Image by John Hain from Pixabay @ https://goo.gl/Jv8A9g

Here we go again,  Trump bashing our softwood and dairy industries. What is a polite Canadian retiree to do? Well, Don Pittis may be onto something in his article, ‘America Last’: A dangerous reaction to Trump’s trade bullying.

Pittis underlines that we have enormous power as consumers. Echoing Patricia Cormack, co-author of the book Desiring Canada, “We don’t need California wine. We’ve got tons of choices.”  And the way Trump ranted against the Canadian dairy industry last week, you’d never know that Canada is a net importer of American dairy products, and that we don’t need Wisconsin cheese either.

Don’t get me wrong. There is a lot that is great (already) about the U.S., and we have long been friends and allies. But Trump is a bully. And we all know that simply standing by and ignoring bullying is giving the bully the “okay” to carry on with his behaviour.

So, in response to Trump’s “America First” policy, this bystander is ready to adopt an “America Last” policy. I will forgo my regular sun vacations to Hawaii, my favourite Washington wine, and anything else that I can buy from somewhere other than the United States, including cheese, until he wises up. America currently exports more to Canada than to any other country in the world, so if enough of us refused to buy American, it might eventually cause Trump to soften his rhetoric and treat us as the old friends and allies we really are.

But then again, it might not. He is Trump.