In a typically quiet way, Canadians are uniting against Trump

No one is talking an outright boycott, but we are choosing other options

Boycott is one big, loaded word.

There is no American boycott underway in this country — it would be futile, foolish and ultimately counterproductive.

But something is happening. If Canadians are, in a typically understated way, spending their vacation dollars at home, taking a few extra moments at the grocery store to determine where that ketchup was made or buying Ontario rather than California wines, a national statement is being made this summer.

It is a statement made quietly and individually, but it appears to be a statement nonetheless. It is not an anti-American statement. Too many of us have friends and family in the United States.

But it is an anti-Donald Trump statement, an acknowledgment that many of us would just feel better in our own skin if we chose not to drop our money in a country that seems generally inhospitable and is governed by a man who has insulted and threatened this country and promised us economic pain.

He has taken our history as a reliable and supportive ally and turned us into a security threat.

His steel and aluminum tariffs may just be the start as he has threatened worse with an auto tariff that will bring grave pain to this country, particularly Ontario.

A boycott is usually defined as a “concerted refusal” to deal with a country, a product or an institution to force “acceptance of certain conditions.”

It is not a boycott to decide to holiday in New Brunswick rather than Maine.

If I decide to forego an annual baseball and beach jaunt to the U.S., or as TVO’s Steve Paikin wrote, the U.S. doesn’t deserve his money, or Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson or NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh courteously decline an invitation to a July 4 party thrown by the U.S. ambassador in Ottawa, we are not bringing the White House to its knees.

Nobody shouted their decisions from the barricades. We’re not boycotting. We are making individual decisions.

No opinion leader in this country, to my knowledge, has stood at the Ambassador Bridge and implored those with Ontario license plates to turn around, or demanded grocery chains stop stocking Pennsylvania made licorice Twizzlers.

The Trudeau government has rightly countered American tariffs with its own $16.6 billion of targeted tariffs on U.S. exports, but neither Trudeau nor Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland have told Canadians to stay home or to boycott American products and neither of them ever will.

Their job is to find a solution for Canadian workers, not build to a ‘Love Actually’ moment in which Trudeau channels Hugh Grant to Trump’s bullying Billy Bob Thornton.

But with Trump now hectoring Canada and other allies about defence spending ahead of next week’s NATO summit in Brussels, another front of friction has opened.

With Trump talking about stalling NAFTA renegotiations until after the U.S. November mid-terms and new Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador not officially taking office until Dec. 1, trade and tariff pain can now bleed into a Canadian election year.

There is a sentiment in this country — although it could be short-lived — that can be harnessed by a government appearing to stand up to the bully.

A Nanos Research poll published by The Globe and Mail Thursday showed 73 per cent of respondents were “likely or somewhat likely” to stop or cut back travel to the U.S.

Another 72 per cent said they were “likely or somewhat likely” to stop buying American products and 68 per cent said they were “likely or somewhat likely” to stop purchasing goods from U.S. retailers.

Trudeau can’t openly encourage such behaviour, but he need not discourage it.

On Canada Day, he visited Leamington, Ont., where tomato paste used in French’s ketchup is made, then headed to a Regina steel refinery. He spoke of Canadians standing up for each other in times of need.

He will visit Canadian troops in Latvia ahead of Brussels to highlight our NATO efforts.

No Canadian leader needs fear a misstep if he or she promotes Canadian industry, protects Canadian jobs or advocates buying Canadian.

There is a resurgent pro-Canadian voting vein to tap, but first there will come pain from trade actions.

How Trudeau and his Liberals manage and mitigate that pain looms large in 2019.