A Lament for Canadian Nationalism

To confront Trump’s threats, Canada needs to once again find acommon purpose

- By Robert Schertzer

MANY CANADIANS, and Americans, have wondered why Donald Trump is threatening a trade war with the U.S's closest ally-but we only need to listen to him to understand. The tariff threats are his means, but Trump's goal is obvious: to increase American influence in the world. He has said as much, waxing in his inauguration speech about the U.S.'s "manifest destiny" to expand: he wants to take back the Panama Canal, he wants to secure Greenland and he wants to make Canada the 51st state.

This expansionism may seem like a surprising break from Trump's past isolationism, but it's actually in perfect keeping with his politics. Above all else, he's a nationalist, and his nationalism revolves around a set of ideas about who is a "real" American and what threatens them. This was the central theme of his 2016 campaign and his first term, which were anchored by defences of white American identity. He attacked immigrants and Muslims as threats and advocated building a literal wall around the U.S. In 2020, he shifted his attacks to the threat of the "radical" left. And in 2024, he amplified his war against wokeism-and layered economic nationalism with tariffs and the desire to acquire more territory.