World Series is all about Trump

The president's antagonism of Canada is ratcheting up the tension

- KELLY CANDAELE GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

RONALD MARTINEZ Getty Images MLB'S annual Fall Classic is no longer just the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. the Toronto Blue Jays, it's now the U.S. vs. Canada.

LOUIS ACOSTA, a Dodgers fan from Santa Clarita, flew to Toronto on Friday to support his home town team for their fifth World Series appearance in the last 9 years.

During Game 1 at the Rogers Centre, he proudly wore his Dodgers shirt and cap amid the opening ceremonies.

Prior to the game, Acosta visited a bar inside the stadium where a Blue Jays fan offered to buy him a beer after noticing his L.A. team gear. “It was weird,” Acosta said laughing. “The guy didn’t mind that I was a Dodgers fan as long as I hadn't voted for Donald Trump.”

It might seem odd that the World Series and politics are so entwined this year. Baseball games are often where people go to escape arguments about the polarized state of our country and enjoy rooting for their favorite players and teams. But this season, Canadians are baseball mad, fanatical about supporting the Blue Jays, Canada’s only Major League Baseball team. They are also politically angry for reasons that are clear.

Since President Trump was inaugurated in January, he’s gone out of his way to antagonize Canadians, suggesting that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state, referring to former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a “Governor” and, most importantly for Canada's economic well-being, imposing steep tariffs on Canadian products coming into the U.S.

On Saturday, Trump announced an additional 10% tariff on Canada, imposed simply because he didn’t like a television ad. The commercial, paid for by the province of Ontario to air during the World Series, features President Reagan's anti-tariff rhetoric from a 1987 radio address. And as the U.S. is Canada’s biggest export market, the economic sanctions on Canada are starting to bite.