Trump Is an Impossible Neighbor. Just Ask Canada.

Instead of fighting all these North American fires together, Trump accused Canada of poisoning American air and promised new tariffs.

Edwin Eisendrath is the former CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Alderman who hosts It's The Democracy Stupid on Lincoln Square and a weekly radio show on WCPT820AM/ Heartland Signal. Subscribe to his Substack.

Good neighbors make all the difference. They leave you in peace. They support you in need. They work with you to make the neighborhood better for you both.

Canada is a good neighbor. The United States, under the unitary executive authority of Donald Trump, is not.

When the United States was attacked on 9/11, Canada stepped up. More than 40,000 Canadian soldiers served in Afghanistan and 158 died there.

The border between the United States and Canada is 5,525 miles long. It is the longest border in the world. While many nations spend fortunes defending their borders, this one is an inspiration — peaceful, cooperative, prosperous and beautiful.

The job of marking and maintaining that border does not fall to the military but to the International Boundary Commission, created by treaty in 1908. Per the Commission website: “the boundary is a model neighbour (sic). Quiet, discreet, but always present.” The website is in French, as well as English.

Together, Canada and the U.S. built an enormous, integrated, bilateral trade relationship. Before Trump’s tariffs, total trade came close to a trillion dollars annually. Important industries, like energy, agriculture, industrial supplies, and automotive, are integrated across our two countries. Seventeen percent of all U.S. goods exports to Canada. Millions of American jobs depend on that trade.

Land border crossing measured at major crossing points are:

Source: https://data.bts.gov/stories/s/Data-Visualizations/pbt9-k67k

Of course, people and goods also come by boat and plane. There are even spots along this long border where hikers cross back and forth without much notice.

Both nations have large forests, and both have seen increases in the duration and frequency of wildfires due to climate change. According to reporting in the Guardian, 843 active wildfires are currently burning across Canada and 181 of these are “out of control.” That’s bad news. But it’s also just part of the bigger North American picture.

Here’s an image from the U.S. government’s National Interagency Fire Center’s website today:

As you can see, more than 40,000 wildfires burned in the United States this year. Nearly 1.5 million acres destroyed in large fires; that’s a subset of the nearly 4 million acres burned so far this year.

American fires choke Canadians as much as Canadian ones choke us. We used to understand this. Our response was smart and it made things better. By agreement, fire fighters travel between countries to assist during emergencies. According to the National Interagency Fire Center:

“This cross-border support is made possible through a long-standing agreement between the United States and Canada, first established in 1982. This crucial partnership is rooted in shared landscapes, common challenges, and a mutual commitment to protecting lives, property, and natural resources.”

Americans listening to Donald Trump will never hear any of this. Not the benefits of a long and peaceful border. Not the economic powerhouse our integrated economy has become. Not the free movement of people and goods between our two nations. And certainly not the cooperation that helps limit the damage of wildfires.

Donald Trump and his party will always choose to be angry rather than smart. To them, working with anyone is a sign of weakness, and blaming everyone signifies strength. Instead of fighting all these North American fires together, Mr. Trump accused Canada of poisoning American air and promised new tariffs. GOP lawmakers, as ever, followed their boss’ lead and issued their own threats against our northern neighbor.

None of their rage helps put out the fires. None of it helps address the causes of increased wildfire activity. All of it weakens on of the strongest international partnerships in history — the one that underlies the longest, most peaceful and arguably the most prosperous border on the planet.

The damage caused by the fires is terrible, but measurable. The damage caused by Trump and MAGA is incalculable.

By the way, our southern border is also maintained by a commission. Its website blares: “Our mission is to protect Americans from exposure to Mexican sewage …”

Good grief.