AS I SEE IT COLUMN: Slap the Super Bowl with your own tariffs

Super Bowl MCLIXV happens tomorrow.

This presents sports fans in Manitoba and across the country with a powerful way to express our collective outrage at the massive 25% tariffs on Canadian goods that Trump is threatening Canada with in 30 days: We impose our own tariffs on everything American.

If you can, boycott the game. Go tobogganing or do something “Canadian.” If you have to watch the game, watch it on its Canadian carrier, not on the U.S. channel.

If you’re hosting a party or going to one, make sure everything you buy is local and Canadian. Everything on your list will have Canadian-made equivalents, pop, potato chips, pizza and so on. It’s a tiny price to pay in helping our country survive this economic onslaught by the most powerful nation on earth.

Earlier this week the convicted criminal gave Canada a 30 day reprieve on the tariffs, but he is a madman, a sociopathic ignoramus who could easily turn the tariffs on or make them worse.

Whatever happens, we need to future proof our country from the demented whims of a bully and a thug.

And the best way to do that is to Buy Canadian.

“Shop local,” used to be a cute catchphrase. Now it’s a matter of supreme national importance. It’s an emergency. At its core Trump’s threat to Canadians is: if we don’t agree to become their 51st state, we will have to live with crippling tariffs.

We are no longer just fighting for our economy. We are fighting for our very existence as a free nation and as free people.

As citizens it often feels like there is nothing we can do when it comes to international affairs. Well, boycotting everything American, starting with the big game and then making permanent the way we shop for goods and services, is something each and every Canadian can do to fight for our country.

The Wall Street Journal, a stridently conservative publication, wrote “this is the dumbest trade war ever.” Many have written that it makes no sense for the U.S. to start an economic war with neighbours and long-time allies, but that is what they’ve done before and are threatening to do again.

We have to fight back with every means at our disposal.

If you are planning a trip to Grand Forks or Fargo or Orlando, cancel it and spend your money somewhere else. If you own a company and had planned on holding a conference south of the border, cancel that reservation and find a Canadian host for your conference. Winter vacation in the states? Cancel and find a different hot location, in a country that isn’t threatening to take over Canada.

When the Super Bowl is over, make your boycotts — your personal tariffs on all American goods and services (food, clothes, gifts, toys, gas, groceries, Amazon, tourism, everything) — permanent.

Kudos to the fans in Calgary and Ottawa who recently booed the U.S. anthem at NHL games, and the fans in Toronto who did likewise at a recent NBA Raptor’s game.

Hopefully this trend will only get bigger. The more shame we can cast on the convicted felon’s regime, the better.

I doubt it will happen, but it would be great if patriotic Canadian hockey players would kneel on the blue line or turn their back to the U.S. flag during the American anthem. Raising a fist during the Canadian anthem would be another incredibly powerful image.

Think of the world-wide coverage NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers received when he knelt to protest police brutality back in 2019.

Images of Canadian athletes in the NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLB kneeling or turning their back during the U.S. anthem, or raising their fist during the Canadian anthem, would go viral.

Make no mistake. Canada is the proverbial mouse living next to an elephant. If the trade war happens it will hurt Canada much more than the U.S., but slapping our own personal tariffs on all things American, including the game this weekend, is one way we can all defend our sovereignty and show our Canadian pride.

Be Canadian. Buy Canadian.