Director and cinematographer Carlos González is a permanent resident living in Vancouver, B.C., since 2023. He says the trade war 'makes no sense'.Jennifer Gauthier/The Globe and Mail
When U.S. citizen Kathy Lepold retired more than a decade ago, she and her Canadian husband decided to split their time between the two countries. Summers would be spent in Atlantic Canada, which they had fallen in love with on previous visits, and winters back home in West Chester, Penn., to be close to family and friends.
It took one year of this arrangement for Ms. Lepold to realize her ideals were more Canadian than American: the environmental beauty, the politeness and a health care system that, while imperfect, would not deplete her retirement savings. The two sold their Pennsylvania home and relocated permanently to Wolfville, N.S. The former project manager got her permanent residency, then Canadian citizenship.
Ms. Lepold, 73, is now among roughly one million U.S. or dual citizens living in Canada during U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war, which is driving a wedge between the two long-time allied nations. Like many other Canadians, Ms. Lepold and her husband have heeded the calls to shop local – boycotting U.S. goods and cancelling what would have been a month-long trip to Cape May, N.J., where they had married on the beach. Friends and family in the U.S. have asked her what is required to move to Canada, she says.
“The negative stuff that Trump’s doing just breaks my heart,” Ms. Lepold said in an interview. “I have found out, with all of this going on, that I am so patriotic. I never felt patriotic in the states. But here, I desperately want to defend Canada and help Canada, and have things work out. I’ll go fight the bully if I have to.”
Georganne Burke, a dual Canadian and US citizen, is a Trump supporter and Chapter lead for Republicans Overseas in Canada, and a co-founder of Canadian Conservatives Abroad.Dave Chan/The Globe and Mail
Carlos González, who is Spanish and Venezuelan, lived in Los Angeles for 30 years, becoming a U.S. citizen. He and his Canadian wife moved to Vancouver in 2023, wanting to provide their daughter with a safer, more independent lifestyle than she could have in the City of Angels, and so she could connect with her Canadian roots.
The director and cinematographer said the trade war makes no sense, given the President’s justification based on dubious fentanyl claims.
“Canada was there during Afghanistan. Canada went down and fought the fires in California. Canadian linemen went down to North Carolina to rebuild the power grid after the hurricane,” Mr. González said. “This is, to me, more flexing from the administration just to keep the base hyped.”
Mr. González said he feels fortunate to be living in Canada, where he can turn off the noise of U.S. politics to some degree. Still, he finds it bittersweet to see what is happening in the country that he chose to call home for three decades.
As well, his 12-year-old daughter, born in the U.S., has been distressed by the simmering anti-American sentiments brought about by tariff tensions, from school chatter and elsewhere.
“I was trying to explain to her that Canadians feel hurt for a reason,” Mr. González said. “And she’s like, ‘I know, I know, but we’re not all the same.’ But she was crying. She was really sad.”
Georganne Burke is the chapter lead for Republicans Overseas in Canada, a co-founder of Canadian Conservatives Abroad and a proud Trump supporter. She moved to Toronto from Buffalo 38 years ago, and then on to Ottawa, where she lives now.
Ms. Burke said the trade war is “distressing on many levels” but that it did not have to be this way. Mr. Trump’s stated justification for the tariffs is to hold Canada and Mexico accountable for illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking originating from their countries, she said, and “those are things that, if you look at them rationally, putting aside people’s distaste for Trump, are not unreasonable things to ask.”
Instead of taking these issues seriously, Canada retaliated with measures that only worsened the conflict, Ms. Burke said. She cited as an example Ontario’s 25-per-cent surcharge on electricity exports to the U.S., which Premier Doug Ford announced in response to Mr. Trump’s 25-per-cent tariffs on steel and aluminum. The move prompted the President to threaten a doubling of the tariffs, before a high-stakes meeting suspended both Ontario’s levies and the tariff increase.
“Don’t bend a knee to Donald Trump – that’s a mistake. He doesn’t respect that. But you also don’t slam him in the face with something like 25-per-cent tariffs on electricity to northern states in the winter and expect him not to take action,” Ms. Burke said.
Still, she is “wildly opposed” to Mr. Trump’s threats to annex Canada, and disgusted by anyone booing either anthem. She said her public support for the President has elicited hurtful comments from Canadians who question her loyalty to the country and tell her to go back to the U.S.
“I would love to say to Canadians: Please think about what you say and how it affects the people that you speak to, and be respectful that people can have different opinions.”