The United States has started a nasty trade war, and this war will send ripples through almost every layer of society. It’s already changed what we buy, what wine we drink, what we choose to eat and where we go on vacation. Americans are taking notice, as Gordon Anderson, a glass artist who sells a lot of work to Canadians told The Seattle Times, “Canadians are kind of pissed.”
We are. Will it change the way we drive and interact with other drivers?
Let’s start with a question for Canadian drivers: Are you going to start harassing everyone with American licence plates?
It may seem absurd, but it already appears to be happening.
In a story about the tiny American border town of Point Roberts, Wash, The Globe and Mail reported that Ailish Wallace, a Canadian who lives in Point Roberts, said she was shopping in B.C. when a “stranger looked her up and down” and demanded to know why she had Washington State plates. Wallace told The Globe, “I said, ‘Because I’m married to an American,’ And he goes, ‘It’s time to file for divorce.’ A lot of people I’ve talked to lately have been getting dirty looks, comments, the ‘Go back to America.’”
Canadians are rightly angry. We are livid, but let’s not lose our common decency. Let’s not single out Americans by licence plate and subject them to abuse.
I’m not saying we are better than that. I’m just saying, let’s not be as bad as that. Let’s not allow the iniquity of this trade war to turn us into the very thing we despise – bullies. And male drivers of Canada, by all that is great and good on this green earth, do not accost women – regardless of age, race or licence plates – in parking lots. What a terrible disgrace.
Besides, the licence plate harassment runs both ways. Americans aren’t too happy about the trade war either. Should Canadians visiting the United States be worried? How well will Canadians be received if Doug Ford makes good on his threat to cut or put a 25-per-cent surcharge on electricity? Ford announced Thursday that the 25-per-cent charge would be effective on Monday. This would hit almost 1.5 million people in Michigan, New York and Minnesota. Ontario licence plates might be magnets for abuse.
I wonder how my family will be treated this summer when we drive through the United States. We frequently road trip through America, which has some of the best driving in the world. No one has ever called out my Canadian licence plates. We’d likely skip this year, but we have a somber journey to make. My father-in-law passed away in October and we will be driving to North Carolina’s Outer Banks, where he body surfed until the age of 80, to scatter his ashes. In a time of tariffs, will Canadian plates draw American ire? I’d like to think the answer is no.
Meanwhile, Trump has put the auto industry on double secret probation and delayed those tariffs for 30 days. Should he finally put them into play, the interconnected cross-border industry will almost surely be destroyed. Trump’s tariffs would allow European, Japanese and South Korean companies (who would not face tariffs) to flood the North American market. Ford chief executive officer Jim Farley told an investor conference, “Let’s be real honest: Long term, a 25-per-cent tariff across the Mexico and Canada borders would blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we’ve never seen.”
Even more damaging than the decimation of a storied industry and the loss of countless jobs would be an increase in the price of American’s beloved domestic automobiles. A car dealer in Pennsylvania told Fox News that the cost of a Dodge Ram truck will increase from $80,000 to $100,000. David Kelleher, owner of David Auto Group, said “Nobody’s gonna buy the truck because it just had a $20,000 price increase.”
That’s a killer. That could stop the trade war in its tracks. Americans will tolerate a lot of adversity but never wildly expensive pickup trucks. That’s a step too far.
It’s right there in the American Declaration of Independence: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of $80,000 Dodge Ram trucks.