(iPoster) Neighborly Metaphors and Canada-U.S. Relations amid the Trump Tariff Threat

• In Event: Poster Session: International Political Economy I & Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Policy
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Policy

Abstract

Canada’s geographic position as the U.S.’ northern neighbor has served as an indelible lens through which to study Canada-U.S. relations. Canada’s ‘strategic geography’ (Pickford and Collins 2018) is frequently cast as a given around which Canadian interests must be pursued and relations with the U.S. deftly navigated. In this paper I propose a novel approach to analyze Canada-U.S. relations: rather than focusing on the geographic fact that these countries are neighbors, I examine how Canadian politicians have articulated what their ‘neighborly’ relationship with the U.S. means for Canadian foreign policy. In other words, this paper does not examine Canada-U.S. relations through the geo-strategic location of the two states, but rather through political invocations of neighborly metaphors that offer interpretations of this geography.

Utilizing a discursive approach (Campbell 1998, Milliken 1999, Hansen 2006) to Canada-U.S. relations, this paper focuses on the neighborly articulations of Canadian politicians surrounding a key topic of tension in Canada-U.S. relations: the Trump Administration’s widely publicized threat of applying 25% tariffs to all Canadian exports to the U.S. While commentary on this threat has primarily centered on the geography of the two countries (the increased costs Canada would face to export goods to more distant states, the cross-border trading infrastructure in place, etc), few have asked how Canadian politicians make sense of this geography in relation to this threat and mounting a policy response.

I examine the public statements made by four individuals at the center of Canada’s response to the Trump Administration’s tariff threat: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Official Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, four politicians who have been most outspoken on Canada’s response. I utilize a method of structure-focused metaphor analysis (Hulsse 2006), to examine the varied meanings of neighborly metaphors and how their invocations shape and structure foreign policies (as opposed to an agent-focused approach that focuses on uncovering the intention behind the use of metaphors). This study analyzes public statements made between November 25, 2024, the date President-Elect Trump first declared his intention to apply 25% tariffs to Canada following his re-election as U.S. President, and April 30, 2025, covering the roughly 2 month period between Trump’s election and start of his administration along with the first 100 days of the Trump Administration.

Preliminary findings suggest that these four Canadian politicians link one of three different policy responses to the tariff threat through invocation of one or more different articulations of Canada-US ‘neighborliness.’ First, the policy of applying retaliatory tariffs (articulated by Trudeau) is frequently linked to the metaphor of Canada as a 'disappointed neighbor,' preferring the two countries embrace their cultural ties, “brotherhood,” and the benefits of their advantageous proximity by working together but concluding a response of equal measure is a last but necessary resort. Second, the policy of escalating beyond retaliatory tariffs to more drastic measures, including a total or partial stoppage of Canadian energy shipments to parts of the U.S. (articulated by Doug Ford), is linked to a metaphor of Canada as an 'angry neighbor,' articulating the geographic proximity not as a territory shared by two family members but rather two longtime friends, one of which has just spurned the other unnecessarily, instigating competition. Third, the policy of acquiescence that America’s proximity and market size advantage over Canada leaves Canada simply to accept the tariffs and avoid escalating the situation further (articulated by Danielle Smith), is linked to a metaphor of Canada as a 'resigned neighbor,' neither familial nor competitive with the US but more a product of an unfortunate geographic location.

The varied meanings assigned to neighborly metaphors offers a novel contribution to the study of Canada-US relations, namely, that while Canada’s geographic location remains unchanged, the meaning of this geographic proximity is multi-vocal and serves as an interpretive lens through Canadian foreign policy toward the US is developed.

Author

• Taylor Robertson McDonald, Otterbein University