Episode Details

They’re booing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in Toronto. At hockey games. In Canada.

Not because Canadians have suddenly turned anti-American, but because for the first time in 150 years, they’re genuinely afraid of us. And that fear, says Andrew Coyne, is reshaping everything — their politics, their economy, their identity, their future.

Coyne is a long time Canadian political observer and columnist for Toronto’s Globe and Mail, and my guest on this recent WhoWhatWhy podcast.

When Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stood at Davos and declared “the old order is not coming back,” Coyne heard something most people missed. Not a speech — a death notice.

The assumption that had anchored Canada’s international strategy for 150 years — a stable, democratic United States to the south — was gone.