Elbows Up unifies country, but trade with U.S. still important

SASKATOON — The Elbow’s Up movement has been entertaining — a rare outward demonstration of Canadian pride.

Trust me, I get it.

I reside in Gordie Howe’s hometown of Saskatoon, where a statue of Mr. Hockey, with one jagged elbow in the air, greets visitors to the SaskTel Centre.

When I was in journalism school, I interviewed former Montreal Canadiens defenceman Bob Turner, who was intimately familiar with Howe’s famous appendage.

Mr. Hockey provided Turner with his “welcome to the NHL” moment shortly after he stole the puck from the legend.

During his next shift on the ice, Howe leveled the rookie with an elbow to the head. When Turner woke up, Howe was standing over him saying, “don’t do that again.”

By the way, I tried on Turner’s old wool Habs jersey during that interview — that thing was crazy itchy, and he said it weighed a ton by the end of the night after absorbing three periods of sweat.

U.S. president Donald Trump’s flippant comments about making Canada the 51st state united Canadians in a way I haven’t seen in my lifetime.

The sovereignty movement peaked with Canada’s victory over the United States in the finals of the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off hockey tournament.

It was a proud moment for Canadians from coast to coast, a middle finger to Trump and his imperialist threats.

But let’s not kid ourselves, we need the U.S. for several reasons, not the least of which is trade. And agriculture is one of the main beneficiaries of that robust cross-border flow of commodities.

The U.S. purchased a staggering 60.3 per cent of Canada’s agricultural exports in 2023, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS).

That generated a whopping US$41.73 billion of revenue for Canada’s farm sector.

Canada’s agricultural exports to the U.S. have been growing by 6.9 per cent per year since the two countries’ first free trade agreement was implemented in 1989.

Meat and other animal products, grain and feed, and oilseeds and oilseed products accounted for 63.8 per cent of the 2023 exports, according to the ERS.

Those are all vital products for western Canadian farms.

While it is nice for Canada to have its moment of national pride and stand up to the Americans when they get out of line, it is also important to keep in mind that western Canadian agriculture would be in a world of hurt if that border ever closed.

And it’s also good to remember during this anti-U.S. backlash that we could have worse neighbours.

Source: producer.com