This week, I address a local topic that echoes the border town theme I’ve used before. This one, however, depicts a spin I would never have imagined a year ago.
Tariffs be damned and don’t get off my lawn!
Trump’s erratic on-again, off-again tariff impositions on Canada are the macro version of a man putting up a spite fence for no other reason than to flex his muscles over his long-time, friendly, and cooperative neighbor. Oh, DJT claims it is about fair trade, but the only parameter he sees is dollars. Economic relations are not just about the numbers, especially with an ally that shares the longest undefended border in the world, stretching approximately 5,525 miles.
My next-door neighbor is retired from the lawnmowing and snow plowing service business. Yet, he still takes his professional lawn edging skills to my yard because he likes to see a continuous clean line from house to house. I do my best to return the favor when the Lake Erie snow machine dumps its load on us, because he has a snow thrower and I have a two-stage snow blower. Such snowfalls are not a weekly event, though. Talk about an unfair balance of services!
Lately, he’s been under the weather, and I’ve had the satisfaction of cutting both of our lawns before he has a chance to do the same. The point of this friendly neighbor parable is the value of mutual respect, understanding our history, and weighing the long-term consequences of confrontation. Think before you act.
Earlier bordercrossing woes
During the COVID-19 pandemic, relations between the US and Canada were largely cooperative regarding vaccination policy and curtailed social interaction. Essential travel was permitted, but the definition of “essential” was up for debate in this cartoon from November 7, 2020.
CBSA = Canada Border Services Agency
ASFC =Agence des services frontaliers du Canada
Less than a year later, on June 26, 2021, I employed a looser, more painterly style to illustrate my thoughts on the discrepancy between US and Canadian travel restrictions.
A few months later, on September 25, 2021, I created a spoof on how Canadian visitors, who were allowed to travel by air to the US, could circumvent the ban on automobile crossings at the Niagara River.
I followed up shortly after with another editorial cartoon that went to press on November 6, 2021. Suffering American restaurants and retailers who had built much of their enterprises on Canadian purchasing power were ready with open arms to resume business. It’s ideal when a newspaper’s opinion column complements the cartoon and vice versa.
I was wary of copyright infringement with the blatant “theft” of these well-known TV cartoon characters from the 1960s, but I went ahead anyway, and to date, I have not been whisked away by burly men.
After a relatively long pause, a high-speed automobile crash at the Rainbow Bridge, which connects Niagara Falls, USA, to Niagara Falls, Canada, made headlines worldwide on November 22, 2023. The US Customs booth array was damaged, and jittery residents had to sort through online speculations about what had happened.
The international splash reminded many of us of a certain age what happened exactly 60 years earlier on November 22, 1963, when JFK was assassinated.
Terrorism was eventually ruled out; it was just a tragic accident whose exact cause remains unresolved.
The great white west?
I have drawn several other editorial cartoons that touch on Canada, but these are the ones that specifically relate to international bridges and border crossing.
Trump’s callous antagonization of our Canadian brothers and sisters (moosies and beavers, too) shows his ignorance of our cultural ties and how those of us with even marginal awareness respect our differences. I speak from personal experience, too, because my late mother was rightfully proud of her native land. She was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, which remains a major steelworking town, much like Buffalo, NY, was during the heyday of Bethlehem Steel. Mom would move to Buffalo after marrying my Dad. There was something about his Navy uniform that swooned her.
The distance between Buffalo and Hamilton was short, though—an hour and some odd minutes away—and we spent many days visiting our relatives to the west. That’s right. Let’s split hairs. Not all of Canada lies to the north of the US. It’s mostly west and then a bit north from Buffalo to Hamilton.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, relations between the US and Canada were largely cooperative regarding vaccination policy and curtailed social interaction. We all knew that the damages from those days would heal and that we could resume our neighbourly ways.
I cannot say with confidence that in my lifetime I will see a full recovery from the disrespect and bullying posture that Trump has shown to Canada. Do I have to worry about getting hassled on a return trip for drawing Trump as an orange buffoon? Small-time editorial cartoonists like me do not draw much attention, but I can’t help but think I’m on a list somewhere for future consideration. It disgusts me even to think that way, but anything seems possible these days.
To my Canadian friends and family, I repeat your mantra: “Elbows up!” How I wish this were only a game.