Caught in the cross-border crossfire

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/03/2025 (210 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The past few weeks of economic uncertainty and tension between the United States and Canada have been difficult for Billy Jaye, an American living in Winnipeg.

He says he’s experienced wide swings in how his loved ones view him and his adopted country now.

“I’ve gotten the range, from I’m a traitor to that I am a prescient genius for moving to Canada,” he told the Free Press.

“The range of people’s attitudes toward me has radically changed.”

Canada moved swiftly Tuesday in response to the 25 per cent tariffs imposed on Canadian imports to the U.S. by President Donald Trump. In Manitoba, American booze has been pulled from the shelves at Liquor Marts, the premier announced a tax-deferral plan for businesses hit by the tariffs and a massive Canadian flag has been erected at the front entrance of the Legislative Building.

Americans who call Manitoba home — and Manitobans who live in the U.S. — are caught in the uncomfortable squeeze.

Jaye, an actor and standup comedian, was born and raised in the Bronx, N.Y., before moving to Manitoba with his wife in 2003. Jaye, a permanent resident in Canada, voted by mail in the U.S. election.

He said the decision to stay here has only become stronger in the face of the trade war, despite what friends and family south of the border think.

“I have to say that I am disgusted with the States, and I’ve actually considered renouncing my American citizenship,” he said.

“I’ve gotten the range, from I’m a traitor to that I am a prescient genius for moving to Canada.”–Billy Jaye

Jaye is planning to travel to St. Louis in the summer to attend an Elvis Costello concert with an American friend and is “terrified” about being in a country that no longer feels like home.

“It’s very hard to describe how I feel,” he said. “That’s not where I grew up, that’s not what I grew up with. When I grew up, things were progressive, and in a month, it’s fascism. Just call it what it is. It’s very disturbing.”

---

In Steinbach, Chris Summerville is conflicted.

He was born in Birmingham, Ala., in 1952, in the midst of the civil-rights movement. He remembers Ku Klux Klan marches and was a child when Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his iconic Letter from Birmingham Jail in 1963.

He became a pastor at just 17, and moved to Canada in 1985, settling in Steinbach in 1993. He’s now a dual citizen.

Today, he said he’s torn because he loves both his American and Canadian heritage, and has struggled to accept the conflict between the two countries under Trump.

“Jesus said to love your neighbour. Well, right now, we’re being tested,” he told the Free Press, his southern accent clear, despite four decades north of the border. “How do we love our neighbour? How are we supposed to love our neighbour, even when our neighbour does bad things?”

When he moved to Steinbach, he found the city resembled the Deep South — strongly influenced by Christianity and religious values.

As Steinbach has grown, he said a small group of people have reacted negatively and caused division. As America becomes more conservative, he said, he worries the same is happening on a global scale.

“The same thing’s happening geopolitically, as our friendship is strained between America and Canada, then you tend to take sides and you tend to speak just negatively of the other side. I don’t think that’s healthy,” he said.

“I think we have to remember the good things that have existed between America and Canada and recall our history.”

His daughter and newborn granddaughter are Canadian citizens. He has no plan to discourage them from visiting the U.S. or exploring that side of their culture.

“That’s anathema, to say that you’re going to leave America because you’re so disgusted with it, and go to any country… I think that’s just ridiculous,” he said.

“You stay and be a transformer in your culture. You don’t give up on your culture.”

---

Lorilee Craker considers herself a Canadian patriot even though she lives in Michigan.

Originally from Winnipeg, the journalist and author has lived in the U.S. for more than 30 years. She lives in Grand Rapids, a city with a significant expat Canadian population, and said people are confused and distressed by the conflict.

“Canadians that live in the U.S., I think they’re just really commiserating right now, (thinking) what the heck is happening?” she said.

She visits Winnipeg regularly and just returned from a 10-day trip to visit her family. She said she was happy to see Winnipeggers shopping local and showing their Canadian pride.

“The best thing you can do for Canada right now is plan a trip there and spend your tourism dollars there.”–Lorilee Craker

She encourages Americans to spend their vacation dollars in Canada as a sign of support.

“I (have) just said that the best thing you can do for Canada right now is plan a trip there and spend your tourism dollars there,” she said.

She hasn’t heard much from her American friends and neighbours on the topic of tariffs, and believes even conservative-leaning Americans are “appalled” by the news.

“The damage that’s being done to this relationship is just unconscionable, and it just makes me really sad,” she said. “I’ve cried tears over it.”

---

Rachelle Spencer Mikita has used her angst over America’s treatment of her home country with what she calls “good trouble.”

The Winnipeg native lives in Long Branch, N.J., and works as an occupational therapist. She got her American citizenship in 2016 so she could vote against Trump.

While she lives in a mostly blue state, she’s slowly felt less safe in the U.S., and her loved ones in Winnipeg have told her they don’t plan to visit for the next four years.

“I’ve been looking at (tariffs) as some people have said, as an act of war, because Canada and Mexico are America’s two friendly allies,” she said.

“To have done this just is horrific to me. I don’t feel as safe living here.”

She’s thrown herself into protests and activist groups. She writes postcards to state leaders, and calls her congressman and senators every week to demand change.

It’s an effort to fight what she says is “misinformation” about tariffs circulated by American news sources.

“To have done this just is horrific to me. I don’t feel as safe living here.”–Rachelle Spencer Mikita

“When I hear other friends at Canada tell me what they’re seeing on their news, our news isn’t giving us the same information,” she said.

The letter-writing and calling has helped her cope with anxiety.

“It has helped that I do have my American citizenship now, because I do have a voice to vote, and I have a voice to talk to them,” she said, adding, “I still feel like I’m a Canadian at heart.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca