Why Canada?

Col#294- 8/28/26

WHY CANADA?
By
Richard Davis

Until the Trump era, Canada and the U.S. enjoyed an excellent relationship on many levels. When Trump suggested that Canada become the 51st state he insulted the entire country and the U.S. ended up losing a lot of money in the tourist trade. Things were starting to get a little better this summer until the orange maniac went after Canada again.

His new assault started with a warning to Canadian Prime Minster Mark Carney to stop sending smoke from wildfires to the U.S. That only reinforced Canadian perceptions that Trump is a candidate for involuntary committal to a mental health facility.

If you need more proof that the U.S. president is beyond borderline delusional, he is described by USA Today in relation to the wildfires saying, “”I told him, ‘You’ve got to stop these fires from coming in and poisoning our air.’ Our air’s been poisoned. I have a good relationship with Mark Carney, but we got to stop the fires up there.”

It seemed as though Trump was looking for a reason to go after Canada for reasons that most sane people cannot understand. I suspect that there may be some sort of personal assault to Trump from Canada that we are not privy to. Everything Trump does is about him personally so why should the Canadian fractured relationship be any different.

In Trump’s world, all it would take is one disparaging remark about Trump from any Canadian official to set off a round of trade wars. If this had been playing out with a Europena country he probably would have started a war.

Trump administration officials are citing tariffs that Canada has placed on some American goods as justification for this new trade war with Canada. According to USA Today, “The White House said on July 20 the new tariffs are going into effect due to what the Trump administration called “discriminatory” Canadian trade practices.”

USA Today also noted that, “Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney defended his country’s trade actions in a statement on Trump’s latest tariffs, arguing that Canada has “merely matched” the tariffs and trade policies imposed by the United States.”

Tariffs will include dairy products, hockey sticks and cement, among a long list. Twenty billion dollars of Canadian goods are being assessed a 50% tariff. Canada will not sit by and take these economic strikes by Trump lightly. I suspect the trade war will escalate. Who knows what it will lead to?

Everything in the world of Trump has been unpredictable. People often note that if you had predicted what Trump is doing now 15 years ago people would consider you disconnected from reality. The new Trump reality shows us that nothing is too far-fetched for this severely mentally ill president.

Would he go as far as threatening military action against Canada? One might say that is even a stretch for Trump, but he is so far out of touch with reality and the needs of the American people that he will do anything to soothe a perceived attack on his ego. War is never out of the question for Trump.