The historic friendship between Vermont and Quebec continues to come under strain from the rhetoric and actions of President Donald Trump. His administration has imposed tariffs on Canadian goods and has threatened more. He has also openly talked about making Canada 鈥渢he 51st state.鈥�
Canada has responded to this aggression by imposing tariffs on American products, and ordinary Canadians are cancelling trips to Vermont and booing the American national anthem at sporting events.
开云体育 reporter Brittany Patterson wanted to know how Canadians are feeling about all of this, so she spent some time last week at a business roundtable in Newport and on the streets of Magog. Patterson sat down with host Mary Williams Engisch to debrief. This interview was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We鈥檝e also provided a transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Mary Williams Engisch: Brittany, you had a chance to hear from Quebec business leaders and some ordinary citizens too. It sounds like the concerns here are growing well beyond tariffs and trade.
Brittany Patterson: Yeah, Mary, I think that's right. You know, to be clear, Canada and the U.S. are closely tied economically. They're each other's largest trade partners. We're talking billions of dollars worth of goods and services cross the border every single day. So last week, Sen. Peter Welch organized this roundtable in Newport, and it brought together business owners from both sides of the border to talk about this economic impact of the tariffs. But almost immediately, it was clear that while there were very real economic concerns, there is also a growing hurt and anger at what the U.S. is doing.
Here's Marie-Claude Bibeau, a member of Parliament who represents a district in Quebec that includes part of the border with Vermont.
Hon. Marie-Claude Bibeau: What's going on in Canada is without precedent. The threat is over and above tariffs right now, and I'm even a bit, a bit emotional when I say that, because it's a threat against our sovereignty. And if it was a joke the first 24 hours, it's not a joke anymore. We take it very seriously.
Brittany Patterson: As the event wound down, I was also struck by her parting statement. [There] was kind of a plea in Bibeau's voice as she addressed Sen. Welch. Let's listen:
Hon. Marie-Claude Bibeau: Thank you for all the work you've done and that you continue to do. I don't want to put too much pressure on you, [laughter] but we need your support.
Brittany Patterson: It really felt like an acknowledgement that Canada has very little leverage here. This is really in the hands of President Trump.
Mary Williams Engisch: Brittany you've done some prior reporting on Canadians boycotting the U.S., canceling plans. Is there any kind of precedent in recent history for anything like this with Canada?
Brittany Patterson: One thing to keep in mind is that Canada and the U.S. have, for decades, been extremely strong allies. I spoke to Jeffrey Ayres. He's political science professor at St. Michael's College and an expert on U.S.-Canada relations, and he told me there had been, "no greater ally" than Canada to the U.S. since at least WWII. So we're talking decades here. And that's not to say that there haven't been clashes between the two nations, especially in recent decades when it comes to trade, but this feels different.
Jeffrey Ayres: There's never been a president or an administration in U.S. history that's disparaged Canada in this way. And ,you know, that treats an ally and a friend and someone with beyond economic relations, but with, you know, deep, cultural and normative, almost family relations. So I think that's what's so particularly shocking about it.
Mary Williams Engisch: I know you spent some time in Magog community that sits right along the northern tip of Lake Memphremagog. So that obviously has some strong connections to Vermont.
Brittany Patterson: I did, and perhaps unsurprisingly, you know, not a lot of folks wanted to speak with an American reporter, but in the conversations that I did have, you know, I heard a lot of different variations on astonishment, and largely because it feels like most Canadians, they don't understand what the end goal here is.
I spoke with Michel Hemel, who's lived in Magog for three years and Montreal before that, and I asked him what he makes of Trump's actions, including the tariffs.
Michel Hemel: Most of people that I'm talking the think it's ridiculous for you, American, and also for us. We're victim of that. And for the rest about Trump, I think it's one of the worst president of the planet. So that's my opinion.
Brittany Patterson: I also spoke with Magog residents that said the longer this goes on, the more afraid they are becoming. One woman said she had American friends and even Americans on the street or at her workplace who would stop and apologize to her. She was laughing; it's kind of a twist on the stereotype that Canadians are always the ones apologizing. But I also heard things like "I never thought we'd live to see this." And I heard fear that we are on the path toward the possibility of war.
Mary Williams Engisch: Oh my gosh, I need to stop you right there you. So you spoke with Quebec residents who are legitimately worried that the U.S. could launch a military invasion of Canada?
Brittany Patterson: I did, and I think this is a change from when I was speaking with Canadian residents even just a few weeks ago. I heard lots of comparisons that the current actions mirror those in the lead up to WWII, and a lot of folks cited President Trump's friendly posture toward Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin as another piece of evidence, and they feel powerless. Multiple people told me that they never thought they would see the U.S. turn on Canada like this. And almost unanimously, folks I spoke with said they would not visit the U.S. while this continues.
Mary Williams Engisch: Well, we know travel goes both ways on the border. Vermonters are long accustomed to visiting Montreal and many other places in Quebec and also other places in Canada. Any sense of how that dynamic may be changing?
Brittany Patterson: I ran into this group of four Americans who were visiting. They were doing a girls trip in Magog, and they'd been here before, and they'd had a great time. That included Julie Hoegger, who came from New Hampshire, and she was worried about whether they would be welcome in Canada.
Julie Hoegger: It's disappointing, and I'm appreciative of the Canadian population that they don't consider every citizen of the United States as a part of what's going on with our country, and I'm hopeful that it stays that way.
Brittany Patterson: But you know, things are changing seemingly daily, and it's a little bit hard to know.
