Trump has “unified Canadians more than we have been ever before!” former prime minister Jean Chretien said in an open letter, calling Trump’s remarks insulting and an “unprecedented threat to our very sovereignty.”
“We built a nation across the most rugged, challenging geography imaginable. And we did it against the odds. We may look easy-going. Mild-mannered. But make no mistake, we have spine and toughness,” he said.
Mark Brawley, an American Canadian professor of international relations at McGill University in Montreal, said “there are stark differences” between the two peoples.
“We have different values and they’re incompatible for us to become one country,” he told AFP.
Although Canada-US free trade since 1994 arguably brought the two sides closer together, he said Trump’s trolling is sparking a backlash and “will reinforce Canadian nationalism.”
More and more Canadians have been egging on their political leaders to take a firm stand against Trump’s designs on Canada.
Michael Connolly, a history student from Alberta in western Canada, said Canadians like himself who do not support the US president-elect were angered by Trump’s remarks.
“We are a sovereign nation with a unique identity and culture that deserves respect,” he said, urging Ottawa to “push back against American imperialism.”
