Goodbye, America. We didn't want this.
Your abuse has become intolerable.
The hour of reckoning has finally arrived. Today, the United States has imposed 25% tariffs against both Canada and México, with a lower 10% tariff on energy. Donald Trump has explicitly stated that his goal is to use economic force to weaken and subjugate Canada, so that we can be annexed against our will.
While the term “51st State” is thrown around, Canadians understand the truth; we see how America disenfranchises millions of her own citizens in D.C., and Puerto Rico, and Guam, and every other territory stripped of Congressional representation.
Your new emperor does not wish to make us a state; he wishes to make us subjects. And indeed, I suspect that going forward, he does not plan to allow fair and democratic elections in any of your fifty states.
It is you, the people of America, to which I address this open letter. Geography made us neighbours, and history made us cousins. But our alliance, our friendship, was never guaranteed. It was something we chose…and now you spit upon it.
Indeed, for much of Canadian history, we have not been good neighbours. Before Canada’s founding, in the War of 1812, our troops captured and occupied D.C., burning down the Capitol and the White House. Your anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, recognizes our bombardment of Baltimore during this war.
In 1867, America threatened to conquer the continent under the banner of Manifest Destiny, purchasing Alaska and explicitly calling it their first step. Ontario, Québec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick would join together to form the four provinces of Canada just a few months later, to protect themselves from Yankee ambition.
This, Canadian Confederation, the process by which we united to become one nation, was directly influenced by the threat that America posed. In 1911, when the Liberals attempted to pass free trade, it was so unpopular that the Conservatives pummelled the Liberals in that year’s election, promising “no truck or trade with the Yankees.”
While the aftermath of World War One would bring our relations to a cordial state, we fought again, viciously, in 1930. In a bout of sheer irony, the cause of this strife was America’s choice to impose broad-sweeping tariffs in an attempt to weaken us, much the same as your emperor has chosen to do today.
It was only after World War Two, only after our shared sacrifice in saving democracy and freedom from the terror of Adolf Hitler, that our friendship truly began. And in the decades since, Canada and America have accomplished wonders together.
Deeper integration with the United States benefitted both our economies, creating massive markets for trade and growth. We are both wealthier and more prosperous because of everything we have shared.
And in both World Wars, in the Korean War, and in Afghanistan, Canadian and American troops fought together, they bled together, and they died together. We died fighting for what we believed was common purpose, and despite my cynicism, I believed the bond we had forged to be unbreakable.
But I was a fool. We were all fools. The greatest mistake that we Canadians have made, was believing that any Yankee could ever be trusted.
You Americans have chosen fascism, eagerly, without hesitation. You have chosen to give yourselves over to a demagogue. And you have crowned an emperor, because you despise democracy, you abhor freedom, and just as much as your Yankee souls crave the opportunity to subjugate others, you have an even deeper, more perverse desire to subjugate yourselves.
If you are one of the Americans who supported Trump’s rise to power, either directly through him or the Republican Party, then you are an enemy of the Canadian people, and your life is without value to me. Do not ask for our pity, because you deserve none.
When Canada shuts off the flow of energy and food to America, and you are plunged into darkness and cold and hunger, I will not weep for you, only for your children, whom you have condemned to share your fate.
If you are a Democrat: You have failed, completely. You have either ignored Trump’s threats to annex my home, you have downplayed them as a “distraction”, or you have tacitly danced around supporting this act of conquest.
From the bottom of my heart: Fuck you. Every single time your ethics are tested, you Democrats refuse to take action against moral justice. Whether you are acting in Palestine or on your own soil, you have proven yourself indistinguishable from your supposed rivals.
The only difference between you and the Republicans is that they freely admit to supporting American fascism, while Democrats lull the world into a false sense of security, like a butcher speaking with a soft voice while holding a knife behind his back. You are both the same, and you are both unworthy of redemption.
But I must draw an important distinction here, because there is a third kind of American. Unlike the Democrats and the Republicans, whom have both fully embraced the ideology of Yankee Imperialism, there are Americans who reject fascism outright, and I believe that Canada must welcome them as we did the Loyalists who fled the American Revolution.
I will end this letter by speaking to you, the Americans who have defected from decadence, who have cast aside the propaganda of Yankee identity, and who wish to fight for true freedom and true democracy, rather than the illusion cast by American oligarchy.
If you believe that there is any future of coexistence between our two peoples, then you must act now. You must take to the streets of America, and turn your words into action so that Canadians know there are still some of you who can be trusted.
As much enmity as I feel towards the United States and their Yankee Empire, I will not harden my heart to Americans who take real, concrete action to overthrow Yankee Imperialism as an ideology. Canadians will undoubtedly benefit from your help, and we have no desire to reject any true allies in our fight to keep our freedom.
But you must act. You must provide your unconditional support to Canada, even if that means you pit yourself against your own countrymen, and your own family.
Because there is no neutrality in the face of the oppressor…and if you do not stand with Canada, then you will be our enemy.
I so deeply resonate with the anger and sentiment you express in this article.