Devoted to my family. Harvard-trained lawyer, commentator, organic farmer, amateur pianist. Surfer, windsurfer, cyclist. Fluent in English, French, and Spanish.
Based in San Diego, California
Joined August 2013
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Il y a un fait français au Canada et surtout au sein de la société québécoise. Notre pote Astérix l’a bien dit il y a longtemps: « Il faut résister encore et toujours à l’envahisseur! »
William Markham retweeted
Bob Rae on Trump threatening to rename Lake Ontario: "He can call it whatever he wants, and I suppose we can call him whatever we want. But no matter what you say about it, it's still Lake Ontario. Where does this idiocy stop? The president should get a grip."
William Markham retweeted
The New York Times, citing several sources, confirms the Canadian version of why negotiations collapsed:
- Lutnick interfering under pressure from certain US industries to maintain higher tariffs and exclude trucks
- US demanding that Canada applies any US tariffs on other countries regardless of Canada’s trade agreements with them
- US insisted that it would retain all power to change tariff policy against Canada at any time, irrespective of the agreement - hence the pencil signature comment.
nytimes.com/2026/08/25/world…
As a dual citizen of the US and Canada, I now find myself caught between my two countries, both of which I love and admire for different reasons, since they really are distinct places.
Until now, people like me did not have to choose one or the other. Canada even changed its law on citizenship to permit dual citizenship for people like me (born in the US to Canadian parents back in 1961).
During the recent trade negotiations, the Americans apparently insisted on severe restrictions of Canada's right to make trade pacts with other countries. They did so after forcing Canada by various acts and threats to look for other, more reliable trading partners. It's that simple.
Also, the Americans reportedly wanted to ship products to Canada without meeting key French-language requirements.
All of this comes after repeated American talk of annexing Canada by using economic warfare against it. That trade war, now begun in earnest, will raise prices and kill jobs in both countries.
Just yesterday, Vice-President Vance “joked” about making Canada another State in the US. Many others in the present Administration have made similar comments since President Trump's re-election.
This much I know. Canadians will never, ever agree voluntarily to become American. Do Americans envision defeating Canada in a real war and then occupying the country indefinitely? To what end?
What do these people believe they will accomplish by deeply offending and threatening all Canadians while subjecting all of North America to the dumbest, most unnecessary trade war ever conceived?
William Markham retweeted
BREAKING: CNN's fact-checker exposes an AVALANCHE OF LIES from Trump about Canada — and there's a new one almost every day.
Donald Trump doesn't just have policy disagreements with Canada. According to CNN's chief fact-checker Daniel Dale, who happens to be Canadian himself, Trump has built his entire trade war narrative on a foundation of demonstrably false claims — and the lies keep coming.
Just today, Dale documented, Trump falsely claimed Canada's unemployment rate is "10% and rapidly rising." The actual number: 6.4%, and it's been DECLINING for three straight months. Trump also falsely claimed Canada does "95% of its business with the US." The real figure is 72%.
He blamed the entire US-Canada trade deficit on high Canadian agricultural tariffs, despite the fact that roughly 97% of US agricultural exports to Canada are already tariff-free, and the actual deficit stems overwhelmingly from cheap Canadian crude oil imports that benefit American consumers.
And that's just today's batch. Dale's running tally over the past 18 months reads like a highlight reel of fabrication.
Trump has falsely claimed Canada doesn't buy American agricultural products, when it's actually the world's SECOND-LARGEST buyer of them. He's falsely claimed Canadians support becoming America's 51st state, when polling shows overwhelming opposition.
He's falsely claimed Canada is among the world's highest-tariff nations, when World Trade Organization rankings place it near the bottom. He's falsely claimed Canada "essentially doesn't have a military," ignoring that Canadian forces have fought alongside American troops in multiple wars and rank in the upper half of NATO by force size.
He's also falsely inflated the US trade deficit with Canada to "$200 billion" (nowhere close), falsely claimed Canada bans American banks (more than a dozen currently operate there), falsely claimed Canada is "constantly surrounded" by Chinese and Russian ships (fiction), and falsely accused former PM Trudeau of using trade tensions to run for reelection — despite Trudeau, quite obviously, not running.
This isn't policy disagreement. This is a dispute over the nature of reality!
This is a sitting president manufacturing an entire economic conflict with one of America's closest allies using numbers he simply invented, over and over, across nearly two years, with virtually no correction or accountability.
When the facts don't support your trade war, apparently the solution is just to make up new facts. Someone needs to tell Trump that the world doesn’t work like that, and it may as well be CNN’s Daniel Dale.
Please like and share if you’re sick of Trump’s lies!
William Markham retweeted
Trump's reckless tariffs and trade wars are leaving Wisconsin’s farmers and producers in the lurch. Trump just sparked a trade war with Canada, Wisconsin’s largest export partner—and where in the hell are our Republican members of Congress?
Disgraceful. My statement ⬇️
ALT “Time and time again, President Trump and Republicans are causing costs to go up and making life even harder for ranchers, farmers, and producers across America, including here in America’s Dairyland—and where in the hell are Republicans in Congress? “Wisconsin’s farmers and producers, working families, seniors, and veterans are struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table, and now, many are having to go without healthcare coverage because Republicans made that more expensive, too. “Republicans are leaving America’s Dairyland and our farmers and producers behind. All Wisconsinites have to show for President Trump and Republicans taking over Congress is having to spend thousands more of their hard-earned paychecks on gas, electricity, healthcare, and other household goods we depend on every day. “It’s reckless and ridiculous—and this chaos should’ve ended a long time ago, but Republicans in Congress said no. Disgraceful.”
William Markham retweeted
In the Buffalo Niagara region, Canadians are our neighbors and friends, not our enemies.
These tariffs increase the cost of living for all Americans and cost jobs by hurting our economy. But Northern Border communities like ours disproportionately feel the economic impact of President Trump’s persistent attack on Canada through his ridiculous and chaotic tariffs.
The Constitution gives Congress, not the President, the power to regulate tax and trade. A Democratic Majority will reassert this authority and reign in this out-of-control administration.
nytimes.com/2026/08/22/busin…
J'ai la double nationalité canadienne et américaine. Mes parents, canadiens, ont quitté Montréal pour s'installer à Buffalo juste avant ma naissance en 1961.
J'aime profondément ces deux pays, même si je suis bien conscient de leurs défauts respectifs.
Cela dit, les attaques gratuites et systématiques de l’administration Trump contre le Canada sont tout à fait indéfendables. Elles vont à l'encontre des intérêts à long terme de nos deux pays et sont carrément méprisables.
Jusqu'ici, je me suis montré diplomate. J'ai même bien pesé mes mots.
Le pire, et ce qui dépasse de loin mon mépris bien mérité, c'est l’indifférence et l’apathie d’un trop grand nombre d’Américains.
Le président actuel des États-Unis ne se contente pas de piétiner sa propre Constitution et les alliances historiques de son pays : il s'en prend aussi à mon autre patrie, mon Canada bien-aimé.
Malgré ses contradictions et ses imperfections, la culture et les valeurs du Canada tout entier font partie de ce que je chéris le plus au monde. Cela n'a pas de prix.
Que les Américains indifférents acceptent de voir leur gras bouffon de président piller et détruire le monde pour son gain personnel et sa vanité enfantine sans bornes, c'est leur propre affaire. Mais pour moi, tout cela est insupportable.
Voilà.
À part tout cela, selon les autorités canadiennes, en qui j'ai pleine confiance, l'Administration Trump a tenté en toute fin de négociations d'ajouter les termes suivants :
(1) les États-Unis auraient le droit de modifier ou de limiter les accords commerciaux que le Canada cherchera à conclure avec d'autres pays ;
(2) le Canada doit permettre aux Américains d'exporter certains produits importants au Québec sans étiquetage ni instructions en français ; et
(3) l'Administration Trump pourrait imposer de nouveau les mêmes droits de douane qu'elle menaçait d'appliquer, si elle décidait, à sa seule discrétion, que le Canada ne respecte pas un standard très vague et général formulé par l'Administration elle-même qui n'a aucun sens juridique ou commercial.
Le gouvernement du Canada a donc dû rejeter ces termes, inclus par l'Administration Trump au tout dernier moment des négociations.
Pour que les choses soient claires, je suis un indépendant politique et un libéral classique au sens véritable du terme.
Je ne suis ni woke ni MAGA, comme j'aime bien dire. À mon avis, Adam Smith avait vu juste en 1776. Visitez mon Substack pour le constater par vous-mêmes.
Je m'oppose au système complexe de tarifs douaniers du Canada sur les produits laitiers, ainsi qu'à ses restrictions sur le commerce interprovincial, qui nuisent à la prospérité du pays.
Je m'oppose également à l'imposition agressive et erratique par les États-Unis de tarifs prohibitifs sur l'ensemble de ses partenaires commerciaux historiques.
Les tarifs douaniers nuisent à toutes les parties concernées. Il ne s'agit pas d'une tactique à somme nulle, mais d'une tactique perdant-perdant.
En fait, les colonies américaines se sont libérées de la Grande-Bretagne principalement en raison des tarifs douaniers et des restrictions commerciales britanniques, du type même de ceux que le président Trump est si impatient d'utiliser. Renseignez-vous sur Google.
williammarkham.substack.com/
I am a dual citizen, both Canadian and American, having been born to Canadian parents who emigrated from Montréal to Buffalo shortly before I was born there in 1961. I love both countries, even if I am not insensible of the failings of each.
That said, this Administration’s unprovoked and serial attacks on Canada are indefensible, utterly contrary to the long-term interests of both countries, and contemptible in every sense of the word.
So far, I have spoken diplomatically, using euphemisms.
What is worse, and far beneath my well-deserved contempt, is the indifference and apathy of most Americans, whose President has not only run roughshod over his own Constitution and his country's historic alliances, but also attacked my other country, my beloved Canada, whose (conflicting) values and culture, however imperfect, are things in life that I cherish. There is no price for that, really.
Indifferent Americans might not mind that their fat buffoon in office is plundering and ruining the world for his own gain and childish vanity, but I do. I do very much, as a matter of fact.
For the record, I am a political independent and a classical liberal in the true sense of the term. I am neither woke nor MAGA, as I like to say. In my view, Adam Smith got it right in 1776. Visit my Substack to see for yourselves.
I oppose Canada’s complicated system of tariffs on dairy products, as well as its restraints on interprovincial trade, which hinder Canada’s prosperity.
I also oppose the US’s aggressive, erratic imposition of prohibitive tariffs on all of its historic trading partners.
Tariffs harm everyone concerned. They are not a zero-sum tactic, but a lose-lose tactic.
Indeed, the American colonies broke free from Britain principally because of British tariffs and trade restrictions of the very kind President Trump is so eager to use. Look it up.
williammarkham.substack.com/
Check out William M.’s review of Berkley Piano on @yelp yelp.com/biz/berkley-piano-s…
Teach Phonics to Our Schoolchildren, by @WilliamMarkham5 open.substack.com/pub/willia…
Here is my post on the Mississippi miracle.
Teach Phonics to Our Schoolchildren, by @WilliamMarkham5 open.substack.com/pub/willia…
Here is my latest commentary on the current Administration and its Democratic detractors. This will likely be my last post for some time, owing to other professional obligations, but do not misconstrue my silence for indifference or acquiescence!
End the Political Duopoly Now, by @WilliamMarkham5 open.substack.com/pub/willia…