David M. Shribman: While Americans are distracted, Canada and Mexico get together

Hardly noticed in the United States amid its worries about domestic tranquility was an important, telling and symbolic development that prompted bold-faced headlines here in Montreal.

While the U.S. was struggling over the meaning of free expression and debating who should be vaccinated, Canada and Mexico pledged closer trade and security ties and spoke of a "strategic comprehensive partnership."

And while Donald Trump was enjoying classic British pageantry in London, the meeting between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum caused barely a ripple in the behemoth between the two North American lands. The account of the leaders' session and the agreement forged between two-thirds of the countries in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) — the successor to NAFTA — rated an account that appeared toward the bottom of Page 6 of the print edition of The New York Times.

"This agreement is Canada getting things in order before we face new tariffs and yet more insults," John English, a former member of Parliament who was the general editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, said in an interview. "We have to work with the Mexicans by ourselves. In some ways, the United States has gone to the sidelines."

And though the Carney-Sheinbaum meeting was a ripple in the United States, it was a tsunami in its neighboring countries.

That is a result of two factors, one a result of history, the other a product of hysteria.

The historical is the indifference Americans have felt about the countries on its borders. The maxim of the prominent 20th-century columnist James Reston — that Americans will do anything about Central America but read about it — has long applied to Mexico as well. As for Canada, John F. Kennedy is remembered for his celebration of ties to our northern neighbors ("Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends," he said in his 1961 visit to Ottawa), but former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau had it right eight years later ("Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt").

The hysteria grows out of Trump's wielding of the tariff weapon and his demeaning reference to former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the son of the elephant whisperer, as "Governor Trudeau" and to Canada as "the 51st state."

These ripostes prompted an unprecedented surge in Canadian patriotism and pride, surpassing that of 1967, when the country marked the 100th anniversary of confederation with the internationally acclaimed Expo 67 world's fair here. That explosion of nationalism was perhaps best captured in the title of Tom Hawthorn's account ("The Year Canadians Lost Their Minds and Found Their Country: The Centennial of 1967").

The evidence of the turn of minds in Canada and the new resentment of the United States is evident everywhere, but perhaps clearest in the grocery store.

In recent weeks, Daphne Taras, who was dean of business schools at the University of Saskatchewan and Toronto Metropolitan University, purchased a passel of stickers bearing the American flag and pasted them on American products on the shelf — a not-so-subtle warning that those items shouldn't pass into Canadians' shopping carts.

Though Canada has no citrus crop — the closest orange grove is 1,500 miles south — Oasis orange juice bottles have been flying out of the refrigerated section of supermarkets because of their labels: "Proud Canadian Brand" on the front, "Prepared in Canada" on the back. The company, which uses oranges from Brazil rather than from Florida, is capitalizing on its slogan boasting "Oasis orange juice is Canadians' #1 ally, no matter what the day has in store."

Also indicative of this trend is the ketchup kerfuffle — kind of a northern analog to the "Margarine Wars" that broke out in Iowa in the 1930s over whether oleomargarine was an acceptable substitute for butter — that emerged shortly after Trump was inaugurated for his second term in the White House.

Though Heinz Kraft, which sells the condiment under the iconic Heinz name, crows that its product sold here "is made in Canada, by Canadians, using Canadian tomatoes," some bottles — including the one I bought at the Super C supermarket here the other afternoon — say "Product of USA." The company took out a full-page advertisement in the Globe and Mail newspaper to affirm its Canadian identity but admitted that American ketchup finds its way to Canada during periods when its Mont Royal, Quebec, plant cannot meet "unanticipated increases in consumer demand."

Likewise, Canada is turning to Mexico, traditionally a trade afterthought here, because it has grown frustrated with dealing with unanticipated increases in Trump's demands.

"We never really had much of a relationship with Mexico because it was overshadowed by the trade and cultural relationship with the United States," said Taras. "It's odd to hop over the United States. It seems weird. But this is a weird time. We'd like a relationship with the U.S. — Trump may be a temporary phenomenon — but we're like a dancer with feet sticking like glue."

At the same time, Canada is making fresh overtures to Asia and Europe.

A prime example: Though Justin Trudeau argued there "never has been a strong business case" to export Canada's liquefied natural gas to Europe, Carney last month identified what he called an "enormous" potential market in Germany." In a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, he spoke of a 40% expansion of the Port of Montreal and a revitalization of a deep-water Arctic port in Churchill, Manitoba.

The show of unity in Mexico City was also a show of solidarity. The two countries have from time to time sparred, sometimes one seeking advantage, sometimes one slighting the other in trade negotiations with the United States. There were hurt feelings when Trump exempted tariffs on Canadian goods covered under the USMCA but didn't extend the same exemption to Mexican goods.

"Of course, we are going to cooperate directly, as we always have," Carney said at a news conference after the meeting between the two leaders. "Canada is absolutely committed to work with both our partners," implying both Mexico and the United States. "Is that unequivocal enough for you?"

About as unequivocal as the "Proud Canadian Brand" label on the jug of OJ.

***

David M. Shribman is the former executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.