All we need is their friendship?
Oh, Canada!
May 24, 2025
It had been sixty years since I was last in the 1000 Islands region of the St. Lawrence River on the Canadian border. On that first trip in the 1960’s, I was one of a half dozen altar boys traveling in the back (and the “way-back”) of a Ford Country Squire station wagon, driven by one Father Aldo Zullian—Father Aldo to us. Father Aldo was a Dominican missionary priest from Italy, but his home base in the US was in Astoria, Queens. His mission was to recruit young men for the priesthood—and yes, he missed making his quota that year because of me. His recruitment efforts included weekly trips, all summer long with his gang of altar boys, to Jones Beach on Long Island. We would speed out each weekend on the Southern State Parkway jockeying for position on the driver’s side of the car so we could reach out the window to shoot a dime into the toll booth basket with a toy pistol that Father Aldo kept loaded with coins. (Yes, the toll was $.10) We also learned to drive on those summer excursions, on the fifteen mile long strip of Robert Moses’s new highway that ran from Jones Beach east to Captree State Park.
Father Aldo’s activities also included an annual camping trip to Canada, where he would park our teardrop Air Stream trailer at the water’s edge on the St. Lawrence River and he would show us how to build campfires—and to steal seagull eggs from a bird sanctuary on a nearby island, which we would make for breakfast. (They are delicious.) It was quite the adventure for a bunch of twelve and thirteen year olds, and it was for me, the beginning of a lifelong fascination with, and affection for, all things Canadian.
I still visit multiple times each year; our usual destinations are in the province of Quebec. We visit Montreal and Quebec City for long weekends frequently. I have been fishing the Gaspe’s salmon rivers, one day’s drive east of Montreal, for over forty years, and have canoed the black spruce forests of Labrador after being dropped off by a 1950’s Havilland Beaver prop plane. There is a unique attachment to a place that is forged when you stand year after year in the raging currents of their rivers, surrounded by migrating salmon swimming upstream, leaping over rapids and swimming up waterfalls to reach the site of their birthplace where they will spawn again. For a fly fisher, it is an experience that borders on the spiritual. For me, it is spiritual.
Some of the world’s most famous salmon rivers are on the Gaspé: the Matapedia and the Restigouche meet on the southwestern edge of the peninsula to feed into the Bay of Chaleur. You can see more moose in this region along the Quebec / New Brunswick border than just about anywhere in North America. The Riviere St Jean, the York and the Dartmouth are all out on the point near the village of Gaspé. The Bonaventure and Petite Cascapedia, the “Bonnie” and the “Petite”, tumble down out of the Chic Choc Mountains just to the east of the mightiest salmon river of them all, the majestic Grande Cascapedia, known simply as The Grande in salmon fishing circles. The size and speed and gradient of water in the Grande produces the largest and strongest salmon in all of North America. A very impressive but very common thirty-pound Cascapedia River salmon would be the largest salmon is any other North American river. Here, many thirty pounders are brought to net (and released) each year, as are forty and even fifty-pound fish on occasion. Just being on the Grande is an extraordinary experience. Landing a fish is a bonus.
Salmon fishing canoe on the Grande Cascapedia, Gaspesie, Quebec
Perched on a cliff overlooking the mouth of the Grande Cascapedia is Stanley House, the first place that we stayed during our early excursions to fish here. In days of yore—British colony era—one of the perks of being appointed the Governor General of Canada was being granted premier access to the best fishing pools on the river. Access to the salmon pools on these rivers is highly restricted even today. Frederick Stanley served as Governor General from 1888 until 1893, and he built Stanley House, his “fishing camp” at the mouth of the river. That lodge still stands today, but is now a private residence. Lord Stanley is a recognizable name in sporting circles outside of salmon fishing. It is the very same Stanley attached to hockey’s Stanley Cup, a trophy he donated in 1892 to celebrate the top ranked (amateur) Canadian hockey team.
I offer this personal Canadian memoir simply as my bona fides—to express how truly sorry, and angry, I am to witness the current state of affairs between our country and our friends and neighbors to the north. This is very personal for me. After spending last week in Toronto, I am as confused as ever about what we hope to accomplish by starting a trade war with our (former?) allies. All of this is because of one man who does not understand what a trade deficit means, and what it does not. He has also surrounded himself with advisors who dare not tell him the truth.
The impact that these “reciprocal” tariffs are having on US and Canadian businesses was immediately apparent during our visit to Toronto last week. We crossed over the border at mid-day using the Ogdensburg Bridge and traffic was noticeably light. North Country Radio’s Emily Russell reported last week that cross border traffic at the five New York north country crossings was down by 38% last month. We arrived at our hotel in plenty of time for dinner and were immediately greeted with alarming news from our server when we tried to order a cocktail: “86” Tito’s, and bourbon, and any other alcoholic beverage made in America. They have all been removed from all restaurants and liquor stores in Canada.
As an aside, this is the proper usage for “86’ing” something. It means you have none. It means that the restaurant is out of that item. You may have read the Comey “86-47” story earlier this week. Former FBI Director, James Comey, was taken to task by the White House for sharing a social media post that included the phrase “86-47”, which the MAGA crowd claimed was threatening an assassination attempt on Trump (47) and ended up with Comey actually being interviewed by the Secret Service. I guess it was a funny story unless you were James Comey, who had to explain to the Secret Service why he was threatening the President. I’ll assume that nobody in the Secret Service has ever worked in a restaurant, or they would have known better. “86 Chicken Salad” posted at the pass in a restaurant kitchen means the kitchen is out of chicken salad. It does not mean you want to assassinate the chicken. But I digress.
All liquor sales in Ontario and Quebec must be made through the provincial government distribution intermediary, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) in Ontario and the Société des Alcohols du Québec (SAQ) in Quebec. Responding to the new tariffs imposed on Canadian products shipped to the US, the LCBO and SAQ banned the import of all US alcoholic beverages. On a personal note this hits too close to home. If Tito’s vodka is not available, a suitable vodka substitute can usually be found, but if your drink of choice is a bourbon old fashioned, you are completely out of luck. All bourbon must be made, by definition and by regulation, in the United States. Once their current supply of bourbon runs dry, I sense a smuggling opportunity. For the benefit of any federal ATF agent readers, that was a joke. Kind of.
Last month President Trump stated that we do not need Canada, posting this on social media:
“We don’t need their Cars, we don’t need their Energy, we don’t need their Lumber, we don’t need ANYTHING they have, other than their friendship,”
Trump says this in the context of his often stated but totally incorrect assertion that the United Sates is “subsidizing” Canada by $200 billion annually, referring to the trade deficit that he claims we have with Canada. This is baseless on two counts. Our current annual trade deficit is $63 billion, not $200 billion. Much more importantly, neither number would be a subsidy, it just means that we bought more stuff from them, mostly energy products, than they bought from us. This is not a bad thing; in fact it is a very good thing. Much of Canada’s energy exports are “heavy” oil from the Alberta tar sands, which we purchase and refine here, mostly in refineries in the Midwest and along the Gulf Coast. These refineries were designed specifically to refine heavy oil from Canada. Without it we would be dependent, as we once were, on product form Saudi Arabia, and Iraq and other middle eastern countries that hate us. Retooling those US refineries to handle lighter crude would take years, cost billions, and be totally unnecessary. No CEO in their right mind is going to embark on a muti-year, multi-billion dollar refinery retooling, in response to a tariff policy that changes every ninety days. This is insanity. I am old enough to remember when the Canadians were the good guys and the Saudis, and their neighbors, were most definitely not. Now Trump proclaims great fondness for Mohammed bin Salman and the Saudi leadership, along with his new best friends, the Qatari leadership, who shower him with gifts, while he dismisses our neighbors and allies as economic adversaries. How did this happen?
Trump says that we do not need Canada’s autos. How does Trump not understand that the US auto manufacturing business is totally integrated with Canadian parts manufacturers and suppliers. The auto parts manufacturing businesses in Dearborn, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario serve as one integrated assembly line. During the manufacturing of component parts, assembled and integrated into the next step in the assembly process, parts cross the border over and over. Trying to define an “American car” or a “Canadian car” is not possible because in fact, it or its component parts were built in both countries – by design. Early manufacturing facilities in Ontario were built by Henry Ford over one hundred years ago, just a year after he started the company in 1903. The current tariffs are responsible for the layoffs at many of the auto related companies in the Windsor Ontario region, most of which are small businesses which do not have the scale or capital to wait out a resolution to this trade war. All needless chaos sowed by someone who does not understand the economics of international trade.
As we ventured home across the 1000 Island bridge to New York, we drove through the farm county west of our home in the Adirondacks. The snow had only been gone for a few weeks, but farmers were already crossing their fields with tillers and spreaders, applying fertilizers. Potash is the primary source of the potassium in fertilizer, and 85% of US supplies come from Canada, the world’s #1 producer of potash. I think it is a good bet that the number for northern New York farmers is closer to 100%. Care to venture a guess who the world’s #2 producer of potash is? If you guessed Russia, you would be correct. See a pattern here?
Trump’s comments about our “not needing” Canadian lumber are equally misguided and ill informed. Approximately half of US lumber imports are from our neighbors to the north. Replacing that supply with US grown product, if it were even possible, would take years. In the meantime, building industry groups estimate that Trump’s tariffs will add, on average, $9,000 to the construction costs of an average home. Why?
Meanwhile in Canada, we sensed a rising nationalist sentiment that went beyond the pride that Canadians always express for their country and seemed to be testing the famous “Canadian Nice”. “Canada is not for Sale” t-shirts were popular items in stores, as were “Elbows Up” references (It’s a hockey thing). “Not without Canadian Farmers” say the marketing slogans on McDonald’s delivery trucks, a reminder that the products are produced locally. “Proudly selling 1000’s of Canadian Products Every Day” proclaims the window banners in Loblaws, Canada’s largest food retailer. While we were in Toronto, Loblaw’s CEO echoed Walmart’s warning from earlier in the week—US tariff policies are starting to impact product prices, and it is about to get worse.
“Canada is not for sale” shirts at the St Lawrence Market in Toronto, Ontario.
Some observers are suggesting that Trump is starting to “climb down” from his tariff policies, as the White House has nothing to show for their efforts except for the “outlines” of a concept of a deal with the UK, and no small amount of turmoil and chaos in the global markets. I still think that an “Oops, my bad” is not in the cards, but he is not above declaring victory after one or two trade deals are actually signed, and that might be a more likely resolution. I have no idea if the President actually believes that we do not need Canadian energy products or lumber or auto manufacturing capability, or if this is all performative posturing to “close the deal”, whatever that means to him. What I do know is that when he says of Canadians that “All we need is their friendship”, they do not believe him for a moment. With friends like this, who needs enemies?
Do you have any friends in Canada? How are they dealing with the trade war? Do you have a business that is being impacted? How do you feel about it?
Would you tell us about it in the comments section?
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