Trump’s attacks against Canada have united the country in a way which hasn’t been felt in years. There have been divisions, lately! I’m sure you know what I mean.

Trump’s threats to annex Canada, “joking” about making it the 51st US state, and arbitrarily charging 25% tariffs on Canadian goods imported to the US have forced many Canadians to put aside smaller differences and come together. Quite an achievement and it’s been nice to see. And it’s needed: today, it was reported that in a phone conversation with PM Trudeau last month, Trump wants to “revise” the border between our countries.

The Molson Canadian guy is back and doing the rounds. Stores proudly display Canadian flags on products. Just like Bush said right after 9/11 when urging US citizens to keep shopping, consumerism is apparently the frontlines of patriotism. Shopping is the best way people can defend their country, the most useful expression of patriotism.

Commercially speaking, I’ve seen two significant responses from sellers, both public. The LCBO pulled US bourbon off their shelves. They had already purchased the booze, to be sure, but they only pay for it after it’s been sold [EDIT: No, turns out it is in fact fully paid for already! Richard Southern from City News reported today, ]. This isn’t a hollow gesture and, for what it’s worth, the CEO of Jack Daniels is very angry, calling removing a few of their products “worse” than Trump’s threats to our national sovereignty.

The City of Toronto also banned US companies from bidding on public contracts valued at under $353,000, an odd number to settle at. Lest anyone attribute this to left-wing/communist tendencies from Olivia Chow to Limit Freedom or something weird like that, in keeping with Canada’s newly unified front, Brampton’s mayor, the former conservative party leader Patrick Brown, also launched a Made in Canada policy. Provincially speaking, Doug Ford has also banned US companies from bidding on public contracts.

Will the private sector make any similar response, or just the public? For example, has Loblaws, Metro, or Sobey’s stopped selling California wine or US beer or coolers?

Doug Ford is grandstanding about Canadian pride and resisting Trump, which people across parties find reassuring, but he already handed millions of public dollars to Staples when he decided to close down Service Ontario locations and relocate them inside the US giant. Will he undo that deal? Doubtful.

Doug Ford has pledged, twice, to end the $100-million SpaceX contract signed in 2024, which was extremely suspicious in the first place; at this price, each rural Starlink internet connection costs $15,000. The suspicions was Doug Ford wanted to curry favour with Elon Musk, the Trump “advisor” so influential many call him the “real” president, by putting millions of tax dollars into his pockets.

I wish I could rejoice in our new unity and believe in it. To be sure, this is a genuinely chaotic time and there’s no clear blueprint for what to do now. Seeing the public sector make sacrifices while private conglomerates in Canada like Loblaws put misleading “made in Canada” stickers on US food is discouraging. If private companies here are taking a hit to their bottom line to stand up for the country, it’d be welcome, but I haven’t seen it. That doesn’t mean it’s not happening! But it feels like no accident to me that the most visible response has come from the public side of things.

Doug Ford has always been a hardcore Trump supporter, like his entire family. The family business Deco Labels that his father (Doug Ford Sr.) founded has branch facilities in Chicago, Florida, and Ohio. Doug Ford owned the Chicago division until 2022, selling it to a US investment manager, Ares Management Corporation.

Cancelling Starlink was welcome, but then Ford uncancelled it, before re-cancelling it. As of March 5, 2025, Ford says it won’t be reversed, even if there ultimately are no Trump tariffs. Ford said on Tuesday, March 4, “I want to inflict as much pain as we possibly can until we get to a deal.”

Wait…who is making a deal here, exactly?! Ontario and Trump? Ford and Musk? What deal? A deal for what? How can he say the Starlink deal is cancelled permanently if a hypothetical future deal will open it back up once again?

I have watched Makar ring the puck around the boards to Marner in OT, who played it off his foot and put it into the slot perfectly for McDavid to beat the US, hundreds if not thousands of times. I’m on Team Canada, baby. I loved cheering for Bruins super rat Marchand way more than I thought I would, and I even loved cheering for Florida Panthers Sam Bennett, previously a gutless thug who injured a surging Matthew Knies in game 2 of our 2023 second-round playoff series without even getting a minor roughing penalty.

Honorary Team Canada captain Wayne Gretzky’s patriotism is under suspicion, justifiably, amid all his historical Trump ties and more recent overt gestures to support Team USA before and after the gold medal game. (Gretzky entered the ice from the US bench without wearing a Team Canada jersey or even a pin, unlike his counterpart, Miracle on Ice legend Mike Eruzione, who proudly wore a US jersey. Then, 99 gave a thumbs up only to the US players. After the game, 99 gave Team Canada players MAGA-red hats with the word “Great” on them, and, in case there was any doubt, “47” stitched on the side, Trump being the 47th president.)

I put my considerable difference aside for Sam Bennett because that guy went hard for Team Canada. I welcome how Trump’s threats to our sovereignty have at least united Canadians across the political spectrum. But unlike Gretzky, amid this outburst of patriotism, some in Canada siding with Trump will be wrapped in a Canadian flag head to toe.

Doug Ford…I still don’t trust him.