July Fourth was a weird one this year.

In Ottawa, the who's who of the city's highfalutin class decided that this year, they were going to skip the U.S. ambassador's Independence Day party.

The mayor, the federal NDP leader, the anchor of the nightly news.  All made public statements saying they would be staying away from the hotdogs and Budweiser.

Given how badly the Americans are treating us as neighbours, I'd say this is fair.  But goodness, how rude!

That's certainly how a recent Globe and Mail editorial set things out.  The voice of our country's snootiest paper decried the idea as one that might, gosh, offend someone.  The everyday American Joe would take this insult quite personally.  It was a bad look, they said, rubbing salt in the wounds of Americans, so soon after we imposed retaliatory tariffs on the country.

No, really.  They said that: "Canadian officials should also remember that Ottawa's retaliatory tariffs will take effect soon, and that Americans whose employers depend on the Canadian market could be out of a job as a result.  We are putting Americans in the crossfire of this dispute.  Let's not add insult to injury."

You'd almost forget that the word retaliatory was right there the whole time.

And what are we retaliating against by charging tariffs on a raft of American staples?  Why, because the whims of a daft windbag decided that Canadian steel and aluminum were a national security threat.  Or was it because it was a NAFTA bargaining tactic?  No, hang on, it was about dairy.  It was one of those things, depending on the day, the weather, and what topics were discussed on a certain cable news network.

The United States is starting a global trade war and a bunch of people — for the Globe is not alone in its sentiments — would have you believe that being nice to them will solve it.

A party at U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft's residence is just that, a party.  The value in not going to such a thing is purely symbolic.  If nothing else, staff at the embassy will take note of the number of invited guests who did not attend.

The ambassador herself was certainly taking note.  According to a new profile in the Huffington Post, Craft had spent time fretting over whether the party would turn out being a flop.  Symbolic as the act is, it had some kind of an effect.

Enough that, according to a Postmedia report, the guest list was cut to a quarter of its usual size, making it much easier to claim success.

Craft herself alluded to the troubles in her speech.  "[Thomas Jefferson] said, 'I have never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy as a cause for withdrawing from a friend.'  By your presence here tonight, I would assert that we all agree with Jefferson on that fundamental point of friendship," Craft said according to the report.

So whatever the apparent turnout, it's important to note that so many people were willing to publicly put their name to the deed.  It shows people at the very least think this is a good move.  That there is political value in snubbing our southern neighbours tells us something about how bad things may really be.  In in this development, we may be seeing how these two countries tied together by geography may pull further apart than a transnational twitter spat might suggest.

Being anti-American is en vogue once more.  The world is a much smaller place than it once was.  And while our shared border is an inescapable fact, there is a larger world out there, and maybe our politicians are willing to explore our options elsewhere.

And this again rubs the Globe wrong.

"The boycott also errs in conflating the occupant of the Oval Office with the United States as a whole.  As much as he would like to think so, Donald Trump is not the entire U.S. government, and he doesn't speak for all Americans.  Not even close, especially when it comes to trade issues," the Globe goes on to say.

But the U.S. ambassador explicitly represents the president.  Craft is a political appointee reaping her reward for donating early to Trump's election.  Craft and her husband Joe — a coal baron whose net worth has cracked the billion-dollar net-worth mark before — donated upwards of $1 million to the president.  This is not a career diplomat being snubbed, this is someone who bought their position.

Besides, as one of the ambassador's friends told the Huffington Post, "You are the president's representative.  You are not a policy maker."  This is a direct rebuke to the president.

And here we find the nut of the thing.  Right now, Donald Trump is the United States.  Whatever his citizens may think of him, and however they may plan to vote in upcoming congressional elections, for the moment what Trump says is reality.  No matter how much negotiating the diplomats of the two countries do, at the end of the day what will happen with NAFTA or NATO or any other alliance or deal will come down to what the president feels like doing.

Hurting the feelings of a ambassador may be bad form, it may even be impolite.  But it's a small, gesture for Canadians with few other levers to register their dismay, disgust, or what have you with the American government.  They won't treat us fairly?  Fine, keep your damned hot dogs.

If ruining the social event of the year of a political fundraiser and wife of a coal baron is what it takes to send a message, so be it.  There are worse things in the world than being rude.

Photo Credit: Jeff Burney, Loonie Politics