In 2022, Stephen Marche, a keen observer of American society and politics, published the scariest book I have read in years, The Next Civil War. It was so unsettling I couldn’t write about it here.

On Monday I read an essay he published in the New York Times with his thoughts on the Canada-US trade war. I thought they were worth repeating here.

For Canada, the choice came down to either severe but temporary economic instability or binding itself to a pseudo-democratic fiscal basketcase of a nation, whose only apparent foreign policy objective has become domination for the gratification of its president’s slapdash vanity.

And the closing: The American president clearly did not know whom he was dealing with. He is following in the grand tradition of American leaders starting wars with people they don’t understand, then wondering what went wrong.

Harsh words, especially those first ones. But I think he has captured the spirit of Canada these days. Trump’s tariffs will hurt. Thousands may lose their jobs. But to Make America Go Away (MAGA) it will be well worth it.