Maybe the biggest mistake Canadians can make right now is assuming that the Canada–U.S. relationship will eventually go back to the way it was on 9/11.
I’m not so sure.
25 years ago, on the day after 9/11, Canadians and Americans across the nations and the border, grieved, rallied, and supported each other.
Like all of us, I remember that day.
Getting the boys ready for school and hearing a report on the radio that was beyond comprehension.
We turned on the TV to see the devastation in New York as the first Tower fell. Then I drove the boys to high school in disbelief and went to our church office.
I remember our church staff gathering around a television in the office with transfixed stares. I remember the sheer incredulity when the 2nd tower fell.
We held a hastily organized noon hour prayer meeting on 9/12 for America in our Edmonton church. The following Sunday, we displayed a Canadian and American flag on our altar alongside candles and prayed for our neighbours.
It was all we could do.
There was no border between Americans and Canadians. We grieved as one.
Canada responded in costly ways, going to war with the Americans in Afghanistan in pursuit of terrorists. There was nary a second thought. It was what we did. It was who we were.
25 Years Later
For generations, Canada and the United States operated on an assumption that seemed almost permanent: we were neighbours, allies and trading partners. We could argue, disagree and impose the occasional tariff, but underneath it all was an extraordinary level of trust and economic integration.
As a kid, my parents often took me across the Rainbow Bridge into Rochester, New York for a Sunday afternoon. When our family lived in Montreal, I co-hosted a weekly radio program in Champlain, New York and we drove our team of teen co-hosts across the Champlain Bridge every Saturday afternoon.
There was never any hassle or need of a passport.
I loved America. It was the land of larger soft drink cans, cheaper gas, NFL football, the Boston Bruins, and the land of the free and the home of the brave.
51st State
What once might have been dismissed as political rhetoric has been repeated often enough that Canadians have begun to hear something different in it.
Not partnership.
Pressure.
When the U.S. ambassador to Canada amplified and defended the Trump administration’s approach rather than simply acting as the diplomatic bridge between two close allies, it has further strained Canadian confidence. The Ambassador is anything but diplomatic leading to over 260,000 polite Canadians signing a petition to send him packing.
September 11 in Gander belongs first to the people who died, the people who were stranded and the Canadians who saw thousands of strangers arrive with nowhere to sleep and started finding mattresses. The American Ambassador can attend. Canadians can still disagree with him. Gander doesn’t owe anyone a warmer view of American politics. It does deserve to commemorate one extraordinary week in its own history without turning the room into another political battlefield.
And the only provincial voices heard embracing the idea of being the 51st state come from the one Jocelyn and I reside in. 23% of Albertans view the President favourably and the Prosperity Project leaders have met multiple times with US officials, including the Premier meeting with the President in Mar-a-Lago. 
So, what could the next 25 years bring?
A Different Future
Prime Minister Mark Carney has made a deliberate effort to strengthen our strategic partnership with the European Union bringing in $175 billion worth of trade in 2025, expanding cooperation on trade, energy, technology and defence, and became the first non-European country to join the EU’s SAFE defence initiative. The Prime Minister meets in Toronto on September 14–15, 2026, bringing together global financial heavyweights who collectively manage nearly $120 trillion in assets.
Presidents come and go, administrations change.
Trade agreements can be renegotiated.
But trust is harder to rebuild.
And once a country begins changing where it buys, where it sells, where it invests and with whom it builds strategic partnerships, those changes can last much longer than a presidential term.
Maybe the question before Canadians isn’t simply:
“How do we get the Americans to lower their tariffs?”
Maybe it is:
“What kind of Canada do we want to build if we can no longer assume that our relationship with the United States will always be friendly, predictable and mutually respectful?”
What do you think? Is Canada simply going through a difficult season with its closest neighbour—or are we watching the beginning of a fundamental realignment of Canada’s place in the world? Please join the conversation and post a comment below.
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