To the editor:

The other day I was canoeing on the Raquette River. We passed a group of girls speaking Quebec French and waved at them. Later a ranger stopped and told us that she had just apologized to the girls, who told her that two other people had apologized to them as well.

Why are we apologizing to Canadians? I mean, I feel apologetic too, given the way our country is treating their country, but I didn’t vote for this. Frankly, I don’t think most people who voted for Trump voted for this either. They voted because they thought this president would represent their conservative values. But conservative values include conserving the country’s wealth for its own citizens (and not just the billionaires) as well as building that wealth even more by engaging in mutually beneficial trade with allies. Well, tariff wars with all our trading partners and a recent “tax cuts for billionaires” bill have created chaos in the economy and a huge increase in the national debt. That doesn’t sound very conservative to me.

And ironically, as the American economy is destroyed — and particularly that of the North Country, which depends on Canadian tourism and trade — it is actually “making Canada great again.” Canada is creating its own factories for military hardware and making alliances for trade and defense with Europe and the rest of the world.

Maybe Canadians should be thanking us. They are more unified and patriotic than ever. We, on the other hand, are only just beginning to feel the suffering that is going to last for generations because of our country’s broken economic promises to its own citizens, its broken relationships with the world, and the broken bonds among ourselves.

I do understand the urge to apologize to Canadians, but as they say in Al-Anon, “I didn’t cause this, I can’t cure it and I can’t control it.” I am not going to apologize for this. I voted against it and I am going to keep opposing it in every way I possibly can. I hope you will, too, no matter how you voted last year. I have a feeling you didn’t vote for this either.

Shir Filler

Vermontville