On every Québec license plate are three words: Je me souviens. I remember. The phrase speaks to a history, identity and determination not to forget who they are.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney was right to walk away. Americans should stop demanding Canada drop its French language requirement and learn to treat our biggest trading partner and closest ally with respect.
No nation has been a better friend to the United States than Canada. We share the world’s longest peaceful border, deeply integrated economies, military alliances, energy infrastructure, families, culture, and a fundamental belief in democratic values.
And yet the U.S. is treating Canada like an adversary to be bullied into submission. After months of increasingly hostile negotiations, we are imposing 50% tariffs on $20 billion in Canadian goods. And they are responding with dollar-for-dollar retaliation.
This isn’t winning. It’s self-inflicted damage. And just plain stupid.
Canada and the U.S. conduct $880 billion in trade each year. Our manufacturing, agriculture, energy and defense industries are intertwined. Tariffs imposed on Canadian products don’t just punish Canadians — they raise costs for American businesses and consumers.
More troubling is the damage being done to something harder to rebuild: trust.
Canadians have endured repeated threats and insults, including suggestions that their country should become America’s 51st state. During a visit last year to the Haskell Library that straddles the international border in Vermont, Kristi Noem hopped across the line while joking “51st state!” Is there a bigger insult?
The stain of the Trump administration’s false fentanyl claims, repeated slights and belligerent negotiation tactics will undermine relations for generations to come. Ils se souviendront. They will remember.
Someday this political moment will pass. The tariffs can be removed and agreements rewritten. But memories endure. Great nations do not prove their mettle by humiliating friends. They strengthen alliances, keep their word, and recognize that respect creates more lasting influence than intimidation.
To all Canadians and especially our Québécois neighbors, know that most Americans understand what your friendship means, even if ours in return has been unreliable. We will remember, too. #LakeOntario
Ted Barber
Northampton