American apologies on Canadian soil
VANCOUVER
Between Americans and Canadians, the latter are supposed to be the people always apologizing even when unnecessary, but the last four months and change have not gone the way they’re supposed to between these North American nations. And coming from Washington in particular to one of my favorite countries for Web Summit Vancouver left me convinced that it was Americans’ turn to say “sorry” over and over.
In addition to his numerous other offenses, President Trump has treated Canada more shabbily than any president in my life, almost certainly in American history since President Madison made an invasion of Canada part of the U.S. strategy in the War of 1812.
Trump has slapped tariffs on imports from Canada based on the slanderous lie that Canada tolerates massive smuggling of fentanyl into the U.S. (Canada does not and suffers from that scourge too, as a walk Thursday night along some sketchy blocks of Hastings Street reminded me.) Trump won’t shut up about his deranged obsession with turning Canada into the 51st state; understanding that Canada consists of 10 provinces and three territories seems far beyond the president’s grasp, much less finding Nunavut on a map. He could not stop belittling the country and former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau even as Canadians began boycotting American goods and swung to the previously-doomed Liberal Party’s side, leading to a stunning win for the Liberals and Trudeau’s successor Mark Carney in April’s elections.
But nobody at this conference got on my case about any of this, even though they would have been more than entitled to do so. In particular, I could not have whined if I got yelled at by the Canadian attendees of Web Summit’s Collision conference in Toronto last year or in 2023 who had listened to me confidently predict that American voters would remember Trump’s crimes instead of returning him to the White House.
Even when I suggested in one of the three panels I moderated that a collaboration between Nvidia and the Canadian telco Telus to upgrade a data center in Quebec into a “Sovereign AI Factory” sounded like a new “elbows up” response to Trump’s thuggishness, Telus chief data and trust officer Pamela Snively assured me that this had been in the works for a while.
(Obligatory disclosure: Web Summit paid for my hotel and is reimbursing my airfare.)
I did not wind up apologizing onstage, but Fast Company tech editor Harry McCracken did just that early in an interview Wednesday of Bell Canada CEO Mirko Bibic. My fellow American and my editor at that publication noted what he called “this unprecedented time” and said he apologized for Trump’s annexationist delusions, saying “Canada is the best neighbor in the history of neighbors.” He’s right, and our country’s government is wrong. And I’m sorry too, Canada.