A Whole Canadian

Some 40 years ago I announced to an auditorium full of students at the American missionary boarding school I was attending that “I am a whole Canadian!” Unlike my three older siblings, who were born in Somalia and carried US passports, I was born in Canada not far from where our Canadian father was raised, and I traveled under a Canadian passport. 

Only later did I learn that US citizenship could not be so easily avoided. Because my American mother spent the first eighteen years of her life in the state of Oregon, I inherited US citizenship automatically. Like it or not I am a dual citizen. I brandish my US passport when I need to enter the United States, and I file US taxes as required by US law, but my political allegiance remains the same as it was for that 10-year-old boy: I am a whole Canadian. 

And so it is with considerable dismay that I watch the US president threaten a (now postponed) trade war intended to wreak havoc on his country’s closest ally under the false pretext of enhancing border security and the false claim of a trade deficit, but with the apparently serious aim of annexing Canada (!).

• On enhancing border security as a pretext: The amount of Fentanyl passing through the Canadian border into the US is a tiny percentage of the total. Trump will not say what changes have to be made for the threat of tariffs to be lifted: “Figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) show the agency [seized 19.5 kilograms](https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/drug-seizure-statistics) of fentanyl at the northern border last year, compared to 9,570 kilograms at the southwestern one.” (Source)
• On a so-called trade deficit: “Trump is fixated on the Canada-U.S. trade deficit, which is largely driven by American demand for cheaper Canadian oil. When oil exports are excluded, the Americans actually have a trade surplus with Canada, according to Canadian government data.” (Source)
• On the economic impact of 25% tariffs: “The Canadian economy is set to face the most severe shock since the COVID-19 pandemic and will probably sink into a recession if a tariff war persists, say top economists.” (Source) 
• On Trump’s desire to make Canada the 51st state: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6633776

It occurs to me that Trump’s bullying might stem from genuine ignorance as well as malice. He may not realize that Canadian identity has historically been formed by its opposition to the United States. Why wouldn’t Canadians want to join the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave? An answer from someone who has lived in both countries, as well as Africa, Europe and the Middle East: Let me count the ways. 

There is precedent for Trump’s behaviour—none of it good: In 1866 “a bill to annex Canada was introduced in the U.S. Congress” (Source). Thanks to the aftermath of the American civil war, it never came to a vote. No coincidence that Canadian confederation occurred one year later, in 1867. More recent precedent includes Germany’s annexation of of German-speaking Austria in 1938, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

To my American friends: This isn’t right. Please say something, at least in prayer.

As a Christian, Trump’s threats to my own nation prompt a different sort of reflection:

• What does it mean to love my enemy? 
• What does it mean to affirm that my primary political allegiance is to the one who is “Lord of all” (Acts 10:36; see Phil 3:20)?
• I’ll be honest here: Evangelical American support for first-term Trump was a faith-shaking sucker punch to the gut. What does it say about the Truth I affirm when so many who profess it are so quick to believe lies? How can those who claim to be concerned with character and morality follow someone who cares not a wit for either of these things? … What, then, does it mean for me to treat my misguided co-religionists as brothers and sisters?