threat of 50 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum. After several tense hours, both sides backed down today. But in no way are things now running smoothly.
If tariffs across the board go into effect at midnight tonight, as the President has said they will, then Canada has made it clear they will respond “firmly and proportionately.” Wall Street has reacted dramatically, and industries on both side of the border are understandably jittery. Our economies are deeply interdependent, and a threat to one carries an inherent threat to the other.
A White House spokesman, in typical let’s-just-deny-the-facts fashion, described all that chaos as “President Trump having delivered a win for the American people.” Yet anyone who values good trade, friendly relations, or mutual respect among nations sees this as a win for no one.
It takes a lot to piss off Canadians, but our President is doing quite a job of it. Economically attacking Canada, even threatening its sovereignty, is more than simply rude. It’s dangerous. And for no good reason at all.
Twenty-five years ago we joked about blaming Canada; today, we’re giving Canada a seriously good reason to blame us.
*Note: I co-hosted RISING today. (I’ll be doing Tuesdays and Wednesdays through the first three weeks in April). here’s the link if you’d like to see it.
As a Canadian I have cherished our relationship with the United States and even too my first trip to Disneyland in 1966 when I was just 5 years old. I continued to have a love for California and bought a vacation home in Palm Springs in 2014.
Once I envied America’s nationalism. Now I am so proud to be Canadian where we calmly and reverently proclaim we are our own proud country never to be assumed by another. Trumps bold mouth run offs are disgusting rampages that no true American should put faith in.
It isn’t our democracy that is at stake as we will never let it. It is yours. And for that I am truly sad.
Can anyone yet not see that this man is completely insane? This is sad and so so terribly embarassing for this country. Virtually every single thing he says and does is something that would have made a good SNL skit or "commercial". Some of it is so ridiculous that it would have gone beyond what would be just ironic enought to be funny (consider the golden sneakers, the coins, the "bubble gum" cards, and most remarkably, the Bibles being sold to raise funds for the bankrup "really really rich" guy.) This is certainly not funny, it is just sick.