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Many in Canada have never been prouder to be Canadian. A new poll by Politico found that 52 per cent of us now consider ourselves “very proud” of our nationality, up from just 34 per cent in December 2024. The cause isn’t a mystery: U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and talk of the 51st state did what a decade of domestic politics couldn’t. “Elbows up” isn’t just a hockey term anymore; it’s both political strategy and national mood.
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By Amira Elghawaby Contributor, Toronto Star, July 17, 2026
Many in Canada have never been prouder to be Canadian. A new poll by Politico found that 52 per cent of us now consider ourselves “very proud” of our nationality, up from just 34 per cent in December 2024.
The cause isn’t a mystery: U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and talk of the 51st state did what a decade of domestic politics couldn’t. “Elbows up” isn’t just a hockey term anymore; it’s both political strategy and national mood.
But defiance only means something if it’s in service of the values we believe our country stands for. The same poll carries a warning: despite growing pride, more than half of Canadians say their country is internally divided. In part, this is ordinary friction that can manifest in standard bickering and disagreements. But there are also darker trends to beware of.
Weeks ago, a man with a rifle and a lengthy manifesto opened fire in Côte-des-Neiges, Montreal, killing a Muslim police officer and a Jewish bystander. Researchers have described the ideas expressed as a form of hybrid extremism: misogyny at its foundation, anti-capitalist grievance and antisemitic conspiracy layered on top. It fits no tidy ideology, which makes it easy to treat as an aberration rather than a warning.
But these undercurrents are among the threats we face and the dangers we must collectively guard against. A Senate report found that between 2016 and 2021, Canada recorded more Islamophobic killings than any other G7 country.
Rise in attacks
Add to that shocking fact the rise in attacks on Jewish institutions, frequent assaults on visibly Muslim women and families in neighbourhoods and near places of worship, vandalism at mosques and synagogues, and hate crimes targeting people for their race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. It’s never been more critical to resist becoming comfortable treating hatred as background noise rather than as the human rights emergency it is.
We may perceive indifference as a uniquely American phenomenon. An Opinion poll with the Concordia Forum found nearly 4-in-10 American Muslims change their routines over fears of anti-Muslim hate, and only 1-in-5 say they are treated equally under U.S. law.
But here at home, Canada’s own push for more restrictive immigration rules has opened space for the kind of nativist sentiment Canadians long considered as existing elsewhere. Recently, the Environics Institute found that 1-in-3 Canadians feel wholly negative about immigration, all while a majority of racialized Canadians said they value both their race/ethnicity and their Canadianness. Believing in a country and being treated fairly by it are not the same thing, anywhere.
Ottawa has recently advanced sweeping border legislation, including expanded powers for border agencies, faster deportation, and new authority to share personal data with U.S. immigration enforcement. Civil liberties groups warn that this information-sharing could give U.S. agencies, including ICE, a way to track people who came to Canada for protection.
Rights protections
Together, these moves risk putting rights protections in the box. Ottawa’s defence is that this is about controlling Canada’s border, not appeasing Trump. That may be true. Handling migration and border security is a legitimate job for any government. But doing so by reaching for Washington’s tool kit, while calling it a Canadian solution, isn’t the same as doing it in a way that’s true to Canadian values.
Trump doesn’t need Canada to become the 51st state for his politics to win. He needs something easier. A country drifting toward the America he is building: anxious, suspicious of newcomers, willing to trade rights for the feeling of control.
Canadians may be united against Trump, but sovereignty isn’t only about keeping his politics out. It’s about proving that what’s inside is distinct, and worth protecting. Trump is not the only test of Canadian values right now. He may not even be the hardest one.
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