A Canadian Anschluss?

By Safina Center Writer-in-Residence Paul Greenberg

Montreal’s Bell Centre at a recent hockey game. ©Paul Greenberg

The Canadian and American hockey teams took to the ice and removed their helmets. The atmosphere was as tense as an atmosphere can get in a place as non-confrontational as Canada. Then the floor of the arena was electronically draped with the fluttering projection of an American flag stretching from goal to frozen goal. “Ladies and gentleman, mesdames et messieurs,” the announcer began with bilingual equanimity, “in spite of the recent tensions between our two nations, we ask that you please rise and behave respectfully as we sing our national anthems.”

The previous week, when Canadian hockey teams faced off against American adversaries on home ice, fans in arenas across Canada booed the Star Spangled Banner, smarting from the slap in the face they’d received from what they’d always assumed was their closest friend. A 25% percent tariff on Canadian imports? A suggestion that Canada surrender its sovereignty and become the 51st American state? Where was this coming from? Were the roles reversed one could imagine much worse than boos coming from an American crowd.

But Canadians are not Americans. They have a core national value that, while cliché, happens to be mostly true: civility comes first. Cross against a red light in Canada and you will get stares. Rush out into an airplane aisle to claim your carry-on the moment the beep sounds, and the stares are even worse. Wait your turn. Respect that everyone around you has equally valid desires. Be patient and everyone will get what they need.

In spite of the new American administration’s completely unwarranted provocations, the Canadian fans around me at Montreal’s Bell Centre didn’t take the bait. Seeing the Stars and Stripes flutter on the ice while Canadians, caps off, remained utterly and completely silent, was the most powerful rebuke of American sloppy power that I’d ever witnessed.

By the time I returned to the States , it seemed that the dog whistles aimed north had slightly quieted. Justin Trudeau affirmed that the Administration’s threats to annex Canada were real, but the news cycle had moved on to other noise. Still, my brief turn in Canada made me think about the values the current leadership has abandoned, and how, with a few missteps, we could end up in the stupidest of international imbroglios.

“It’s a kind of anchluss they’re proposing,” a French-born owner of a bookstore in Montreal told me when I stopped by to drop off a few copies of my new book. An anschluss, I thought. That’s kind of right. Just as a law-flouting, intolerant Germany forced the still-democratic Austria into a forced union in 1938, so too is the convicted felon who currently occupies the White House proposing an illegal annexation of our kinder, more civil neighbor. If you widen the lens of your historical camera, you can easily see it is analogous to the way the autocratic Putin regime has waged a war of annexation against a much more liberal and democratic Ukraine. In all three cases — Austrian, Ukrainian, and Canadian — less populous, tolerant nations found themselves the object of brutal bullies next door.

The North American anschluss has not happened yet. It is only a bunch of dumb words in a sea of dumber threats. But like a roiling ocean out of which a devastating wave can emerge to wreak destruction, the wrong words at the wrong time could easily set something very bad in motion.

Which is why, for the moment, we Americans who recognize the value of the civility and fairness of our great neighbor to the north should at this time take a few words from the Canadian national anthem to heart.

“O Canada. We stand on guard for thee.”