The Case for Community Care in a Time of Trump

I grew up in the United States as the child of an American father and Canadian mother. My formative years saw me embracing the identity of being American to fit into the melting pot of culture in Las Vegas.

But then the Great Recession struck and our home was foreclosed upon.

My father left. Despite my proclivity for Obama-era politics and my adoration of the long-held role models from American culture like George Bailey from It’s a Wonderful Life, who embodied the everyman striving for good that is so familiar to all, I had little choice but to be enveloped by Canadian culture as I moved north with my mom, entering a different, but similar cultural context.

My relationship with my nationality and nationalism is accompanied by complex feelings about where I come from, especially as a progressive person.

Every time I’ve felt that twinge of celebratory American nationalism around the Fourth of July, my thoughts almost immediately turn to the country’s complicity in the transatlantic slave trade or the violent dispossession of Native Americans and First Nations since first contact. Even after living in Canada for 15 years, I try to hold space for those complicated feelings every July 1, especially as we continue to hear about residential school denialism in the media.

Even so, I maintain a deep love and support for those who uplift our community in the U.S. and Canada, and they make me incredibly proud to be part of communities that look after each other so deeply.

The great Canadian poet Fred Wah has often spoken about “living on the hyphen” through two ethnicities. While I’ve felt this in regard to my mixed-race heritage, I’ve also felt a similar feeling regarding the two nations where my heritage is drawn.

Now it seems fitting, and somewhat ironically, that as I approach the end of my 20s and prepare for my next decade, I’m trying to reconcile my heritage, progressive values and politics with the fact that Canada and the United States are now embroiled in a trade war.

‘Team Canada’ feels weird when you live on the hyphen

I’ve done my level best at bringing together both of my identities, like so many British Columbians do, because of our proximity to the border. But it’s that same proximity that has caused many of us in recent days to critically reflect on our place in Canada.

For those with dual nationalities, we’re challenged with understanding and reckoning with our heritage as we hear the words “buy local” more often.

Donald Trump’s unjustified tariffs have sparked a counter-wave of Canadian nationalism that I haven’t experienced since Sidney Crosby’s golden goal, or as my older colleagues have highlighted, Canada’s refusal to engage in the Iraq War in the early 2000s.

Across the political spectrum, we’ve seen an outpouring of support for the “Team Canada” approach championed across the provinces as Justin Trudeau announced retaliatory tariffs in the late evening of Feb. 1.

People across the country have answered this call from our political leaders, regardless of stripe, to boycott American brands and choose local options at the grocery store.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew suggested we switch to Crown Royal from Kentucky bourbon.

It’s striking to me that this moment of national unity comes now. Since 2020, we’ve seen political polarization hit a fever pitch, leading most Canadians to feel as if we are divided more than ever across political, and even demographic lines.

Social media has been fostering political polarization. We’re in a moment where the governing party is choosing a new leader, all while we’re seeing restrictions on civil rights openly discussed.

Conservative strategists have even remarked that this recent new surge of Canadian nationalism has made it difficult for them to stay on message about a “broken Canada.”

A renewed desire for local solutions

The immediate threat of a recession has moved into the foreground since we learned this week that Trump’s tariffs could be delayed at least another month in Canada. But the crisis is not over; this break along the 49th parallel is here to stay.

Any novelty of Canada being called the “51st state” has worn off, and has turned to genuine anger at the thought of economic force being used to harm Canadians. Most people in Canada do not want to become part of the United States, especially progressive Canadians.

Something striking however, is that even progressives have folded momentarily into the larger “Team Canada approach,” opting to shop locally and to support British Columbia-based businesses rather than American ones, especially if they are cheaper.

I’ve been seeing many people sharing lists in community groups and on their social media pages to draw attention to the virtues of Canadian-made products and place financial pressure on the United States.

It’s clear to me that Trump’s economic threats have shaken down to even the smallest communities as we seem to have slipped the noose, at least until early March.

However, the continued dismantling of American democracy has caused many progressives to critically evaluate these events, the networks they hold, and how they can battle back together in their local context against the rise of right-wing populism in the U.S.

The looming trade war seems to have underscored a renewed sense of local loyalty for many progressives.

While I would hesitate to label it explicitly as nationalism, it can instead be argued that the importance of local governance, communities and regional economies are more important than ever as a hedge against the activities below the 49th parallel.

A key to this all: community care

The importance of local community cannot be understated in this moment. This moves beyond just divesting from and boycotting products from the United States, choosing to travel elsewhere in Canada, or scaling back business activities from our once-close ally to the south.

We should look to the enduring potential of community care once pioneered by the Black Panthers as a series of health initiatives for under-served Black communities in the 1960s. Community care shows us how deeply important it is to organize and show up for our communities.

While community aid networks still exist, they are often organized out of a response to an event, like COVID-19 or in response to a societal movement.

Progressives have always been a political group that have organized to protect their communities, whether it be standing up for civil rights, organizing and advocating for tenant protections, or creating a community of people to demand that municipal governments design safer transportation systems.

For many progressives who may share a difficult relationship to nationalism like I do, I would argue that supporting your community and those around you is fundamentally the most important thing that can be done individually in the wake of the recent trade actions from the U.S.

As many politicos know, you should never waste a crisis. As we see the dismantling of democracy in the south, it’s fundamentally important to get involved in local democratic efforts in your local communities here in B.C. and the rest of Canada.

We are seeing a massive, real-time restructuring of our known political order. We’re moving away from the idyllic multilateral system toward great power politics, and a freezing over of trade and relations.

As many have noted in the past several weeks, Trump’s election has replaced our stability on major issues with fragmentation that will remain, regardless of who is in the White House.

But I believe that communities are more powerful than the larger administrations may think they are. I see this in how progressives are organizing for the municipal election in Vancouver, how friends of mine still share information on the damaging effects of COVID-19, and even how dinner parties are returning to jumpstart community.

The news can be bleak these days. But there’s so much potential right here, in our local context.

So, show up for each other. Check in with the people around you. Invest in your region, in all the forms that takes.

How do you connect with your local community? Let us know in the comments.