Canadians know that we need less America in our lives. In a recent poll for CNN, ninety one per cent of Canadians agreed that they wanted “to reduce their reliance on the U.S. as a trading partner.” In polling terms, that’s as close as you’ll ever find to unanimity. Later this month, we are promised, insofar as promises mean anything in the second Trump administration, a restored trade and security arrangement with the United States. But any such arrangement will, inevitably, be unstable and temporary. American chaos is deepening, and the questions that face us are bigger than tariffs and trade agreements: What does it mean to reset, not just away from the current American government, but away from America altogether, away from the American system?
