Francis Wilkinson, Columnist

Canadians Are Extremely Confused Right Now

During a recent trip north, the locals were full of questions about why the US president had targeted them.

March 16, 2025 at 12:00 PM UTC

Francis Wilkinson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering US politics and policy. Previously, he was executive editor for the Week and a writer for Rolling Stone.

Canada’s new PM isn’t the only one trying to figure out what’s going on.
Photographer: Graham Hughes/Bloomberg

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I thought they might be angry.

Over the past quarter century, I’ve spent big chunks of time in Canada — Montreal and Toronto on occasion, but mostly Vancouver and the South Shore of Nova Scotia. Vancouver is beautiful, but Nova Scotia has a unique hold on me; for a few years my wife and I owned a 200-year-old cottage there. So I was curious how we would be greeted on a return trip this month after President Donald Trump’s twin assaults on Canada’s economy and sovereignty.