Last Updated on 2026-09-09 22:19 EDT
Ben Woodfinden, writing in the National Post:
A small slice of the Canadian right, the part that has spent a year and a half insisting Trump is not really a threat or wrong in his insults, have revelled in Trump’s mockery of our country with an implicIt “we deserve it” attitude. Canada is a woke, weak, poor and pathetic country in the minds of some of these people that deserve what its getting.
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There is an emerging “blame Canada” camp amongst some conservatives. They seem to think that somehow Prime Minister Mark Carney, because he responded to Trump’s tariffs with our own tariffs is responsible for starting this trade war. They argue that because the Liberals have spent the last while blocking Canada’s resource sector, pushing jobs and investment out of the country, and underinvesting in our military that Trump is right to mock, insult and attack us.
But it goes deeper. For some of these people, they seem to positively delight in the treatment. The dumb things Trump and his sycophants say, especially on social media, should not ultimately concern us. It’s designed to incite a reaction. But the response to it from some quarters is revealing. Last week Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Secretary of War, posted a picture of two young Canadian army cadets because of their weight, just saying “this is real.” The subtext was obvious and fits the now established anti-Canadian sentiment in MAGA land that views Canada as some sort of woke hellhole worthy of mockery. Hegseth was widely condemned but there was a subset of conservatives who delighted in seeing this mockery and cheering it on. These people share the view that Canada is a country deserving of mockery.
Ben Woodfinden: ‘Blame Canada’ conservatives are no better than woke statue topplers