Last week, I attended the Toronto Board of Trade gala dinner in the cavernous basement of the Toronto Convention Centre. My expectations for the event were pretty low. I imagined I’d hear some policy-heavy speeches about municipal affairs, maybe some hot takes on gridlock. But the leaders of Toronto’s business community, who are especially rattled by Trump’s tariffs, made the event feel much more like a war-time rally.
Upon entry, guests received little maple leaf pins. The national anthem elicited tears. And evening’s speakers sounded resolved and flamboyantly patriotic. Geoff Smith, the chair of the board at EllisDon, an international construction company, gave a powerful speech about the moment we find ourselves in as a country.
Smith argued that we should gear up for a fight. “This is our Battle of Britain,” he declared, outlining a plan like a general, preparing troops for hardship ahead. His speech, which we have excerpted in Maclean’s, presents an idea of how to deal with Americans: “If we can make them feel pain, MAGA will crack, and so will Donald Trump.”
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—Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief, Maclean’s
