AGAR: Hissy fits won’t hurt Trump

But they’ll empty our grocery shelves

Published Aug 24, 2026  •  Last updated 23 minutes ago  •  3 minute read

U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon show off the White House helipad construction on the South Lawn of the White House after an event in the Rose Garden of the White House on Aug. 24, 2026 in Washington, D.C. Photo by Win McNamee /Getty Images

See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source 

Article content

Let’s not react to unreasonable positions with unreasonable positions.

Article content

Article content

President Trump has unleashed a trade war that has the potential to be devastating to our economy and eventually his as well. Tariffs are counterproductive to both sides, serving only to drive up prices.

Anger at Trump is understandable and justifiable.

But in ruling on a boundary dispute in Waterloo, Justice Michael Gibson quoted Shakespeare’s Henry VIII: “Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.”

Too many Canadians have taken justifiable anger and ramped it up to hate. Hate is self-destructive and can lead to counter-productive actions.

Exhibit A

On Juno News, P.M. Szpunar writes an article titled, “Beyond the tantrum: Canadian self-determination demands more than anti-Americanism.”

She writes, “Grocery shopping on a beautiful Friday night, I couldn’t find celery, but that wasn’t the only thing missing; the produce section’s shelves were largely empty. Asking an employee, I learned that at least 30 percent of the store’s walk-in clientele was pressuring the grocer to boycott American produce. Here I was, a Canadian, on a limited budget, and fellow Canadians had made it impossible to purchase fresh food that’s affordable.”

Article content

Article content

Hateful people do not care what damage they cause others. They are high up on a moral horse with the certainty that anyone who does not follow their demands is beneath them.

It is exactly that type of person who tries to start a campaign to have shoppers, upon discovery of a product at the store that was sourced from America, turn that product upside down so other Canadians will know not to buy it.

All that does is force a store to pay an employee to patrol the shelves in order to set things right. The store owners have already paid for the product and need to recover their investment. A shopper like Szpunar – and there are many – is trying to stretch an already strained grocery budget to pay even more.

Shaming other Canadians’ personal fiscal decisions is shameful.

Szpunar’s excellent piece also points out, “Canadian anti-Americanism is not simply disagreement with U.S. policy. Mature disagreement could be useful – it might ask how Canada could become richer, stronger, more productive, better defended, less dependent and more capable. Instead, the lazy version is an alibi veiled in a cultural sneer, allowing Canada to avoid responsibility for its own stagnation and creeping decline.”

Article content

Don’t take your anger out at the wrong people

Trump has shown himself an enemy of Canada.

That does not mean the mom in Ohio getting her kids ready for the day is our enemy.

The American business just trying to do business is not our enemy. They have been, and will be again, our friends. They have made products available at good prices, to our benefit.

What could help would be for Americans to be more well informed on the issue. While today the trade issue dominates our media and conversation, consider the American media.

Detroit is right at the foot of two bridges carrying the majority of USA/Canada trade and the Detroit Free Press on Monday carried almost nothing on the story.

The New York Times was basically the same.

It’s a side story there.

Until the damage of a trade war sinks in on the other side of the border, what is needed here is mature Canadian patriotism, not kindergarten-like, self-harming hissy fits.

Read More

1. 

   WARMINGTON: Doug Ford says Donald Trump 'can kiss my ass'

2. 

   KINSELLA: The stones Carney has to defeat the Trump Goliath
3. 

   Thousands of Canadian jobs at risk from new Trump tariffs, study says

Article content