By Christian Tufino
The trade war between Canada and the United States, set off by President Donald Trump’s tariffs of up to 25% on Canadian goods, leaves Canadian citizens living in Plattsburgh in an awkward situation.
Whether it be for a weekend trip or immigration to the United States, Canadian citizens often go to Plattsburgh as it is located directly next to the Canadian border. This makes the relationship between both countries very important to Plattsburgh’s population.
Many residents of Plattsburgh and students attending SUNY Plattsburgh often visit Canada Montreal. SUNY Plattsburgh is also attended by many Canadian students wanting to study in America.
Isaiah Collins, a Canadian cultural exchange student funded by the United States, has experienced the effects of these tariffs in his day-to-day interactions.
“I was talking to someone and the topic of where I’m from came up, I said ‘Canada,’ then he patted me on my shoulder and said ‘I want you to know there are a lot of Americans supporting Canada,’ but that wouldn’t even have be a conversation a few months ago,” Collins said.
The relationship between Canada and the United States was, until recently, a cordial one where support for one another was implied and didn’t have to be said out loud according to Collins.
Andrew Lang, Director of the Global Education Office, has seen the effect of Trump’s first administration on international students enrollment and isn’t optimistic about the rest of his second term.
“There was a sharp decrease in international student enrollment in the US under the first President Trump term. We got some of those numbers back in the past years, but it’ll be interesting to see if we keep those numbers or if they’ll continue to fall again, but I’m expecting that there will be some sort of negative impact on international students enrollment,” Lang said.
People on both sides of the border are looking for ways to support Canada and its economy.
“There are people in grocery stores asking if these products are made in Canada. There’s a big rally to ask how we are going to react to this recession,” Collins said.
Canadians have been showing empathy towards Americans as well, under the assumption Trump’s leadership is not representative of the average American’s thoughts on Canada.
“There was a big international education conference in Toronto recently and I heard a lot of people from the US who were there were pleasantly surprised by the fact that Canadians were going out of their way to say ‘Hey you’re welcomed here, we don’t hate you, and we’ll help collaborate the best we can,’” Lang said
The relationship is not yet beyond repair. Space is left for optimism for the future of the countries’ partnership.
“As with anything that changes our normal way of life, I think we have to wait, see, feel and be open minded to learn a little bit and see what we can do to learn from this experience,” Lang said.
