What’s Donald Trump got to do with it?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/02/2025 (255 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every day, we are greeted with a fresh controversy or another indignity. I don’t remember a time when life felt so unstable, so erratic. U.S. President Donald Trump is a human wrecking ball. And he’s not just America’s problem.

Like many Canadians, I can’t seem to look away from American’s biggest reality show export: The Trump Show. Whenever I tune into a nightly news broadcast, I’m riveted. What’s Trump done now? I drag myself off to bed for yet another night of broken sleep. On bad nights, I’m up twice. I call it “Trumpsomnia.” It’s a scourge.

On Feb. 1, henceforth known as Tariff Day, my spouse, Grant, and I travelled to nearby Saskatoon to celebrate my birthday. We split a Vietnamese hot plate at a cheap noodle house. It arrived in all its steaming glory, just as the 25 per cent tariff announcement Canadians had been bracing for dinged on my iPhone.

We climbed into a cold car and drove the four blocks to the Cineplex in shock. A Complete Unknown couldn’t hold my attention. My mind kept drifting back to the looming Trump-sponsored recession.

After five weeks playing to the cheap seats, the movie theatre had cleverly relocated the Bob Dylan biopic up to their costly VIP section. We paid $45 to sit through a tribute to an American folksinger who goes electric. The Baby Boomer couple in front of us had a bottle of champagne chilling on ice — without irony.

When the film ended, the drive northeast to Wakaw was dicey and the snow drifted over the highway. Winnipeg’s Guess Who came to the rescue as some smartass radio DJ played American Woman. “American Woman, stay away from me!” Burton Cummings wailed.

As we made the turn east, Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It serenaded us. Then the hourly radio news announced Ottawa Senators fans booed the American anthem before a Minnesota Wild matchup. We laughed out loud as Grant slowed down for the snow drifts and I clung to the passenger handle. We didn’t let Trump’s tariffs ruin a perfectly good birthday celebration.

My Winnipeg grandparents, Bess and Eric Brough, lived through the Great Depression. They were very, very careful with their money. As a child, I found their extreme thrift amusing so I turned up my nose at their Carnation powdered milk.

Now I get totally get it. The volatile situation to the south, which has spread north, means I’ll further expand my massive organic vegetable garden.

On that same birthday outing, I scoffed at the $25 price tag of journals at an independent bookstore. I wandered over to their upscale gift section. What’s this? A silk kimono for $150? I didn’t see any satisfied customers leaving with stacks of books in their bags or overpriced loungewear.

On Sunday evening, a celebratory birthday call from a West Coast friend who lives in Canada’s wealthiest postal code, was completely overtaken by the T-word.

“I’ve ordered German door knobs. I’m not buying any American products for our renovation,” she told me. “That sounds like a plan,” I replied.

The next day, Facebook was crowded with patriotic exchanges. “Where can I source Canadian-made cat food?” asked one poster. “What do I do about my Tesla?” another person wrote. Another poster broke down the amount of money he spent on U.S. streaming. He cancelled his Amazon Prime account and switched to Britbox.

Britbox? How many British murder mysteries set in a small town can one couch couple consume? Unless they reinstate BBC’s Little Britain, Britbox is my last streaming option.

As much as I despise Donald Trump and his retrograde policies, Sweet Magnolia’s fourth season just dropped on Netflix. There are limits to my patriotism — especially during a long winter in a small town with scarce entertainment options.

Anti-American sentiment is a historic Canadian pastime. I understand the urge to push back, to “do something” as we impatiently wait out the 30-day reprieve on tariffs negotiated at the last minute by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. It’s important to keep this period of upheaval in perspective.

It’s less than two years until the U.S. midterm elections. Surely sanity will prevail and Trump’s current majority will crumble like Poilievre’s dated rhetoric.

For solace, I repeat the wisdom of Democratic strategist James Carville: “… let (Trump) punch himself out.”

Patricia Dawn Robertson’s satiric, Media Brat: a GenX memoir, is available in April. And, yes, it’s made in Canada.