Off the shelf, up the flagpole: Canadian flags fly high in response to Trump
| Mississauga, Ontario
In Canada, the maple leaf is suddenly showing its colors everywhere.
The iconic flag is bolted onto the facades of brick homes. It鈥檚 planted on car dashboards. The city of Mississauga, next door to Toronto, this week raised oversize Canadian flags outside its city hall. It also removed the American flags that had been waving along the shores of Lake Ontario and in arenas where American teams often face off against Canadian hockey rivals.
Just a decade ago, newly inaugurated Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Canada the 鈥渇irst postnational state鈥� 鈥� a multicultural country bounded not necessarily by a flag but by modern shared values.
Why We Wrote This
U.S. President Donald Trump鈥檚 harsh tone toward Canada has spurred a rising nationalism to the north, albeit in a relatively friendly, Canadian-style form. Evidence of the shift: newly prominent maple-leaf flags dotting the landscape in support of the Canadian 鈥� not an American 鈥� state.
Today, with U.S. President Donald Trump launching a full-scale trade war and threatening to subsume Canada as America鈥檚 51st state, that feels like ancient history, even if Alvin Tedjo, a Mississauga city councillor, says the move is 鈥渓ess anti-American and more pro-Canadian.鈥�
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who took office on March 14, is unlikely to echo Mr. Trudeau鈥檚 definition of Canada as a place with 鈥渘o core identity.鈥�
鈥淵ou might have been able to get away with it last year,鈥� says Heather Nicol, director of the School for the Study of Canada at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. 鈥淏ut not this year, no.鈥�
Indeed, in just two months, nationalism 鈥� albeit Canadian style 鈥� has proved to hold a powerful allure. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 be post-national if you鈥檙e not national,鈥� says Dr. Nicol. 鈥淸With] the Trump threat we define ourselves now as a state. We are the Canadian state. Not the 51st state, but the Canadian state.鈥�
Mr. Carney has quickly struck a defiant new tone. 鈥淭he Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country. If they succeed, they will destroy our way of life,鈥� he said. 鈥淎merica is not Canada. And Canada never, ever, will be part of America in any way, shape, or form.鈥�
Finding solidarity
This is not the first time the United States has threatened Canadian sovereignty. It鈥檚 a theme that predates the founding of Canada itself. Capturing the territory was a 鈥渕ere matter of marching,鈥� per the infamous words of Thomas Jefferson in drumming up support for war against the British Empire in 1812. But President Trump has articulated it more forcefully, and more often, than any time in Canada鈥檚 158-year history.
In response, Canadians are running the flags up the pole 鈥� with the maple leaf conveying new meaning and a certain solidarity.
The Canadian flag, which is just 60 years old, has never cropped up everywhere from cars to lawns to gas stations, as the Stars and Stripes does in the U.S. But now, flagmakers and sellers across the nation are reporting that sales are soaring, according to media reports; meanwhile, Mississauga is the third city in Ontario to have ordered the lowering of American flags.
Anxious but angry, Canadians are boycotting American products and forgoing American vacations. 鈥淏uy Canada鈥� campaigns are gaining ground from the top down and the bottom up. But Canadians don鈥檛 tend to like what they classify as American-style patriotism.
When the Freedom Convoy, a group angry at the government for vaccine mandates during the pandemic, flew the maple Leaf in 2022 during blockades in Ottawa, for example, it evoked the kind of nationalism that many Canadians eschew.
Yet the recent U.S. tone, says Mr. Tedjo, the city councillor, has pushed Canadians toward a renewed appreciation for what it means to be Canadian. 鈥淐anadians have rallied around the flag in the last several months,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 good for Canadians to understand how we鈥檙e different.鈥�
Still, to be Canadian is also to be a neighbor, many Canadians say. At the pier at Snug Harbour, where Lake Ontario feeds into the Credit River, Roy Clifton says he has mixed feelings. The co-owner of a restaurant, who sports a Yankees cap, is not against Americans or their flag, but against their president. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really sad what has happened. This is hurting Canadians, and it鈥檚 hurting Americans,鈥� he says.
At Mississauga City Hall, Jordan Currie, a young writer, says she doesn鈥檛 trust the term 鈥減ostnational.鈥� It reminds her of 鈥減ost-feminism.鈥� To her, it鈥檚 clear that society has not yet moved beyond the need to fight gender inequality or nativism. She worries that the spat between Canada and the U.S. could bring out the worst nationalist tendencies in both countries.
When she sees the Canadian flags, like the new ones right behind her, 鈥淚鈥檓 not like, 鈥榚w,鈥� 鈥� she says. She hopes it stays that way.
