Hockey-loving Canadians and classic car buffs brace for Trump 'circus' and reveal how they want G7 world leaders to respond to his threats
The two teams battling on the ice at the East Calgary Twin Arenas are checking each other with ferocity – with slots in a successful Canadian youth league on the line in a country where hockey is king.
But in a region that will soon host President Donald Trump and other G7 leaders, youth sports parents and other locals are fretting about another face-off – this one involving a volatile U.S. president who vows to make Canada the 51st State.
'I think if it was reversed, we would probably have a war on our hands, because the Americans would not put up with it,' said Curtis Reynard, 47, electrical contractor whose 17-year-old son played goalie for the first of two games Saturday.
Reynard, a conservative, takes Trump's threat seriously, as the president prepares to set foot on Canadian soil for the first time since saying it was 'meant to be' the 51st U.S. State.
'I don't think he's playing around. I think he has intent around it. I think I think he's smart enough to know that we need them more than they need us, and he's willing to do whatever it takes,' he told the Daily Mail.
He has two hopes for the summit. For the 'circus to end' – and for other leaders including PM Mark Carney to find a way to work around the U.S. president.
'The only way to defuse Trump is not give him any energy. Allow him to do his rhetoric and his steam and just ignore him. Move on. Have your conversations with all of them about trade deals,' he advised.
Calgary and the oil-rich province of Alberta are known as the 'Texas of Canada,' and if there is a MAGA-stronghold north of the border, this is it.
But even people who identify with the conservative party here have grave concerns about Trump's trade threats – and are fear the real estate baron is intent on an acquiring their homeland. Some worry Trump's tariffs are a means to an unwanted end.
'I think those are crazy,' said Renee Sonen, whose 16-year old son absorbed a body blow on the ice as young men in green and orange jerseys battled before scouts, prompting a gasp from his mother.
She said 'definitely didn't care' for Trump's repeated talk about absorbing Canada.
But she wondered whether the threats helped her country by forcing it to reexamine some outdated policies and focus on internal trade.
'The U.S. has always been such a strong market, so when it got taken away, we had to get creative,' she said.
No one here has been able to completely avoid Trump's idea, raised after he secured the White House in the November elections. Many have calculated how it might affect their own bottom line, if it is indeed serious.
'The only reason I'm hesitant doing a 51st state type thing is because I don't want to have to go to privatized health care,' said Jill, 40, who came to the arena to host a birthday for her 10-year-old hockey loving son, not ruling out the idea.
She has family in the States, and worries about what would happen to her safety if Canada joined a country known for its gun violence. 'Canada, because it is friendly and it is welcoming, we feel safe here. Whereas that's not quite the case in a lot of states,' she said.
Trump's indignant blast that 'we don't need anything from Canada' including its cars struck a chord in a country that has been closely linked to the U.S. economically for generations.
Over at the Wings & Wheels classic car event at the Hangar Flight Museum in Calgary, Canadians came to a Father's Day weekend event marvel at some relics of American – and Canadian – engineering.
Inside a hangar is a model of an admired Canadian jet that got scrapped in favor of U.S.-made fighters in the 1960s. Outside on display near an aging Royal Canadian Air Force plane made in the U.S. are some of the Detroit's greatest muscle cars.
'Canada has been the U.S. biggest trading partner for God knows how many years, and we're the best of friends of the Americans,' said Bill Lambe, 85, a retired communications worker who stops to admire a 1956 white and powder blue Pontiac.
He said Trump thinks he doesn't need anything from Canada. 'But it's really interwoven to trade between Canada and the U.S. I don't think it's going to do the Americans any good.'
Trump's tariffs and threats have led to security concerns. 'We need allies. But America is an unreliable one right now,' fretted Rob Malach, a retired professor who owns a 1979 Corvette but is sizing up a classic 1974 Plymouth Duster.
'They can't ignore his tariffs, but they can personally ignore him,' he said of other G7 leaders.
Malach was infuriated by the parade honoring the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army that was underway in Washington on Trump's 79th birthday.
'Who's your model? Putin? Kim Jong-un?… I mean, yeah, throw me a parade with a bunch of tanks? I can't believe somebody with the attitude of a 13-year-old is running what used to be the leader of the free world. It's sad.'
Not far away, Dave Alle of Calgary is displaying his immaculate 1941 pickup – and it doesn't come from Detroit. Alle has one of the few remaining Fargo vehicles made during World War II in Windsor, Ontario, just across the river from Motown.
Alle works in the steel construction industry, and retooled some of the car parts himself. He finds the tariffs Trump imposed on Canadian steel maddening, and says it is hurting his bottom line.
'It's unreal what it's doing to our industry. To keep businesses – you just can't plan.' He called it all 'quite upsetting.'
'I think as Canadians, we should take it seriously,' he said, adding that they 'just need to stand up to it.'
John Gray and his wife Sue are camped out by what some car buffs would call a pinnacle of American industrial engineering: a candy red 1964 Corvette.
Gray says he hopes Trump's threats prompt Canadians to 'wake up' and diversify their industry. 'Business is business, but love is bull****,' he said, describing the bilateral relationship in terms of spoiled romance. Now, he brings up how Hitler came to power democratically.
'It's happening in the States and he's not good for the world,' he said.
A retired oil industry worker, Gray has a brother down in Texas, and used to take road trips with his son to car shows south of the border.
Now, he's 'not going across. Not for the foreseeable future.'
'When we were down there, my son and I, I can't say I met anybody that I wouldn't want to meet again. The people down there – they were friendly as hell. We had a great time. And it probably still would be. But it's just the taste, I guess you could say that. It's a shame.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Rhyl Journal
29 minutes ago
- Rhyl Journal
Sainsbury's shoppers urged to lock Nectar card points
Back in February, the supermarket introduced a new 'Spend Lock' security feature to its Nectar loyalty app. The move was put in place as a way to prevent points from being spent by anyone other than the primary account holder. This meant loyalty members could 'freeze' their points while also choosing to set where their points could be spent. It comes as in January, an investigation by the Daily Mail's This Is Money, found Sainsbury's customers had lost an estimated 12.5 million Nectar points (worth more than £63,000 over the past year) by fraudsters accessing their accounts. But now, Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at Eset is urging shoppers to monitor their account activity "frequently to detect and report any unauthorised actions promptly". He told The Sun: "It is especially important to monitor accounts more often just before Christmas as this is usually when criminals target accounts with points that have been accumulated over the year." Elsewhere, consumer expert Martyn James explained to the publisher that many people will be "unaware" that their Nectar points have disappeared. He shared: "That's because we rarely look at the app or check the total on our receipts." Martyn continued: "Download the latest version of the app and activate the lock feature.' If you haven't locked your Nectar points yet and are wondering how, it's easy - you can do so on the Nectar card app (available for free on the Apple store or Google Play). Once logged in, on your profile icon, head to 'settings' and then tap 'lock or unlock spending'. You then swipe the bar to either 'unlock' or 'lock', depending on your preferences. Have you chosen to lock your Nectar points? (Image: PA) Sainsbury's customers can change whether they want to lock or unlock Nectar points any time through the app – to spend them, they must be unlocked. Additionally, customers can continue to earn points as they shop even when spending is locked. A Nectar spokesperson said: "Nectar is one of the UK's biggest loyalty schemes, with over 23 million members. Recommended reading: Shoppers can get free money at thousands of sites with Counter Cash - here's how Christmas in June? Shoppers say 'must be a wind up' as festive stock hits stores Expert issues petrol pump warning on forecourts at Tesco, Asda, Morrisons & more "The security of our customer accounts is our highest priority and the proportion of those impacted by fraud each year is very small. "We have a range of measures which detect, and in many cases prevent fraud, including our Spend Lock feature. "Our Nectar Helpline team are on hand to support any customer who suspects they may have been a victim of fraud.'
Spectator
36 minutes ago
- Spectator
Why the Israel-Iran war could raise your taxes
If Rachel Reeves is to have any chance of making it to her autumn budget without U-turns or raising taxes, the improved economic forecasts of recent months need to come true. Missiles flying between Israel and Iran may destroy that hope. Things had been getting better for the Chancellor. Look at economic forecasts from the aftermath of Trump's 'liberation day', and there was a common theme when it came to Britain. Because of the nature of our economic relationship with America – as a massive exporter in services (we're their call centre) and with more or less balanced trade in goods – we would be shielded against the worst impacts of a trade slowdown. Global GDP growth would suffer, but the effects would not come to Britain. The real boon, if one was being positive, though was what effect these tariffs might have on inflation. While raising prices in the shops for American consumers, the view of the economic world was that for the UK they may in fact be disinflationary. That's because, as the consultancy firm Oxford Economics explained to their clients last month, dampening demand for commodities such as oil and gas would reduce the cost of products consumed in Britain. But all that was before the first Israeli missiles landed in Iran. A barrel of Brent crude now goes for over $70. On Monday it went for $65 – so there has been a 9 per cent in just five days. On Friday morning, it briefly spiked to nearly $80 in what was the sharpest price spike since Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago. Within hours of Reeves delivering what director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies Paul Johnson yesterday called an 'incomprehensible' spending review speech, economists were warning that tax rises in the autumn were becoming likely. Just a day later, a worse-than-expected GDP contraction turned likely into very likely. If oil prices continue climbing as the war escalates, tax rises could become certain. Some 20 billion barrels of oil pass through the Strait of Hormuz, or about 30 per cent of total global trade. So it's easy to see how if Tehran tried to attempt to close the Strait – as Iranian news reports it is considering – or even attacked a few tankers, the oil price would quickly head northwards again. Indeed the FT reported yesterday that the world's largest oil tanker company has stopped accepting new contracts to sail through the Strait. If oil prices do continue to rise – and some say disruption in the Strait could send the price over $100 a barrel – it would be mere days before Brits start paying the cost at the petrol forecourt. But oil supplies are crucial to much more than petrol and diesel and taken together, it's easy to see how the rate of inflation remains sticky or even begins to rise again. Given that the bond markets are keeping the cost of UK debt far higher than the Treasury has been used to – much more because of inflation worries and the after effects of money printing than is understood in Westminster – any signal that prices were rising again are not going to give them faith in Britain as a debtor. If that were to happen and gilt yields remain high, or even climb further, then Reeves could find herself in heaps of trouble. It surprises many City economists just how unequivocal the government has been about sticking to fiscal rules and indeed keeping Labour's manifesto promise not to 'raise taxes on working people' given how hard that is when Reeves only has £9.9 billion of headroom. Before her Spring Statement the chancellor talked of the economic challenges posed by a 'changing world'. Things in the middle east have a habit of spilling over and the world seems to be changing again. Could this once more be the excuse the chancellor has to reach for?
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
G7 leaders meet in Canada hoping to avoid Trump clash
BANFF, Alberta, June 15 (Reuters) - Group of Seven leaders gather in the Canadian Rockies starting on Sunday amid growing splits with the United States over foreign policy and trade, with host Canada striving to avoid clashes with President Donald Trump. While Prime Minister Mark Carney says his priorities are strengthening peace and security, building critical mineral supply chains and creating jobs, issues such as U.S. tariffs and the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine are expected to feature heavily. U.S. ally Israel launched a barrage of strikes across Iran on Thursday, a blow to Trump's diplomatic efforts to prevent such an attack. The summit will take place in the mountain resort of Kananaskis, some 90 km (56 miles) west of Calgary. The last time Canada played host, in 2018, Trump left the summit before denouncing then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as "very dishonest and weak" and instructing the U.S. delegation to withdraw its approval of the final communique. "This will be a successful meeting if Donald Trump doesn't have an eruption that disrupts the entire gathering. Anything above and beyond that is gravy," said University of Ottawa international affairs professor Roland Paris, who was foreign policy adviser to Trudeau. Trump has often mused about annexing Canada and arrives at a time when Carney is threatening reprisals if Washington does not lift tariffs on steel and aluminum. "The best-case scenario ... is that there's no real blow-ups coming out of the back end," said Josh Lipsky, the chair of international economics at the Atlantic Council think tank and a former White House and State Department official. Carney's office declined to comment on how the Israeli strikes would affect the summit. Diplomats said Canada has ditched the idea of a traditional comprehensive joint communique and would issue chair summaries instead, in hopes of containing a disaster and maintaining engagement with the U.S. A senior Canadian official told reporters Ottawa wanted to focus on actions the seven members - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States - could take together. Canadian Senator Peter Boehm, a veteran former diplomat who acted as Trudeau's personal representative to the 2018 summit, said he had been told the summit would last longer than usual to give time for bilateral meetings with the U.S. president. Expected guests for parts of the Sunday to Tuesday event include leaders from Ukraine, Mexico, India, Australia, South Africa, South Korea and Brazil, who all have reasons to want to talk to Trump. "Many will want to talk to President Trump about their own particular interests and concerns," Boehm said by phone. A senior U.S. official said on Friday working discussions would cover trade and the global economy, critical minerals, migrant and drug smuggling, wildfires, international security, artificial intelligence and energy security. "The president is eager to pursue his goals in all of these areas including making America's trade relationships fair and reciprocal," the official said. The visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to the Oval Office in February descended into acrimony and has served as a warning for other world leaders about the delicate dance they face in negotiating with Trump. But diplomats say the frustration of dealing with the Trump administration has made some keener to assert themselves. Canada has long been one of Ukraine's most vocal supporters. Trump came to power promising to end the war with Russia within 24 hours but diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have stalled. One Ukrainian official involved in preparations for the summit said hope had faded for a strong statement in support of Ukraine. Instead, success for Kyiv would merely constitute an amicable meeting between Trump and Zelenskiy. A European official said the G7 summit and the NATO summit in The Hague later in June provided an opportunity to underscore to Trump the need to press ahead with a sanctions bill put together by U.S. senators alongside a new European package to pressure Russia into a ceasefire and broader talks. Trump's first international summit will offer some early clues on whether Trump is interested in working with allies to solve common problems, said Max Bergmann, a director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'The big overarching question here is, basically, is the United States still committed to formats like the G7? That is going to be the big test,' Bergmann said. French President Emmanuel Macron has said he has a good, but frank relationship with Trump despite differences on subjects such as Ukraine or climate change. Macron said on Friday that a United Nations conference co-hosted between France and Saudi Arabia scheduled after the G7 to work towards a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians has been postponed.
