Canadian tabletop will not be bullied by Trump regime

“How does it feel to be a Canadian right now?” I asked game designer Seb Pines on the floor of the Toronto-based Breakout Con. It was a question I found myself asking over and over again, each time with a touch of American shame. 

“It's a little stressful, not gonna lie.” 

Pines co-founded Good Luck Press with American designer and editor Will Jobst, making the international element of their company inherent to its success. “Impending things like tariffs mean that having a lot of business in the United States is going to impact [our company],” said Pines. “I don't entirely know what that's going to look like yet… How do I adjust pricing? How do I approach shipping? How do I make it so it's not miserable for me and the person wanting to get my game? It's gonna require a bit of adaptability and figuring out how all this works. But it is a little scary.”

"How am I going to navigate this? Are there risks that I want to take?"

While Canada and the United States have had their tensions throughout history (notably the burning of the White House during the War of 1812), the two countries have had close geopolitical ties for over a century — ties that have been decimated since the second inauguration of US President Donald Trump. Since January 20th, Trump and his regime have attacked Canada on a social, economic, and political level: instituting a sweeping 25% tariff on Canadian goods, having ICE detain Canadian nationals for minor visa violations, and repeatedly threatening Canadian sovereignty by implying he would like to make the nation America’s 51st state.

“I would really like to delegitimize that as an idea,” said game designer Sebastian Yūe about both American and Canadian media outlets who are discussing Trump’s veiled threats to the nation. “Maybe let's just not do fear mongering and maybe do not give credence to the idea that he could. I don't think that's very responsible, but also at the same time, I understand that you do need to report on what he says because he's the fucking president. I really don't want to give the idea any more legitimacy and I do not think that he could unless he did invade…It would be a war. It's absurdist. It is just fear mongering.”

If so, it seems to be having its intended effect, instilling a mixture of anxiety and fear in people on both sides of the border. Overall, “there is an underlying vein of anti-Americanism,” said Jason Pitre, owner of Genesis of Legend Publishing. “It's not anti-Americans, it's anti-America,” he clarified. “This is actually affecting our national level politics,” said Pitre, alluding to the resignation of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the special election of Mark Carney, and the national left-ward shift of Canada towards the Liberal party in the face of a conservative movement which mirrors America’s own. “This will be changing the [upcoming national] election.” Even the notoriously tense relationship between Canada and the French-dominant province of Quebec has eased as a result of this new common enemy.