Dear Editor,
It is just another case in point Donald Trump uses tariffs to punish those he doesn’t like. Ending trade talks with Canada, one of our biggest trade partners, fuming over them airing video of Ronald Reagan opposing tariffs and supporting free trade. As if trying to censor Canada, like he tries to do with us. So he lashed out and hits them with higher tariffs once again. First when they pushed back and said, “Canada is not for sale,” that they, “will never be our 51st state,” in response to Donald’s taunts and threats to annex them (a sovereign country) as he has done with Denmark’s Greenland as well as Panama.
Showcasing how he uses tariffs to weaponize against leaders of countries that won’t let him bully and control them. It’s bad enough he does it with us but to bully and threaten Canada is unthinkable. We’ve had a good relationship for decades and we’ve always been able to depend on them. They came to our defense when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and fought side by side in WWII. They came to our aid during national disasters because that’s what Canadians do. We’ve always shared our resources and even shared for over 100 years a library that sits on the border between Canada and New York. But sadly not anymore. Trump put a stop to that when he ordered the doors on the Canadian side to be permanently locked. Even though there has never been any evidence of drugs or human trafficking in this little library. Just more of Trump’s ways to divide and isolate us.
Like Putin does with Russia. And like Russia our tourism industry has drastically dropped (another cut to our economy) because vacationers from other countries including Canada fear they will be disappeared by Trump’s ‘secret police’ (ICE) in these chaotic raids and brutal abductions that’s gone viral worldwide.
Shaming our country that once was a beacon on the hill, is now feared. If they can shoot a man of the cloth in the head with a pepper ball while praying in front of an ICE facility or tear gas a children’s parade or terrorize families while out trick-or-treating with ICE agents showing up in horror masks running SUVs up on sidewalks and lawns acting like teenage hoodlums or schools go into lockdown when ICE is prowling around outside school grounds or smashing windows and destroying communities and randomly rolling down their windows and pointing their guns at citizens. And doing all of this without any due process, shooting first and not asking questions. The U.S. is not a safe place for anyone let alone a visitor. Unlike today, since Trump’s been back in office. Americans and Canadians have embraced each other as sister countries and have shared the same belief in the matters of free trade that it’s best for all of us. But not Trump because he wants to have the upper hand in everything regardless how unfair. And the point is this. He is dividing our two countries like never before by a president. Just as we have seen Putin do with Russia and Ukraine. When a country bullies a neighboring country often it doesn’t end well.
Whatever differences there are it can never be resolved by bullying. But Donald J. Trump seems to know of no other way that time and again he shows that he is a divider not a unifier. Nor smart enough to know we are lucky to have Canada as one of our neighbors and that we have always had each other’s back knowing we are better and stronger when we work together.
In the meantime while Trump digs in wanting Canada as our 51st state and sulks over the Reagan clip Canda’s PM says his door is open when Trump is ready to talk. But hopefully the SCOTUS will determine Trump’s tariff war on countries is illegal. And agree with what Reagan had said, “Trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer.” That free and fair trade should be the goal. Not out of control tariffs used out of spite.
J.M.
