‘No friend anymore’: Days from a national election, Canadian voters focus on the U.S. relationship

Toby Gorman attends a hockey practice with the Canadian Beer League in Courtice, Ontario. (CNN via CNN Newsource)

Mississaugua, Ontario — The workday at Lola Blooms begins by unpacking the morning delivery: a colorful mix of dahlias, hydrangeas, carnations, roses and more lifted from boxes and spread across the worktables.

Until a few weeks ago, there were almost always flowers from the United States in the mix as Lindsay Smith and Kaitlynn Strain grabbed a vase, clippers and got to work crafting floral arrangements.

But not anymore.

Smith and Strain are sisters in law, business partners and offended Canadians determined to do their part in sending a message to U.S. President Donald Trump.

“We’re just trying to buy Canadian as much as we can,” Smith said. Strain chimes in that Holland and Mexico are good options if there is no choice but to import. Some of the vases and other hardware in the shop still come from the states, but Smith and Strain are busy looking for alternatives.

“It’s … Donald Trump,” Smith said. “I feel like he’s a bully in this situation. We’re supposed to be allies. We thought we were on a friendship level.”

Tariff threats. Talk of making Canada the 51st state. Derisive references to the prime minister as governor. “It’s very insulting,” Smith says, before showing off the maple leaf earrings she chose for CNN’s visit “because I love Canada.”

The Trump effect is easy to find. There are more Canadian flags flying. “Proud Canadian” placards in windows. And, importantly, a very different tone and tenor as voters here prepare to pick a new parliament and prime minister.

Smith and Strain are just two examples.

Both are traditionally Green Party supporters. But both told CNN they are all but certain to vote Liberal Party next week because they know the Greens won’t win enough seats to pick the prime minister. The Liberals do have a shot, and Smith and Strain want the winning party to have as big a mandate as possible.

Canadians don’t vote for prime minister. They cast ballots to elect a representative for their district, or riding, and the party that wins the most seats gets to form the government and pick the prime minister, usually the party leader.

‘We just need a strong leader who won’t stand for bullying,” Smith said. “You put your vote where it counts more in this situation.”

Toby Gorman offers more proof Canadians are rethinking just about everything.

Gorman is an author and environmental journalist, and self-described independent who says he has supported candidates of all stripes over the years. But the climate crisis is his most important issue right now, and Gorman sees the Green Party as most aligned with his views. But he, too, said his plan, barring a last-second reversal, is to vote Liberal.

“If it was any other election, without the US situation, without the crisis we have going on, I would probably go with the Greens,” Gorman said. Like Smith and Strain, he wants the winner to have a mandate. And he has been impressed with Prime Minister Mark Carney, who’s been on the job just since mid-March after replacing Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader.

The smaller parties tend to fare a little better in Canada than they do in the United States. There are no Green Party members of the US Congress, for example, but the Greens currently hold two of the 338 seats in the Canadian Parliament. The New Democrats hold 24 seats; the Bloc Quebecois 33. But Gorman is among those shifting toward one of the two major parties because he wants the winner to have more power.

“A very focused leader,” is Gorman’s take on Carney. “A smart leader. He can handle the economy. I believe he can handle the US situation.”

Every Canadian to whom we spoke, on this Ontario visit and on a trip to British Columbia a few weeks ago, characterized this campaign as a crossroads moment.

Canada’s government, they say, needs to increase its military spending and find new economic markets and partners. Canadians should double-check at the grocery store and buy Canadian over American whenever possible. And both alike should rid themselves of the idea that Canada’s neighbor to the south is a reliable friend with shared values.

“We’re just sick of him,” Gorman said of Trump. “And it has only been three months into the term. It’s, he’s going to annex us. He wants to crush us economically. At first it was kind of like losing your best friend. You know, ‘What’s happened? What is happening?’ But now I think we are at the point where it’s like, we can move on.”

Federal elections here are often defined by geographic or cultural rivalries. East versus West. The coasts versus the middle. Urban versus rural. English versus French. Liberal versus Conservative. But Trump has spawned a wave of Canadian nationalism, and he is the central issue in this race.

“I put up a flag myself,” said Gorman. “I never thought I would put up a Canadian flag. But when it comes to crunch time, Canadians really gather up. … We have our unity issues, but right now Trump is definitely causing a bit more pride than we usually show.”

Peter Hamilton is a lifelong conservative and hopes the Conservatives come out on top when the votes are counted next week. But he has seen the historic swing in the polls: a 25-point Conservative edge in January has evaporated, and the late polling shows a modest Liberal advantage.

“The bottom line is the liberals and conservatives got to work together here,” Hamilton said. “They can’t be nitpicking and arguing amongst each other. We have to work together to make this country go – go ahead.”

That consensus is critical, Hamilton says, because the United States suddenly seems so distant and unreliable.

We interviewed Hamilton at Rock Maple Lodge, a 200-acre farm in a rural area about 60 miles from Toronto. The border and Buffalo are about 100 miles away, but Hamilton said the states suddenly don’t feel so close.

Some 2,000 maple trees dot the property and there are 11 miles of tubing to carry maple syrup back to a building where it is boiled, filtered and bottled, some after additional aging in bourbon barrels from the United States. Hamilton also grows corn, wheat and soybeans and has a sawmill for a modest timber business.

Hamilton, always a proud Canadian, now feels that way more than ever. He greets a visitor in a Team Canada hockey jersey and our first stop is a farm building full of memorabilia from hockey legends: Wayne Gretzky, Guy Lafleur, Bobby Orr and many more.

In a window of another building: One of the “Proud Canadian” placards we saw over and over again during our Ontario visit, from reliably liberal downtown Toronto to the conservative rural strongholds dotted by dairy and vegetable farms and Hamilton’s Rock Maple Lodge.

Hamilton is 75 and has had the farm for 54 years, after also working in home construction. He has seen a lot. But nothing like this. Like most Canadians we met, he could not fathom why Trump decided to take the relationship from neighborly to nasty.

But he also isn’t one to dwell and believes the Canadian election is a key step for a country he says needs to reassert its independence and stress its manners.

“There is no friend anymore,” Hamilton said of the United States. “The biggest thing in Canada is we have friends all over the world. How many friends does America have right now?”

Article written by John King, CNN