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TORONTO -- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday lamented Canada’s lost friendship with the United States as he visited the town that sheltered thousands of stranded American airline passengers after the 9/11 attacks.
Carney's visit to Gander, Newfoundland on the second day of a national election campaign comes against the backdrop of a trade war and sovereignty threats from U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump’s almost daily attacks on Canada’s sovereignty have left Canadians feeling betrayed.
"In this crisis caused by the U.S. president and those who are enabling him, we lament a friendship lost," Carney said. “In Gander Canadians did extraordinary things for Americans when they needed it. Now, we need to do extraordinary things for ourselves.”
Gander opened its arms to nearly 6,600 airline passengers diverted there when the U.S. government shut down airspace during 9/11.
In a matter of a few hours, the town population of 10,000 in 2001 was overwhelmed by 38 planeloads of travelers, yet locals went to work in their kitchens and cleaned up spare rooms to offer space and food to the newcomers.
When more than 200 flights were diverted to Canada following the attacks on the United States, the Canadians shunted the traffic away from Toronto and Montreal to the eastern seaboard.
Obscure, little-used Gander got to relive its glory days as a stopover point for trans-Atlantic aviation before long-distance flights became possible. Built in 1938 in anticipation of the coming world war, it had the world’s longest runway, and on 9/11 it was the second busiest, taking in 38 flights to Halifax, Nova Scotia’s 47.
Flight crews quickly filled Gander’s hotels, so passengers were taken to schools, fire stations and church halls. The Canadian military flew in 5,000 cots. Stores donated blankets, coffee machines, barbecue grills. Unable to retrieve their luggage, passengers became dependent on the kindness of strangers, and it came in the shape of clothes, showers, toys, banks of phones to call home free of charge, an arena that became a giant walk-in fridge full of donated food.
Once all the planes had landed or turned back to Europe, Gander’s air traffic controllers switched to cooking meals in the building nonstop for three days.
“More than 6,000 passengers. Overnight, the town’s population almost doubled,” Carney said during a speech to residents. “You showed friendship to people who were fearful. In a crisis, you showed your character. When people needed help, you gave it.”
On Monday, Carney visited the home of Beulah Cooper, who opened her home and comforted many, including Dennis and Hannah O’Rourke, an elderly couple whose New York firefighter son, Kevin, went missing at the World Trade Center and was later confirmed to have died there.
The O’Rourkes remained friends with Cooper long after and went back to Gander, saying they felt eternally indebted.
Now, Cooper says she feels betrayed by America, though she remains friends with Hannah O'Rourke, whose husband passed away. She also feels bad for her American friends.
“There’s too many bad words for me to say on the phone about what I think of Trump,” Cooper said. “Canada was the best ally they had."
Carney noted the Gander story of that day became legend, immortalized in the Canadian-made Broadway hit musical “Come from Away.”
Carney said Canadians have always been by Americans' side whether it was during the Iran hostage crisis, or more recently during the California wildfires or in Afghanistan, where Canada lost 158 members of the armed forces and seven civilians.
Trump has declared a trade war on his northern neighbor and continues to call for Canada to become the 51st state, a position that has infuriated Canadians. The American president has threatened economic coercion in his annexation threats and suggested the border is a fictional line.
Trump put 25% tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminum and is threatening sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products — as well as all of America’s trading partners — on April 2.
Carney said Canadians are over the shock of the betrayal but now have to look out for themselves. He said Canadians and Americans have traditionally been like brothers.
"But that’s changed. And it wasn’t us who did the changing. Unfortunately, President Trump’s actions have put that kinship under greater strain today than at any point in our storied history,” Carney said.
Carney, at the start of a five-week election campaign before the vote on April 28, said he's not looking for friendship from the Americans. “I am just looking for respect at this point,” he said.
The new prime minister, sworn in March 14, still hasn’t had a phone call with Trump and suggested that might not happen until after the election. “I’m available for a call. But you know we are going to talk on our terms as a sovereign country, not as what he pretends we are,” Carney said.
He said the Americans are making a “fundamental mistake" in the trade war.
“They think they will weaken us. They think that they can own us quite frankly, that’s what they think,” he said. “We are going to get stronger. We are going to wait this out. They are going to come to the table and we are going to negotiate a good deal for Canadians.”
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