At 5:30 ET today, Groundhog Day or Candlemas, depending on your tradition, all party leaders gathered through electronic means to reflect on Canada’s reaction to the unprecedented and illegal actions of US President Donald Trump. The Prime Minister updated us on yesterday’s thought process. Once President Trump made clear if Canada retaliated, he would make punishments more severe. Provincial premiers and Cabinet and other advisors felt this was not the time to back down. The Prime Minister shared that it had become increasingly clear that there was no evidence or further actions on border security that would make any difference. Trump would only double down. It was not really about fentanyl. It was about Canada and our sovereignty. All of us spoke to that point and agreed, Jagmeet Singh, Pierre Poilievre, Yves Francois Blanchet and me, although with differences, those need not be highlighted here.
Our message was one of solidarity. I told them all I was following through on an idea I shared when we last met on December 3, 2024, that the Washington, DC, National Prayer Breakfast (February 6, 2025) might be a good time for Canadian parliamentarians to go to Washington. In that sense I feel I now have a collective mandate from all leaders to bring a message to Washington that Canada is united in this.
With apologies to the leaders, I asked to share an anecdote. Something small but extraordinary in my experience. I was worshipping this morning at a Lutheran-Anglican church in Guelph, Ontario. As is the custom of many congregations, announcements come at the end of the service. An elderly gentleman seemed not to be expected to go to the front of the church to make his own announcement. He said words to the effect of “I am so upset by what is happening. I want to be able to talk about it. I want to know that all Canadians will stand together. That we will stick together through whatever may come, O Canada is in our hymnal and I would like us all to sing it now.” Delicately, the priest suggested that as the service was over, we should all move to the hall, and so, as coffee and tea were served in the fellowship part of the gathering, a congregation in Guelph stood and with lusty voices, and a few tears in our eyes sang, “O Canada!”. I suggested to the PM and other leaders that maybe there was a way to offer Canadians more specific ways they could sign up to help.
I also voiced my thanks.
The prime minister and Cabinet deserve our thanks, collectively. Premiers acting together deserve our thanks.
It was in my parents’ generation that ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances made sacrifices for the greater good. The thought of sacrifice has been unfashionable for quite a while. Immediate gratification is expected. Maybe now, through collective strength and shared purpose, we can persuade Mr. Trump to back down. Maybe.
But odds are this idiotic trade war may take some time. It is likely to do real damage to vulnerable people and small businesses that will need our help.
We are called upon to put our country first. In that we agree that burdens across industries and regions be shared. We must ensure that those most vulnerable and living in the greatest precarity be attended to first. We must find ways to fund our collective and unified response to the US President, who yesterday broke a goodly number of treaties, international norms and laws.
We must remember that the US is full of people who disagree with their president. We must imagine that even someone who appears to be determined to do the wrong thing at every turn is capable of changing his mind.
All efforts must be made to stay friends and neighbours.
Still, we must not back down. We will likely have to do much more to protect Canada and others in Trump’s cross-hairs. We fear for those soon-to-be refugees, headed for an illegal detention camp at Guantanamo Bay or worse.
We need to respect and follow international law. We must build and fortify alliances – political, economic and diplomatic – defending those elements of multilateralism we once took for granted. Democracy and respect for human rights, climate action and collective work for a better world must not be abandoned.
We will not panic.
Canada can emerge stronger, more resilient and more self-sufficient.
We do this together.
Elizabeth May, O.C.
Member of Parliament,Saanich-Gulf Islands
Leader, Green Party of Canada
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