When a nation as inherently moderate as Canada is driven to a trade war with its closest neighbour, the world should take note
3-MIN READ3-MINZhou XiaomingZhou Xiaoming is a senior fellow at the Centre for China and Globalisation in Beijing and a former deputy representative of China’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva. Published: 4:30pm, 13 Sep 2026For anyone who has spent time living in Canada, the country’s default posture towards its southern neighbour has long felt almost hard-coded: polite, deferential, almost allergic to confrontation.I saw this first-hand as a visiting scholar in the country in the early 1980s, when I met locals who embodied the national stereotype of moderation in all things. Canadians preferred compromise even when they had a right to push back, treating their far larger ally as a partner to be accommodated, not challenged.
Canada sends nearly three-quarters of its merchandise exports to the United States, it shares a border of nearly 9,000 kilometres with it and it is deeply integrated with its military and security apparatus through the North American Aerospace Defence Command. Its choice to stand up to the US is more than a news story – it is a turning point.
