Trump has completed the unimaginable and turned Canada patriotic | EUROtoday
It was a scene few had ever witnessed. As the opening phrases of “The Star-Spangled Banner” have been sung by Elizabeth Irving in Vancouver’s Rogers Arena earlier than a Tuesday evening hockey sport between the Canucks and the Colorado Avalanche, the group erupted in boos. Those boos continued all through the track, and solely abated when she started her rendition of “O Canada.”
On the identical evening, an identical scene performed out because the NBA’s solely Canadian franchise — the Toronto Raptors — hosted the New York Knicks.
It was a pattern that started at NHL and NBA video games on Sunday and has clearly caught. The loudest reactions got here on Sunday, a day after Donald Trump ordered his now-paused 25 p.c tariffs on all Canadian items, in addition to 10 p.c tariffs on vitality imported from America’s northern neighbor.
They have been accompanied by an enormous push to “buy Canadian” throughout the nation. Lists of cereals, bread, alcohol and meat and fish which are licensed Canadian (usually denoted by a maple leaf on the label) have been revealed in Canadian media and shared round X, Instagram and Reddit. Many Canadians introduced they meant to boycott American-made merchandise on the similar time.

Tariffs have been paused for a month by Trump after Canada and Mexico each imposed retaliatory tariffs — and Trudeau and Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum each introduced measures to strengthen their borders with the U.S. not lengthy after the pause.
The pause hasn’t stemmed a surge of Canadian patriotism. And why ought to it? Immediately after Trump touted his apparently well-negotiated cope with Trudeau, tweeters have been fast to level out that a lot of the border plan had already been introduced in December 2024.
“Trump is a laughingstock thanks to Trudeau,” wrote one Redditor, sharing a meme of Trudeau on a cellphone name to Sheinbaum. “So I offered him what we’ve already been doing and he dropped the tariffs!” says the speech bubble above Trudeau. A laughing Sheinbaum replies: “Same!” The meme had 45,000 upvotes in 24 hours, making it the fourth-most shared publish on r/AsokayCanada of all time.
The three extra fashionable posts above it have been additionally all about Trump: one a much-shared cartoon that includes a warmly-dressed, axe-carrying Canadian man yelling, “This is CANADA!” and kicking a shocked Trump again throughout the border (47,000 upvotes); the opposite two are posts accusing any Canadian of supporting Trump of being a “traitor” (53,000 and 83,000 upvotes respectively).
Meanwhile, the Canadian unbiased media firm Made In Canada — beforehand solely involved with popular culture and sports activities information — was busy providing 25 p.c reductions for Canadians to promote with them and tweeting out photos of hoodies emblazoned with the slogan “CANADA STRONG.”
Even Canada’s beleaguered prime minister appears to be seeing a modest uptick in assist after his cellphone name with Trump. Following the proliferation of “Trump got played” reactions, Trudeau and the Liberal occasion began seeing some restoration within the polls, having been battered for months by unfavourable approval scores. A PM who appeared politically lifeless within the water, hated as a lot by his personal voters as by the opposite facet, seems to have managed to claw again some credibility after being gifted a golden alternative to posture by Trump.
A few weeks in the past, I had a back-and-forth over e mail with Rupa Supramanya, an Ottawa-based reporter, about why so many younger Canadians had reacted surprisingly positively to the concept of changing into America’s “51st state.”
Supramanya talked about one thing that caught with me: “Americans have a positive sense of who they are centered around their culture and history,” whereas “many Canadians, especially on the left, identify themselves as non-American. In other words, Canadian identity is ‘we’re not American,’ which is a negative and fragile sense of who they are.”
It seems that “we’re not American” may very well be sufficient. Sure, it’s fragile whenever you’re merely standing up for politeness and decency, even a greater method to well being care. But whenever you’re defining your self in opposition to a person who’s glad to crash the worldwide financial system for a soundbite and who simply claimed he’s going to purchase Gaza? “O Canada” begins sounding a heck of much more melodic.
There are some on the opposite facet. An X account that calls itself Canadians For Annexation has been working for the previous month — however it solely has 3,100 followers, and never all of them appear supportive. Meanwhile, different accounts are sharing photos of “Canadian Traitor” medals at hand out to those that would be part of America.
“Would you fight the US if it came to it?” one Reddit poster requested two weeks in the past, alongside a picture of the American Revolutionary War. The top-voted remark was an Emiliano Zapata quote, written in each English and French: “I’d rather die standing than live on my knees.”
The most upvoted reply? “Great quote. I’m a Texan, and consider myself a U.S. patriot in my own way, but I hope, if it comes down to having to fight a fascist takeover, you and I can be allies.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-canada-american-national-anthem-booed-b2692835.html