Relationship Over

AN OPEN LETTER FROM CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER MARK CARNEY

Here’s what it might look like:

Dear President Trump:

It is with great reluctance that I write this letter, because I, like so many Canadians, am a huge fan of Americans. In our long experience, Americans are open, fair-minded, and always have their friends’ backs. You sir, are the opposite of most Americans, you decidedly do not have our back, and we are decidedly not your fans. It is sad that it has come to this, but with your childish taunting, and now these devastating and unnecessary tariffs, I must end our long and fruitful relationship.

Canada, the country you try to humiliate into submission, has sent its best and brightest to fight and die alongside Americans for nearly the entire history of both of our countries. That is now over. Unlike your countrymen and every one of your predecessors, you have no concept of sacrifice or honor. You are a bully, and to bullies, we say no. You are not even able to honor the trade agreement between Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. which you yourself made in your first term.

In case it is still unclear to you, we will never be your 51^st state.

While you have been busy shutting down academic research, crippling your National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control, China has been upgrading its research institutions. They recently built the Lianqiu Lake R. & D. Campus devoted to scientific research. Just last year, they graduated 1400 top level engineers. They are hairsbreadth away from dominating innovation in artificial intelligence, all while you are starving your major university research centers in order to get them to fall in line with your culture war. While you are canceling student visas, China is brimming with new talent.

We wonder whether you even know what made America great in the first place, as you encourage your loyalists to cast those very things asunder. The world learned so much about freedom, commitment, the rule of law, human rights, decency, and the value of allies from your country. Our observation from up here, is that you have handed the reins of your country, and its future, over to sycophants who are lapping up Project 2025, the effort to drag the United States back to the 19^th Century, like cats over a bowl of sweet cream. Are you even aware, and if so, do you even care, that you are isolating your country—the single greatest force for good in our world—by turning your back on long standing, trusted allies?

As you lambast globalization, the rest of the world continues to grow the interdependent supply chains that have been an essential factor in keeping economies growing. You see, Mr. President, the world wants peace and commerce, not trade wars, or the shooting kind, either.

The shock to the global system began with your threats, and has been heightened by you turning your back on Ukraine and telling the lie that they are the aggressors, while you embrace Russia and Vladimir Putin, a murderous thug, who just like you, would like to roll back the hands of time.

It is for these reasons and more that we are prepared to leave the United States behind. You have badly miscalculated your strength in the face of a rising China. Talk about not having the cards. The Chinese market is almost four times larger than the American one, and they’re happy to do business without the threats to our sovereignty.

We mourn your abandonment of your magnificent national parks, but we remind American citizens that Canada has fully staffed and beautiful parks. We can’t help you with the demise of public education, your robust library system, or the hurt felt by small businesses that depend on a global supply chain.

Your people are protesting in the streets in greater numbers than at any time since the Vietnam War. And have you seen the outrage on TikTok? That’s where you’ll find an entire world of disdain for you and your policies. They are protesting America’s rapid descent into darkness and fascism. They are protesting the abandonment of allies in favor of despots. They are protesting the oligarchs and billionaires who have found power under you. They are protesting deportations without due process, and they are protesting the loss of the rule of law, that beacon that shone brightly for so long for the rest of humanity.

China doesn’t embrace any of the democratic values that made your country great, and yet, you are ceding the world to China. Isolationism has been a recurring theme of your Woke Radical Right from Reconstruction to Project 2025. Fewer than half of Americans voted for you, but all the world will pay. As Yogi Berra would say, you can include us out.

Elbows Up!

©2025 Jon Sinton