Avoiding US goods and services – from tech to whisky to air travel – has forced many to find a new way of living
This week the US imposed 50% tariffs on US$20bn (£15bn) of Canadian goods, and Mark Carney, the country’s prime minister, has vowed to match them “dollar for dollar” after the collapse of trade talks between the two countries last weekend. Donald Trump retaliated on Thursday by ordering the federal government to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America.
Such actions have added fuel to a widespread boycott of US products and services by Canadians that began early last year in response to the president’s trade war and threats to annex his northern neighbour.
More than 3,500 people from across Canada shared with the Guardian via an online callout how they have made changes to their lives in response to the US administration’s political and economic stance. Many expressed deep anger and sadness, but remained resolute that this was now a new way of living.
Know plenty Americans who stay 3 months in Schengen and 3 months in Ireland/Serbia. They go back and forth not to surpass the tourist visa limit indefinitely.
But that’s mostly because they want to keep working in the US remotely. Otherwise, you can just get a job elsewhere and generally it’s not to difficult to get a residency permit with a job.
The uphill battle that I personally face is that I’m up there in age. I’m not old, but I’m not a young man who’s going to put more money into the retirement and health care system then I’ll potentially use
So countries are less likely to accept older people unless they have their own money or a valued skill
I do OK, by most Americans standards I’m well off, but I’m not rich. Not rich enough for a country to just be like, “yeah, whatever”. And my skills are common. I’m in software and so maybe in the 90s they would have jumped to have more developers, but these days they teach programming to kids and with AI being as trending as it is, I doubt they’re hunting for more developers
And it’s not just me, it’s my family.
And then there’s a quality of life thing. At my age with a family I can’t exactly start over at the bottom of a corporate ladder and try to climb my way back up. Even if I could get a job doing something like, “teaching English”, I’m sure it would be a massive pay cut. I make well over six figures, work from home, and set my own hours
My job is fantastic. My country is kinda shit. Not as bad as some other places in the world, life isn’t awful here, but the days of being proud to be an American are long over and if I could keep my job and just move to the other side of the ocean like I can move between states, I’d do it in a second
It’s not that easy