‘No friend anymore’: Days from a national election, Canadian voters focus on the US relationship
Tariff threats. Talk of making Canada the 51st state. Derisive references to the prime minister as governor. “It’s very insulting,” Smith says, before showing off the maple leaf earrings she chose for CNN’s visit “because I love Canada.”
The Trump effect is easy to find. There are more Canadian flags flying. “Proud Canadian” placards in windows. And, importantly, a very different tone and tenor as voters here prepare to pick a new parliament and prime minister.
Smith and Strain are just two examples.
Both are traditionally Green Party supporters. But both told CNN they are all but certain to vote Liberal Party next week because they know the Greens won’t win enough seats to pick the prime minister. The Liberals do have a shot, and Smith and Strain want the winning party to have as big a mandate as possible.
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Every Canadian to whom we spoke, on this Ontario visit and on
a trip to British Columbia a few weeks ago, characterized this campaign as a crossroads moment.
Canada’s government, they say, needs to increase its military spending and find new economic markets and partners. Canadians should double-check at the grocery store and buy Canadian over American whenever possible. And both alike should rid themselves of the idea that Canada’s neighbor to the south is a reliable friend with shared values.
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“We’re just sick of him,” Gorman said of Trump. “And it has only been three months into the term. It’s, he’s going to annex us. He wants to crush us economically. At first it was kind of like losing your best friend. You know, ‘What’s happened? What is happening?’ But now I think we are at the point where it’s like, we can move on.”
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Peter Hamilton is a lifelong conservative and hopes the Conservatives come out on top when the votes are counted next week. But he has seen the historic swing in the polls: a 25-point Conservative edge in January has evaporated, and the late polling shows a modest Liberal advantage.
“The bottom line is the liberals and conservatives got to work together here,” Hamilton said. “They can’t be nitpicking and arguing amongst each other. We have to work together to make this country go – go ahead.”
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Hamilton is 75 and has had the farm for 54 years, after also working in home construction. He has seen a lot. But nothing like this. Like most Canadians we met, he could not fathom why Trump decided to take the relationship from neighborly to nasty.
But he also isn’t one to dwell and believes the Canadian election is a key step for a country he says needs to reassert its independence and stress its manners.
“There is no friend anymore,” Hamilton said of the United States. “The biggest thing in Canada is we have friends all over the world. How many friends does America have right now?”
