From tariff threats to public jabs, why it seems Trump won’t leave Canada alone

From tariff threats to public jabs, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly turned his attention toward Canada, and he just can’t seem to stop talking about his northern neighbour. 

The disputes have ranged from threatening to block the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge unless Canada handed over concessions, to accusing Canada of contributing to wildfire smoke drifting into the U.S., to new 50 per cent tariffs targeting about $28-billion worth of Canadian goods.

Recently, Trump’s response to the wildfire smoke has taken a more theatrical turn. 

After threatening to retaliate with tariffs over what he called Canada’s “wilful negligence” in handling the fires, Trump shared an AI-generated image on his Truth Social account on Saturday showing a massive air filter along an apparent border between the two countries.

Washington correspondents Willy Lowry, Katie Simpson and guest host Mike Crawley dig into what may be fuelling this ramped-up focus on Canada and what it might take to turn the page.

We’ve included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. Listen to the full podcast discussion here.

Katie Simpson: It seems like lately Canada can’t really seem to catch a break when it comes to Donald Trump. 

Willy Lowry: Yeah, Canada is the proverbial punching bag for him. I think he sees [Canada] as low-hanging fruit without a whole lot of political cost, and he likes stoking fires, he likes poking fun, it’s part of his personality and some of it even resonates with the base. They like the tough macho talk that he can put forward towards Canada. 

Katie Simpson: In the U.S., when Trump goes off about Canada, there is a certain part of his MAGA base that is really in tune with it. 

I’ve done a lot of Republican-base stories to get a sense of how people are feeling. [I] go to North Carolina, go to Texas, go to other places, and you introduce yourself, ‘I’m a reporter from Canada, we’re here to do a story about X, I’m wondering if we could get your opinion about something,’ and [with Canada], they usually bring up a few things. 

One, they bring up the convoy protest in Ottawa because it is something they got picked up within the alt-right sphere in America, particularly when the Canadian federal government was freezing bank accounts. 

The other thing that has come up more recently is the Alberta separation movement, and one gentleman I interviewed referred to Albertans as ‘snow Texan,’ and said ‘We welcome the snow Texans, please join us.’ They see Canada as a place where people’s rights and freedoms are being trampled on [and] think that people in Canada need help or to be liberated.

Mike Crawley: There’s also this idea that Canada is, to Katie’s point about trampling on people’s rights, that it’s a bit of a liberal bastion that is too woke and it’s what would happen if the Democrats had their way in the U.S. — that they would turn it into another Canada with all of those kinds of woke things that the American right doesn’t like.  

Willy Lowry: Canada bashing is not going to lose Trump any votes, right? So he gets to look tough, look strong, look like he’s carrying out his tariff-first-economic-policies agenda with relatively little repercussions for him.

Katie Simpson: Is there any one thing that Canada can be doing in this moment other than trying to have conversations [and] move trade talks along? 

Willy Lowry: It’s that British World War Two moniker: Keep calm and carry on.