2 weeks Ago By Allison Hanes, Montreal Gazette
Article content The words of Michelle Obama, spoken years ago in Montreal, are ringing in my ears today. Back in 2018, the former first lady of the United States addressed a rapt crowd at the Palais des congrès. It was before she finished her bestselling autobiography, before she sold out arenas on her book tour, and a year after her husband delivered one of the first speeches since leaving office in the same room.
Her wise reflections about women assuming their place at the decision-making table were memorable. But it’s an off-the-cuff joke she made that stays in my mind. Obama was asked the title of the last song stuck in her head.
Her surprising response was The Sound of Music, from the movie of the same name. It had popped into her head while she looked down from the window of her plane as it crossed the Canada-U.S.
border, wondering if she’d ever have to trek over those hills on foot. It was a veiled reference to the von Trapp family, who in the movie account of their lives escaped Nazi-occupied Austria by walking over the mountains into Switzerland. For a Sound of Music fan like myself, Obama’s remark was amusing — but it seemed a little far-fetched, even a year into the turbulent presidency of Donald Trump.
As Americans head to the polls Tuesday in a deadlocked election that could pave the way for Trump’s return, Obama’s comment now seems eerily prescient. Trump has talked candidly about turning the military on his rivals and mentioned rounding up “enemies within.” One-time acolytes and former staff members who now oppose Trump openly fear being arrested if he takes office again.
Obama’s remark in Montreal all those years ago is no longer funny — it’s chilling. And it’s merely one example of how we may be bystanders to the U.S.
election here in Montreal, Quebec and Canada, but we are deeply invested in its outcome. In my life, I have rarely felt this helpless. Awaiting the verdict of the American electorate Tuesday night — or whenever we get an official result — has left me a nervous wreck.
I’m sure I’m not alone. Rarely has so much been riding on the results, not only for Americans, but for Canadians and the rest of the world. Rarely has former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s famous quote — likening living next door to the U.
S. to sleeping beside an elephant — felt so true. Because of course Canadians will be deeply affected by Tuesday’s outcome, but we have absolutely no say in it.
We have to watch from the sidelines as Americans make one of the most pivotal decisions in their history — and perhaps ours as well. Do they bring back Trump, a Republican who is facing numerous indictments on criminal charges, embraces autocratic ideas and stoked the fury of the mob behind the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol that tried to overturn the results of the last U.
S. presidential election? Or do they pick Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, the current vice-president and a former district attorney and state attorney general, who would be the first woman to win the White House (not to mention the first Black woman and Indian woman)? The outcome will have profound consequences on women’s health, reproductive rights , the fight against climate change, immigration, international relations and democracy itself. It feels like there could be a before Tuesday night and an after Tuesday night.
In the meantime, we’re plodding on with business as usual, knowing we could be plunging into the unknown. After white-knuckling it through the first Trump presidency, Canadians have every right to wonder how our next-door neighbour will treat us if he makes a comeback. During his first term, Trump unilaterally demanded the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, now rebranded as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Free trade across the world’s longest undefended border could once more be compromised by his penchant for tariffs. Our mutual prosperity could again be threatened. But it’s more than the economy.
Our closest friend and ally could be led by someone who admires dictators like Russian President Vladimir Putin . And Trump is no fan of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization , the political and military alliance that has kept peace in the West since the end of the Second World War. If the U.
S. abandons its leadership role as the world’s enforcer of democracy and peace in favour of a murkier, more isolationist foreign policy, where does that leave Canada? It’s always been the elephant’s hulking size that has kept us Canadians on our toes. What if the elephant turns on us? We may not be Americans, but it doesn’t feel like it’s none of our business.
Although she downplays her foray in Canada, Harris lived in Montreal for a time growing up , when her mother, a cancer researcher, worked at the Jewish General Hospital. Harris attended FACE , Westmount High and Vanier College. Is it hubris to hope Montreal rubbed off on her a little? At the very least, might we expect a soft spot? There’s also the unfinished business of history.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton came close to being the first woman elected U.S. president, but was thwarted by Trump.
This time around, a woman could be president. Or women’s rights and the progress toward equality could be rolled back decades. Many Trump supporters are trying to tell their wives to vote for him.
There are ads aimed at women reminding them they don’t have to follow their husband’s wishes, that their votes are private — a message Harris has echoed on the campaign trail. This election could very well hinge on women turning up at the polls and how they mark their ballots. All the terrifying things Trump has said he will do — deport “illegal” immigrants, fire bureaucrats who oppose him, prosecute his “enemies,” take care of women whether they “like it or not” — aren’t just paranoid prognostications.
They are threats that have come straight from his own mouth. Some say it’s just bluster, but do we really want the nuclear codes to be given to someone so thin-skinned and unstable? There will be almost no one left to stop him this time around. The guardrails of democracy have already been weakened.
The U.S. Supreme Court, stacked with a majority of conservative justices, has already granted him immunity for outrages he commits in office.
So you’ll find me parked in front of the TV with a box of tissues and a bottle of wine. Either way, I’ll be crying when the count rolls in. I just hope it will be in relief.
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