OP-ED: Being a Canadian who supports Trump triggers open hostility

"I’ve lost friends, not just since the horrible atrocities of Oct. 7, but because I have not wavered in my belief that Donald Trump has our backs as Jews."

Source: Wikimedia Commons

When I happened to casually mention I was Canadian during introductions at my glee club at Florida Atlantic University Friday, the entire class clapped.

It was quite odd considering they’d never done so in the four years I’ve taken the course or had displayed much interest in the fact that I ventured south of the border for the winter.

It didn’t take me long to realize something had changed — namely that many of them were afflicted with a terrible case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).

That’s not to say we haven’t experienced it both north and south of the border before.

I’ve lost friends, not just since the horrible atrocities of Oct. 7, but because I have not wavered in my belief that Donald Trump has our backs as Jews, unlike our narcissistic opportunist Prime Minister, Mark Carney.

We’ve been to dinners where TDS takes over the conversation far too many times. This past spring a woman from Oregon on our cruise to the Orient actually asked us quite seriously if we were worried, as gay women, that we were going to be put into camps in Florida.

And one of my glee club colleagues, with whom I did a solo two years ago, dropped me like a hot potato when she discovered I supported many of Trump’s common sense policies.

I can’t vote in the U.S. But that didn’t matter. Even the thought of my support was too much to fathom.

I’ve endeavoured to have a reasonable conversation with friends — the gay women are the worst — who refuse to come to Florida (as they have in the past) because they’ve swallowed the CBC Kool-aid about it being dangerous to cross the border or to be in the States.

Again it’s sad to think there are so many ignorant, easily manipulated people in this world—people who don’t even care to educate themselves outside of the highly biased legacy media echo chamber.

I have come to the conclusion that they are set off because Trump has upset their entitled little world where politicians turned a blind eye to corruption, open borders, murders by illegals of innocent women, drug trafficking, incessant Jew hatred, a lack of respect for North American values and the raw opportunism of the deep state.

In other words, Trump has kept his promises and has shaken things up, unlike our own politicians in Canada. He has courage. He doesn’t back down or succumb to the predictable noise of activists.

But getting back to my glee club, what tipped me over the edge Friday was that I encountered this anger and stupidity on a very personal level.

It wasn’t just the clapping — at what I surmised to mean I live in a virtual paradise compared to what Trump is putting these poor people through in Florida.

But a couple (clearly Jewish) came up to me after the class to say they thought of moving to Canada.

They quickly made it obvious they had absolutely no clue what was going on north of the border.

Had they heard how our former PM froze the personal bank accounts of peaceful protesters merely for fighting the COVID mandates or how he’d vindictively dragged some of them through the courts for years?

Of course not.

And they think Trump is a “King.”

Have they heard about our current pro-Palestine PM and our weak leaders who have allowed Jew hatred to fester on the streets of our major cities? Or who have let in thousands of immigrants unvetted — the kind who hate Canadian values and hate the Jews? We pay for bailouts for these families who hate us.

After all, as Carney says, Muslim values are Canadian values.

Had they seen the number of Canadian Jews who are leaving the country for either Israel or somewhere like south Florida or Texas?

Of course not. These entitled people have no idea how good they have it.

It was just another attempt to make a point that they hate Trump.

They were at least civil.

But on my way out, I happened to chat with a leftist woman — a Democrat Jew — who has been in my singing classes in the past.

(I knew she was a Liberal because we joked about it at another group last Monday. At least I thought it was all in good fun).

I was trying to make light conversation with her until she attacked me, saying she “wants nothing to do with people who support Trump.”

I tried to explain that I feel Trump has our backs (unlike our Canadian leaders) and that anti-Semitism is kept in check in Florida, unlike Toronto.

That gave her a good excuse to bash Israel and the alleged “genocide” even though she admitted she’d never been there!

I said that I’d just come back and perhaps if she went there, she’d see things differently.

What made it worse was when she said she’d had dinner with six Canadians the night before and they all hated Trump.

She concluded that most Canadians hate Trump.

I asked her if she’d done a survey, which triggered her all the more.

She climbed into her car, accusing me of calling her “ignorant” (which I didn’t do) and that she’s a well-educated, well-read woman.

Then she slammed the door and careened off, not wanting to hear any more (common sense).

I’d be lying if I didn’t say her unhinged, in-your-face actions shook me up.

I can sympathize with the ICE officers who face the same insanity when they try to do their jobs.

Still, I learned a valuable lesson on Friday.

For one thing, I will avoid that unhinged woman going forward in my singing groups.

I will no longer offer that I’m Canadian unless asked, seeing as it, too, seems to trigger those with TDS.

And I will just go to my groups to engage in the singing I so much enjoy.

If politics come up, I will change the tune and carry on.