Canadians Weigh in on Trump

Canadians unite at Parliament Hill in Ottawa for the 'Elbows Up, Canada!' rally, a non-partisan and family-friendly gathering in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on March 9, 2025.

Listeners north of the border weigh in on the impact of Donald Trump's second term on their country's politics.

Title: Canadians Weigh in on Trump [music]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. For our last minutes today, something we've never done before, have a call-in specifically for Canadians. If you are in or originally from Canada, how has the Trump administration so far made you feel about this country or about that country any differently from a few months ago? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. I'm guessing that we have enough listeners with Canadian roots to fill up our caller board to get a few calls on the air for this specifically.

If you are from or currently in Canada, how has the Trump administration and the way he's been addressing various things about Canada made you feel about this country or that country, Canadians? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. We know you've been feeling the effects of Trump 2.0 pretty strongly up there, for those of you who may be listening from Canada right now. We know that Trump wants to become your president, too.

He's repeatedly expressed this desire to annex Canada and make it the 51st state, furthering this by referring to your former prime minister as Governor Trudeau throughout tariff negotiations. While this all seemed like a joke on the campaign trail, it sometimes feels pretty serious. According to anonymous sources who spoke with the New York Times, Trump specifically told Trudeau on a phone call early last month "That he did not believe that the treaty that demarcates the border between the two countries was valid and he wants to revise the boundary."

Canadians or people with ties to Canada, how has that made you feel? Are you feeling any more nationalistic? Are you feeling differently about that country or differently about this country in the two months of the Trump administration? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. You can also tell us, ignorant Americans, ignorant about internal Canadian politics for the most part, how you think your new prime minister is going to be different from Trudeau with respect to Trump or anything else.

212-433-WNYC, 212-433-96922. We'll take your Canadian or ties to Canada calls right after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now, to some of you with ties to Canada or in Canada right now. Tony in Vancouver, you're on WNYC. Hi, Tony.

Tony: Hey, Brian. Longtime listener, third-time caller.

Brian Lehrer: Glad you're on. You're in Vancouver, British Columbia, I presume, not the one in the United States, right?

Tony: Exactly. Just to get to the point, I'll tell you on a visceral level, it is chilling to come in and out of the country now. I used to be a green card holder. I'm Now a naturalized US citizen and Canadian citizen. It is chilling coming in and out of the country, but I will say that the Trump effect in Canada is actually benefiting Liberals and NDP members of Parliament and that a lot of Canadians see Poilievre and the Conservative Party as being on the side of Trump and kowtowing to him in a possible annexation of the country as the US 51st state.

Tony: Do you think you saw that in the election results?

Brian Lehrer: Actually, it was sort of a formality currently when they made Carney the PM after Trudeau stepped down. I think that was more of a formality, but I see some positive energy going into the general election in the fall in Canada where I see that the Conservatives who were shooing to just kill the Liberals and the NDP are now not so much.

Brian Lehrer: Tony, thank you. Thank you for starting us off. Call us again. Lauren in Ottawa, you're on WNYC. Hi, Lauren.

Lauren: Hi, Brian. Very good to hear you. I listen to you every morning.

Brian Lehrer: I'm really glad you're listening from Ottawa. What do you think?

Lauren: First of all, the actions that Trump has made on the tariffs, I don't think he really understands the economics of it at all. I think this has really put a big separation between our two countries. I know what's happening here. People are basically very anti-Tesla, not so much because of the car, but because of what he is doing to your country, which we really feel bad about. The tariffs themselves, it's causing Canadians to be more patriotic. We're looking at buying Canadian. Not so much just buying Canadian, but not buying anything American.

Every store go into, you look at to see if it was American or not. Now, the last caller you had was talking about how Trump is maybe helping the Liberal Party with our new prime minister designated. I still don't understand how a person could become prime minister without actually being elected, but he's just a carry-on of the Liberal Party which we've been trying to get rid of for a long time.

Brian Lehrer: Right, because that's a function within Parliament in Canada's system compared to the United States, and they choose their leader, etcetera. Go ahead.

Lauren: I don't think Trump should be really-- His whole thing about us being the 51st state, that's ridiculous. Obviously, Canadians, we have no interest in becoming American. It's a great country you have, but we have a lot more advantages here as citizens. Sure, we pay higher taxes, we have cheaper education and university. We have health care. Completely health care. I just went through cancer for the last two years.

Brian Lehrer: Sorry.

Lauren: It's now gone, and I didn't pay a penny for that. We have no guns here, and on the opioid thing, sure, we both have problems, but we receive more drugs coming in from the US, and our biggest problems, we receive guns coming in from the US all the time.

Brian Lehrer: Lauren, thank you very much for calling us. Call us again. On that buying Canada, I've certainly seen those reports. There's a big Buy Canada movement. CNBC was doing a report on that the other day that wasn't there before in that way. That might hurt the United States economically. Trump would argue the tariffs will more than balance that out, but we certainly don't know.

Listener writes in the text, "I'm a dual citizen of US and Canada living in Calgary. I work in transportation. The tariffs and threats of US Territorial expansion by taking over Canada are being taken very seriously. Existential threat. People don't want to be part of the US. People are afraid to go to the US. We read about people traveling to the US following the correct process and being detained," writes that dual citizen in Calgary. Denise in Toronto, you're on WNYC. Hi, Denise.

Denise: Hello. I am also a dual citizen and I have to say that I've never seen nationalism so prominent in Canada. Almost every commercial has been changed to say we make everything in Canada or Australia or other parts of the world other than the US. I also think that Trump actually came out yesterday, I think to say he disagreed or didn't like Pierre Poilievre because he was not good and therefore either is going to help the Liberals or hurt the Liberals, I don't know yet.

Brian Lehrer: Denise, thank you very much. One more. Edmond in Westchester, a Canadian with a green card in this country. Is that right? Hi, Edmond.

Edmond: Hello. Yes, I've been here since 1999, still a green card holder, but I'm nervous for sure about going back and forth across the border. Absolutely, at this point. I think that what Trump has done is a massive betrayal of trust. Just incredible. My daughter, for instance, called up and is nervous about my traveling and she's an American citizen. The fact that Trump has focused on the dairy tariff is completely misrepresenting the situation.

That is a tariff that only kicks in once there's a maximum amount that comes in for free. Similarly, America has the exact same quota and the exact same type of a penalizing tariff. The point is that that tariff is moot because we never hit the maximums. For him to pick on that and try to make Canadians mean people because of something that is a reciprocal thing that actually is completely irrelevant because we never hit a maximum, to me is an absolute betrayal of trust and unbelievable. People are being stopped. People are being held up with green cards. It's real.

Brian Lehrer: Edmond, thank you very much. Folks, Edmond gets the last word. More reporting obviously needs to be done at the northern border about Edmond's assertion there that people with green cards are being detained. That's the Brian Lehrer Show for today, produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen produces our daily Politics podcast. Our intern this term is Henry Serringer. Milton Ruiz, and Juliana Fonda at the audio controls.

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