'An act of patriotism' Defiant anti-Maga hats go viral

Few items of clothing have come to exemplify American far-right nationalism in the 21st century as much as the red "Make America Great Again" hats worn and sold by Donald Trump.

- Leyland Cecco

But last week, the belovedand reviled - headwear appeared to have met its match.

Before a high-stakes meeting with Canadian leaders in preparation for American tariffs, the Ontario premier, Doug Ford, strode into the summit wearing a hat emblazoned with a defiant message: "CANADA IS NOT FOR SALE".

Canadian leaders are still scrambling to come up with a response to the threat of a trade war with the country's closest ally if Trump makes good on his promise to inflict punishing tariffs on all Canadian goods and services.

And in the depths of a national crisis, the novelty hat has emerged as an unlikely expression of unity.

For the hat's creators, "it's been a wild and surreal few days". Liam Mooney, who runs a design firm in Ottawa with his fiancee, Emma Cochrane, said the hat came about as a direct rebuttal to a viral Fox news segment in which the host Jesse Watters taunted Ford about Trump's threat to annex Canada.

"If I were a citizen of another country and I was a neighbour of the United States, I would consider it a privilege to be taken over by the United States of America," Watters told the Ontario leader.