So, the first unjust tariff shots have been fired by the aggressor Trump Administration, forcing Canada into an unwanted, unjustified and highly unequal economic war with our until-recently-closely-allied American neighbours. In his excellent article in the March 1 Globe and Mail, columnist Andrew Coyne aptly defines Trump as an inherently unpredictable malignant narcissist, warning us to be on guard for even crazier, more awful actions ahead. I consider it to be a must-read. If you don’t have Globe access, let me know because, as a subscriber, I can share a link with up to 20 people.

The big question is how to realistically stand on guard for Canada in face of Trump’s threat to take over our country. It certainly won’t be by voting no in a referendum, which is a non-starter because Canadians would overwhelmingly reject such a choice. It also won’t be by stationing Canadian Forces at the border, given that the US has a bigger active military than the rest of the world combined. Should Trump take us over by force, we would undoubtedly be occupied for the purpose of making our natural resources available to his billionaire supporters, not as a 51st state since the Republicans would never give some 30 million angry Democratic-leaning former Canadians the vote.
In an economic war, our response can only be economic. The only way to truly deter Mr. Trump is to hurt those billionaire supporters, which means effectively boycotting as many US products and services as humanly possible. That would constitute concrete actions which each and every one of us is free to take.

Speaking for myself, I don’t enjoy the shopping process so have been much too inclined to order from Amazon rather than going out and finding what I need in the local stores or searching for demonstrably Canadian websites. That stops today! Last year I spent close to $2,000 on home maintenance supplies at Home Depot because of its broad selection and it being the nearest such store to my home. From here on in, I’ll consistently drive the extra kilometer to Canadian Tire. For recreation, I’ve been a Kindle user but will now switch to Kobo. While I may hold onto my Amazon account for a while longer in case there are items which I can’t source from Canada or Europe, it will be rarely used and my monthly Prime will be immediately dropped.

We all need better information on which gasoline distributors are American owned, what search engines and other social media aren’t US owned or controlled, and which brand names are used by American as opposed to international manufacturers. Hopefully, other concerned Canadians will now research and publish such information on sites which can be pointed to for everyone’s reference on a purely Canadian website.

For too long, most of us have been focused on what Canada can and should do for us. If we wish to survive as a country, it’s time to refocus on what we can do for Canada.