Growing up in the 1950s, Evans family vacations seem typical by rural Midwest standards: car trips to the Ozarks, the Black Hills, Nauvoo and New Salem in Illinois, or St. Louis for a Cardinals baseball game.
But one memorable summer trip, around 1960, occurred when we motored north through Minnesota to Canada, the only foreign country my parents ever visited and a place more exotic than the Wisconsin Dells.
Exotic? Absolutely. This trip *required* us to stop at the border and clear a Canadian customs check.
Well, in our case, we *should* have stopped at the border. Instead, we learned a finer point of international travel.
With Dad at the wheel of our Dodge Coronet, with Mom comfortable in the front seat, and with three rambunctious boys squeezed into the seat in the back, we rolled right through the rural border checkpoint without slowing or stopping.
Then the sirens began wailing.
Dad made a U-turn and took us back to the port of entry. There, a Canadian customs official politely explained we were welcome to enter Canada and he hoped we would enjoy our visit, but we did need to stop to check in first.
Dad took the lecture politely — although he told us when he got back into the car, he was tempted to ask the border guard if he could pass gas in Canada or if he would need to return to the United States to do that.
Since then, our nations have shared more consequential and memorable interactions.
In November 1979, militants stormed the United States embassy in Tehran, Iran, and took 52 employees hostage, including Iowa native Katherine Koob. Six other U.S. diplomats sneaked away, finding refuge at Canada’s embassy. Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor provided them secret sanctuary inside his home.
His was not a mere polite act of kindness. The ambassador and his American guests faced risks of harm, or death, if militants discovered their hiding place.
Three months later, in a clandestine effort organized by Canadian officials and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the six diplomats escaped Iran using fake Canadian passports and forged Iranian travel documents.
Many details of this rescue stayed secret for 30 years. Yet, the world always knew how the Canadians put their own safety in jeopardy to free the six Americans.
Once news broke that the hostages made it out of Iran safely, billboards went up along the heavily travelled route between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. The billboards bore a simple, heartfelt message: “Thank You, Canada.”
Canadians were deserving of a similar “thank you” on September 11, 2001, in the wake of 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacking and crashing four airliners that morning in New York City, Washington, D.C., and rural Pennsylvania.
Once the scope of the attacks became apparent, the FAA grounded all commercial airline traffic over or destined for the United States. In one of the most improbable stories from 9/11, 38 passenger jets carrying 7,000 travelers landed in the small Canadian community of Gander, Newfoundland, nearly doubling the city’s population.
The people of Gander rallied to care for these unexpected visitors. For the next few days, until the United States reopened the skies, the people of Gander housed, fed, clothed, and tended to the emotional and medical needs of their guests, tucking them into schools, churches and homes.
The Canadians’ hospitality, genuine kindness and compassion are seen as an enduring symbol of the spirit of human kindness in the face of adversity.
These examples of Canadians’ goodness, without expectation of favor or praise, seem so out of place when contrasted with President Donald Trump’s ugly comments about Canada in recent weeks.
At no time during those frightful days after 9/11 did the people of Gander snipe about the Americans taking advantage of their hospitality. The people of Gander never unleashed unkind comments about their American guests. The people of Gander never demanded the visitors “pay up.”
Friends do not forget. Friends do not threaten annexation or takeovers. Friends deserve respect.
Yet few seem surprised our president talks of redrawing the border to give the U.S. dominion over the Great Lakes, or bringing Canada to its knees economically with tariffs, or annexing all of Canada as the U.S.’s 51st state.
Few American politicians fact-check our president’s claim that Canada is a big source of illegal fentanyl in the United States, even though Canadian officials document how their customs agents seize far more drugs and guns being smuggled *from* the U.S.
With our president now blaming Canada for taking advantage of the U.S. in trade, it is important to remember how he described the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement his administration negotiated and signed in 2018. During his first term, he called the USMCA “the most significant trade deal ever made.”
The byproducts of our president’s rhetoric are real.
Canadian kindness and goodwill have given away to booing when American hockey teams play in Canada — matches when, traditionally, fans from both nations applaud the singing of “O, Canada” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Further, according to the OAG travel data company, airline bookings for trips from Canada to the United States in the next six months have fallen by 70 percent compared with a year ago.
These developments correlate to White House rhetoric and signal the two nations’ relationship is in distress.
The comments of Nikki Haley, the United Nations ambassador during our president’s first term, apply in this context.
She recently said: “Times are changing in this world, and that’s not a bad thing. But my hope is that America is never so arrogant to think we don’t need friends. After 9/11 we needed a lot of friends. Thank God they were there for us. Don’t ever forget that.”
Many of us have not forgotten.
Yet, sadly, our president’s oral flatulence casts to the wind that Canada is our closest friend, rather than a foe he should criticize, control, or conquer.
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Randy Evans can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com.
