The Best of 2025: Maclean’s Top 10 Trade-War Stories

As Trump’s tariffs upended everything, Canadians looked for ways to fight back

December 16, 2025

Trump’s wildly erratic, utterly unreasonable trade war has wreaked havoc on our small businesses, travel plans and collective blood pressure. Over the last 12 months, Maclean’s has collected stories from the frontlines of the tariff rollercoaster. Farmers, car manufacturers and even beer makers described how they pivoted their businesses to reduce reliance on American buyers and suppliers. Policy experts shared their big ideas for bolstering our defence, our data sovereignty and our trade. And we devoted an entire issue of the magazine to Canada’s new nationalism—and how we only fully appreciated our country when it was under threat. Here, our top 10 stories about the Trump effect.

An American flag with a crack through it, and the silhouettes of a person and child in front

NO. 10

Nervous About Crossing the Border? You Should Be.

Immigration lawyer Len Saunders has never seen the kind of extreme enforcement U.S. authorities are applying today

BY Alex Cyr

NO. 9

Is Canada Prepared to Go It Alone?

Now that our friendship with America is over, we must ask ourselves instead what’s required to stay alive

BY Stephen Marche

A man in a suit standing at the Peace Arch border crossing in B.C., with Canada and US flags flying atop a white arch surrounded by trees

NO. 8

Americans Are Renouncing Their Citizenship. This Lawyer Makes It Happen.

Vancouver lawyer Douglas Cowgill says interest has doubled since Trump came back to power

BY Courtney Shea

A pair of red boxing gloves against a gold background

NO. 7

How to Fight Back

Trump’s tariff war was a wake-up call for Canada to abandon its gentle complacency and take some big swings. Here are eight gutsy, radical ideas to secure the nation’s future.

By Maclean’s