Hundreds join an ‘Elbows Up, Canada’ rally in Toronto, in March, 2025. Defending our interests with unity, poise and quiet confidence may be our greatest strength right now.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Ann Fitz-Gerald is the director of the Balsillie School of International Affairs and a professor of international security in Wilfrid Laurier University’s Department of Political Science.
Something important may be happening in Canada. After more than a year of threats and provocations from Washington, Canadians are becoming harder to provoke.
These provocations began with U.S. President Donald Trump issuing repeated suggestions that Canada should become America’s 51st state. His administration followed with punitive tariffs, escalating demands in trade negotiations and, most recently, an executive order renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America.” When Washington’s demands crossed Canada’s red lines, Ottawa walked away rather than accept an agreement it concluded would compromise important Canadian interests. This was followed with taunts from U.S. officials who stated that Canada had turned down the best trade deal on offer.
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The taunts continued with U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth using social media to mock members of Canada’s youth cadet program. Days later, he shared another post which targeted a Pride-related image from the Canadian Coast Guard. Canadian government and non-government leaders were unified in their condemnation of this behaviour. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent then compared Canada to a “little yippy dog” that repeatedly antagonized a larger German shepherd which, one day, “had enough.”
But during this series of pronouncements, Canadians were largely carrying on – and that’s a good thing.
Whether these provocations constitute a deliberate communications strategy or merely the political instincts of an administration that thrives on confrontation is almost beside the point. Whatever their motivation, they create the same political opportunity in inviting an emotional Canadian response to Americans as evidence that their northern neighbour has become hostile and anti-American. Canada should not provide this.
For generations, the strong relationship between Canadians and Americans has been sustained by millions of friendships, families, businesses, universities and communities that cross the border. Americans know Canadians not as adversaries but as neighbours, partners, colleagues and companions. This reservoir of goodwill is an enormous Canadian strategic asset, and one that should not be surrendered to enable some politicians in Washington to benefit politically from a different narrative.
This does not mean that Canadians should be passive toward such provocations, and our resistance has been demonstrated to date by way of measured responses, support for those being targeted, and the refusal of any trade agreement that does not serve Canada’s interests. Canada should also respond proportionately to economic coercion, defend its cultural and digital sovereignty, and make it clear that its political independence is not negotiable.
But Canadians are, quite rightly, demonstrating that firmness and fury are not the same thing. One mistake that countries can make when facing a more powerful neighbour is allowing the larger actor to not only determine the substance of the confrontation, but to also set the confrontation’s emotional tempo. Every inflammatory post should not dictate Canada’s political conversation, or require an escalation.
The more consequential “elbows up” response begins with building east-west pipelines, ports and infrastructure that diversify Canadian trade; in strengthening economic ties and removing inter-provincial barriers; in securing Canadian data, intellectual property and sovereign digital infrastructure; in investing in defence of the Arctic; and in strengthening higher-education institutions and innovative companies on which Canada’s future prosperity will depend. It is important for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s three-prong economic plan – laid out most recently in his latest “Forward Guidance” video on Tuesday – to incorporate these priorities.
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While acknowledging the demanding road ahead, this moment requires cool heads. Canadians can (and should) disagree and debate vigorously among ourselves, while remaining united on the essentials. We can defend our interests without adopting the language or behaviour being directed at us and distinguish between an American administration whose policies we may oppose, and the American people with whom our ties will endure.
Canadians have acquired a reputation for being “nice.” Occasionally, this has been said dismissively, as if civility were evidence of weakness. At this moment, we should understand it differently. Being nice does not mean being naive by accepting unfair trade terms or failing to defend Canadian sovereignty. It means having the confidence to ignore petty insults and to refuse to be provoked into becoming something we are not.
The ties between Canadians and Americans have been built over generations. They will outlast any administration on either side of the border. Canada’s task now is to defend its interests and preserve those relationships for the day when the political weather changes.
Being nice is not a Canadian weakness. Right now, defending our interests with unity, poise and quiet confidence may be our greatest strength.