A dagger in the heart

Landing on beaches in France on D-Day as cannons fired Canadian soldiers died alongside American soldiers. Decades later Canadian soldiers fought and died beside our soldiers in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Neighbors, not always seeing eye to eye, Americans and Canadians have been friends for decades. Treating each other with mutual respect our friendship endured.

Sadly the wind’s shifting.

Saying they’ve been ripping us off President Trump demanded Canada pay us billions in tariffs.

Of course, our friends in Canada didn’t see it that way.

After feuding over tariffs for the past year, going back and forth, last week President Trump announced the feud was over. We’d agreed to a deal. Both sides were happy.

Three days later the deal broke apart, into pieces. The next day Trump slammed Canada with billions in tariffs. And striking back Canada put tariffs on us.

The feud didn’t end well. But there was still hope wounds would heal. We’d weathered disagreements in the past.

Then President Trump made a silly mistake.

He hurled an insult, mocking Canada changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America.

That put a dagger in the heart of friendship. Mutual respect vanished. It’s hard to trust a neighbor who insults you.

We wake up each morning in a fallen world surrounded by powerful foes.

You have to wonder what that insult will mean to our other friends? Will they no longer trust us? Turn and walk away? Will we end up standing on shaky ground?