To disentangle

If the goal is to make Canadians hate us, he’s batting a thousand.

Canadians across the country are also going to increasing lengths to disentangle themselves from their southern neighbor, using their travel and shopping decisions to register their discontent with the Trump administration’s trade policies and aggressive rhetoric.

And by “aggressive rhetoric” they mean relentless stream of childish insults.

Their choices are a microcosm of the broader challenge facing Canada as it seeks to reduce its reliance on the U.S. after decades of relatively free trade that left the two economies intertwined. For these consumers, too, it’s not easy — and in some cases impossible — to quit America.

But the depth of the feelings here means some Canadians are willing to try. Trump has “kind of pushed every single button,” said Piché, 66. “I’ll buy Canadian first and anything but the U.S. second. Now the U.S. is a distant third.”

But on the plus side, Trump got to push those buttons he wanted to push. Happy Trump.

The rhetoric on both sides has ratcheted up in recent weeks. Trump has called Canada “nasty,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent likened the country to a “little yippy dog,” and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted a photo seemingly mocking the Canadian military. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, meanwhile, said his country had been “attacked.”

There’s a certain imbalance in the “rhetoric” here. The US contestants are childish and vulgar, while Carney just stated the obvious. It could be that the Post drew a veil over a stream of insults from Canada, or it could be that the stream just didn’t match the US one for sheer infantile tantrumming.