A fractured relationship, a serious disconnect

Opinion

The United States’ ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, says he is frustrated by the rhetoric he hears from Canadians regarding our nation’s relationship with the U.S.

The ambassador told a Halifax audience earlier this week that “You ran a campaign where it was anti-American. ‘Elbows up.’ … It was an anti-American campaign. That has continued. That’s disappointing.”

He then complained that too many Canadian politicians are characterizing the fractious Canada-U.S. trade relationship as a “trade war,” and warned the audience that “your cabinet describes this as a relationship that America has turned its back on, and that you are going to respond in a way that says we are at war with America. I think that’s a bad place to go.”

And he also lamented the fact that many provinces are still not selling American alcohol and that Canadian politicians have discouraged travel to the U.S., suggesting Canadians should accept what has happened and move on.

Curious idea, that.

Just yesterday, our sister paper, the Winnipeg Free Press, reported that North Dakota business owners are missing their Manitoba customers and wish they would start spending their money in the state again. The report quotes North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer saying that people who work in his state’s retail and hospitality sectors have told him they are feeling the financial impact of fewer Canadian visitors.

“The relationship matters a great deal to me at a personal level,” he said. “We don’t want to have to go through two (tourism) seasons like this last one.”

The disconnect is staggering. American politicians, business owners and ordinary individuals appear oblivious to the serious harm that U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration have done to the Canada-U.S. relationship. They appear to think that Canadians should just accept the abuse and job losses we have endured since Trump’s inauguration and let bygones be bygones.

If that’s what they are hoping will happen in the near future, they are seriously disconnected from the reality of the situation.

The Ipsos polling company revealed this week that a staggering 60 per cent of Canadians say that we can never trust the Americans the same way again, a percentage that has stayed steady since in February. Even more significantly, 71 per cent believe that the trade and economic disputes we are experiencing with the U.S. will persist for several years and won’t be resolved soon.

Fifty-four per cent of respondents say they believe the Canada-U.S. relationship is “stabilizing” but, based on the other data, that simply means they don’t expect matters to get better anytime soon. To them, the relationship is broken beyond repair.

It is astounding that Hoekstra, Cramer and so many other Americans fail to either comprehend or accept that they cannot behave like thugs on the international stage — on trade and security matters in particular, but also on issues such as immigration and human rights — and not have it impact America’s standing in the international community, let alone its economy.

They don’t seem to understand that they cannot impose crippling tariffs on Canadian exports, while simultaneously threatening to make Canada America’s 51st state, and not think it would impact their relationship with us. Similarly, they cannot threaten to annex Greenland without it impacting their nation’s relationship with Denmark, another NATO ally.

The first step in repairing a damaged relationship is acknowledging the problem. The next steps include admitting your role in causing the rift, apologizing for your actions and changing your conduct going forward.

The Americans aren’t doing that. To the contrary, they see themselves as victims in this drama — and that’s a big reason why so many Canadians believe the relationship is beyond repair, and are avoiding travel to the U.S. and American products.

If Hoekstra, Cramer and their fellow Americans are serious about their desire to restore their nation’s warm relations with Canadians, they should stop treating us as if we are a bunch of thin-skinned sissies. They must reflect on what they have done, or allowed to be done, and how those actions have hurt their nation’s relationship with Canada.

Then they need to stop doing those things and apologize for their conduct.

Sadly, there appears little hope that will occur anytime soon. Until it does, American border-state businesses will continue to feel the pain of our absence.