The friendship Trump can't break

by Steve Schmidt - Jul 1

Before the United States celebrates 250 years of independence, Canada celebrates another birthday as one of the world’s oldest, freest and most successful constitutional democracies.

Happy Canada Day!

Canada is a great country.

That simple statement should offend no American because America’s greatness has never depended on denying the greatness of its friends. Indeed, one of America’s greatest achievements has been its friendship with Canada.

The relationship between Canada and the United States isn’t an abstraction. It isn’t merely a treaty, a trade agreement, or a line on a map.

It’s a relationship sealed by blood sacrifice on freedom’s altar, by marriage (including mine!), commerce, geography and shared values.

It’s the most successful bilateral relationship in the history of the modern world.

The American Revolution didn’t produce one country. It produced two.

Americans invaded Quebec.

There were moments when the ideology of Manifest Destiny cast greedy eyes toward the north. There were territorial disputes, commercial rivalries and political disagreements.

History offered every opportunity for hostility. Instead, two free peoples made a different choice. They chose peace, partnership and friendship.

Across the longest undefended border on Earth, they built something extraordinary. There’s never been another relationship quite like it.

Canada has been many things to America — an ally, a neighbor, a refuge.

There was a time when enslaved Americans looked north and saw freedom. The Underground Railroad didn’t end at a railroad station. It ended at a border. It ended in Canada.

There is scarcely a more profound indictment of slavery — or a greater testament to Canada’s place in the moral history of North America — than this simple truth: when an American sought liberty from another American’s chains, the destination was Canada.

Think about that.

Long before the United States became what it aspired to be, Canada represented, for thousands of Americans, the place where freedom could finally be touched.

That history belongs to both of us.

There’s another history that belongs to both of us.

When fascism threatened civilization, Canada entered the war before the United States did. Long before Pearl Harbor, Americans crossed the border to enlist in the Canadian military because they believed Hitler had to be stopped.

Then came Dieppe, Sicily and Juno Beach.

Canadian soldiers fought with astonishing courage. Thousands never came home.

From Normandy to Kandahar, from NORAD to NATO, Canadians have stood shoulder to shoulder with Americans in the defense of liberty.

Their sacrifice helped preserve ours.

That’s why what Donald Trump has done to this relationship is so shameful.

He has mocked Canada’s sovereignty. He has insulted its people. He has spoken about one of America’s closest friends as though it were a possession instead of a proud, independent nation. He has transformed one of the world’s most stable alliances into another stage for grievance, spectacle and intimidation.

The uncertainty surrounding the review of the USMCA captures the absurdity perfectly.

Instead of offering certainty to workers, manufacturers, farmers and businesses whose livelihoods depend on the integrated North American economy, Donald Trump has once again substituted chaos for stability. Businesses across the continent are delaying investment while waiting to see whether political theater will overwhelm economic common sense. The agreement’s scheduled review has become clouded by threats that serve no strategic purpose and benefit no one.

There’s a profound misunderstanding at the heart of Donald Trump’s worldview. He believes that allies are dependencies. He believes that respect is weakness. He believes that intimidation is strength.

History teaches the opposite.

America became the leader of the free world not because it frightened its friends. America became the leader of the free world because its friends trusted it. That trust has been one of our greatest strategic advantages.

Donald Trump is squandering it.

Canada hasn’t surrendered to the bullying.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has answered Donald Trump not with bluster, but with seriousness.

He has reminded Canadians that sovereignty isn’t negotiable. He has reminded Americans that friendship between equals is stronger than domination by one. He has defended Canada’s interests exactly as a Canadian prime minister should.

Americans should respect that.

George Washington would have.

There is nothing anti-American about defending Canada.

There is something deeply American about it.

The United States was founded on the proposition that free people govern themselves. Canada has every right to insist upon exactly the same thing.

Donald Trump didn’t build the friendship between our countries.

He didn’t build the factories whose supply chains cross the border dozens of times before a product is complete.

He didn’t build NORAD.

He didn’t build the friendships between Windsor and Detroit, Vancouver and Seattle, Buffalo and Fort Erie, or countless other communities whose lives have become intertwined.

He didn’t build the marriages, businesses, families and the trust between the two countries.

He can’t destroy it.

Donald Trump believes history revolves around him. It doesn’t.

The relationship between Canada and the United States is older than Donald Trump, stronger than Donald Trump, and infinitely more important than Donald Trump.

It was built by soldiers buried beneath white crosses in Normandy. It was built by workers in Windsor and Detroit. It was built by pilots who guarded the skies together throughout the Cold War. It was built by families whose children have grown up crossing the border so easily that they scarcely remember how extraordinary such peace really is.

Trump can’t destroy that.

He will leave. Canada will remain. America will remain.

The maple leaf will continue to fly over a free and sovereign Canada.

The Stars and Stripes will continue to fly over a democratic United States.

Long after this ugly chapter has ended, Canadians and Americans will continue to discover what generations before them already knew. Liberty is stronger than fear. Friendship is stronger than intimidation. Respect is stronger than coercion.

The greatest border in the world isn’t defended by walls or armies. It’s defended by trust.

Happy Canada Day.

To our neighbors.

To our allies.

To our cousins.

To the country that welcomed enslaved Americans into freedom.

To the country that landed at Juno Beach.

To the country that has stood beside America in peace and in war.

Canada is a great country.

Canada is a free country.

Canada is something worth defending.

The friendship between Canada and the United States is one of humanity’s great achievements.

It has endured for generations.

It will endure long after Donald Trump is gone.