º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½

As we start to feel this pain, the temptation will be to point fingers at one another. The political reflex of the moment is to divide at every opportunity, to use any crisis as a wedge to separate not only one party from its rivals, but also its supporters from everyone else.

This is what Donald Trump wants. He wants us to buy that his tariffs are the inevitable consequence of our border policies, never mind that the flow of fentanyl from our country is a trickle while the flow of guns from his is a flood. He wants us to be distracted by our anger and distrust, to believe that our standing in the world has been so weakened that we have no choice but to accept his terms. He wants us to blame ourselves and each other and acquiesce.

It’s true that we have failed to adjust our posture relative to our most important trading partner, even as it has become capricious and belligerent. We have failed to diversify our trading relationships despite the evident trouble on the horizon. We have failed to ease arbitrary interprovincial trade barriers, update our antiquated industrial strategy or take other measures to make ourselves more self-sufficient. But he is dead wrong if he thinks we have been weakened to the point where we no longer believe that our sovereignty is real or worth protecting.

There’s been much speculation about Trump’s motives. Since the border excuse is obviously bogus, what’s he actually after? If this is, as he claims, also about saving American jobs, it’s a funny way of going about it. Surely part of the actual reason is simply revenue, particularly to offset the costs of the tax cuts he has promised to impose. But key, too, is what he might call the art of the deal. He appears to be after leverage, not just for renegotiating CUSMA, but also to pursue whatever his regime determines is in his country’s (or his regime’s) interests. In other words, he’s trying to bully us — and how we and other like-minded, similarly threatened countries respond will shape the direction of the world in the years to come.

Power has always mattered. But Trump represents power unconstrained by legal or moral guardrails. He believes there is no place for a country such as ours, a middle power that has often been a leader and beneficiary of the rules-based liberal international order, wielding our soft power to change the world, or at least nudge it in a better direction. He sees no value in the peace and order our constitution guarantees. Now the question is whether our commitment to these values and to our shared citizenship eclipses the differences we have become so focused on.

In the days since Trump confirmed his tariffs, we have seen glimmers of hope, an outpouring of something like patriotism, a decidedly un-Canadian sentiment. We have seen leaders from across the political spectrum — Jean Chrétien and Stephen Harper alike — call for unity. We have seen businesses support retaliatory measures and call on governments to support furloughed workers, knowing these will come at a cost. Many citizens have been quick to take matters into their own hands, signing petitions, vowing to boycott American goods and to change travel plans. Justin Trudeau and Doug Ford have both projected resolve and strength, taking strategic and targeted countermeasures, as they should.

These Canadians understand what all of us must now grasp: No one has ever won by appeasing a bully. No one has ever won by negotiating with a knife to their throat. But again and again, battles have been won by those who were counted out, who had no right to survive, never mind thrive, but did because they found strength in each other and a shared commitment to ideals and together did the hard work necessary to overcome. It has never been harder to band together despite our differences, and never more important.