Don’t abandon our struggling U.S. friends

RE: TRUMP PRESIDENCY

Boycotting ‘made in America’ and forgoing Florida beaches etc. is one way for Canadians to respond to Trumpism. But it’s not the only way.

To be sure, tariffs affect our economy, and to those directly affected it’s no small matter. But the real victims of Trumpism are the American people swept up by a contaminant, ugly and destructive. Hard to believe how in two years this worthless huckster has commandeered the mighty American democracy, subverted its principles and brought it to heel. That he was aided and abetted by one-third of the population, a lost and hopelessly disadvantaged constituency, is in itself tragic. Unaware that the press, the courts, fundamental alliances, civil rights, decency, truth, the rule of law are dangerously compromised on a daily basis, this bunch has successfully taken America hostage with amazing ease.

Perhaps Canadians might take the view that this time it is America that is facing an existential crisis, that perhaps it’s our turn to stand with them, to help, to support and to understand. One doesn’t boycott friends fallen on hard times. Perhaps an effective way for Canadians to show support is to summarily reject Trumpism in all its forms here at home. It is lamentable that the Ontario election went the other way.

Peter Schneider, Hamilton