In Miche cafe and bar in British Columbia’s capital, Victoria, owner Allan Sinclair is turning around specific alcohol bottles on the top shelf to hide the labels from public view.
He picks up a bottle of Jack Daniels.
“This is from Tennessee and they supported Trump so we can’t have that,” he says.
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A bottle of Wayne Gretzky’s cream liquor is nearly finished.
“Once it’s gone, I’m going to get rid of it,” says Allan. “He’s shown he doesn’t respect our country anymore.”
Gretzky, once a Canadian ice hockey hero, has alienated many here with his steadfast support of the American president.
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Allan also sells “Canadianos,” which he says, wryly, are stronger than Americanos.
They are quiet but considered acts of defiance in the face of a trade war started by the United States.
“It is a small protest in the form of a coffee,” he says. “What we can do is hope that they don’t follow up with all of this madness.”
Tuesday began with Donald Trump announcing a 50% tariff on aluminium and steel coming from Canada. Just hours later, that was revised back down to 25%.
There is a grinding, on-off, tit-for-tat nature to these economic punishments.
The British Columbia premier David Eby retaliated to the Trump tariffs by prohibiting the sale of American-manufactured alcohol in his province.
‘Buy Canadian Instead’
BC Liquor Store is just steps away from the premier’s office in Victoria.
On the shelves where Kentucky bourbon would usually be there are signs saying: “Buy Canadian Instead.”
Dozens of bottles of California and Oregon wine are wrapped tightly with cellophane.
But the threats from the Trump administration don’t end with tariffs.
The president has stated repeatedly that he’s keen to make Canada the 51st state. Even referring to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “governor”.
Premier Eby tells Sky News: “These are deeply unnerving statements for the president to be making, especially in the context of clearly expansionist policies related to Greenland and the Panama Canal.
“What we get continually about the president is to take him seriously, but not literally.
“I would love to have that kind of luxury… the danger, I think, is not taking him literally and seriously.”
‘I’m trying to buy anything but American‘
On the ferry which connects Vancouver Island with the mainland, tariff fatigue is setting in.
Passenger Nancy, a government worker, says she thinks Donald Trump is intent on causing mayhem. “He’s a menace, he’s just creating chaos where it doesn’t need to be.”
Her colleague Laura says the silver lining is that the tariffs have galvanised Canadians together.
“People feel hurt and angry,” she says. “We are trying to buy more Canadian products and travel anywhere other than the United States. I had a trip booked to Las Vegas and we’ve cancelled that. When I go to the grocery store, I look for the Canadian maple leaf that a lot of grocery stores have put on the shelves. I’m trying to buy anything but American.”
Richard thinks Donald Trump’s end game is to weaken the Canadian economy.
“I think Trump had an agenda from the beginning, without a doubt. I think he wanted to cause a collapse of the Canadian economy so it would make it easier for him and his colleagues to buy up whatever they wanted, if not to make us a 51st state – it had nothing to do with Fentanyl, that was just a ruse.”
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Trump’s ‘fiction’ Fentanyl claims
He’s referencing the Trump administration’s repeated claims that Fentanyl, a devastating opioid that has ravaged parts of both America and Canada, is flooding over the Canadian border into the US.
It’s the reason, they say, for starting this trade war.
Dr M-J Milloy, director of research at British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, says that this simply isn’t true.
“There is no one who knows anything about drug markets in North America who would agree with the statement that Canada is a substantial part of the problem in the United States. It is a fiction.”
“No question that Fentanyl has devastated the United States. Fentanyl is devastating Canada. And so I think in that way, it might be a potent way for Mr Trump to whip up enthusiasm and to justify this aggression,” he adds.
Whatever the reason – invented or otherwise – for this trade war, it’s making an enemy of this ally.
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The question is, what power does Canada really have in the face of its much bigger, far wealthier neighbour?
