By Ed White
WINNIPEG (Reuters) -Canadians rallied around the Toronto Blue Jays ahead of a Major League Baseball game on Saturday that could produce the country's first World Series victory in more than three decades, in a fraught political and economic climate.
Canadians are feeling anxious and insulted by their southern neighbor, whose President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on Canadian goods and thrown jibes at Canada for nearly a year. The World Series, which has not been played outside the United
States since the Blue Jays last won in 1993, has become a national rallying cry for multitudes stirred by the Jays as a unifying symbol.
No one is more fired up than Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
"Americans are underestimating the Jays," he wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post on Friday. "Like our team, Canada can boast about being a global heavyweight, too."
The Los Angeles Dodgers tied the Toronto Blue Jays 3-3 in the best-of-seven series on Friday, meaning Saturday's game will determine the winner.
"The good thing about this is we stick it to the Americans, especially Trump," said David Swanson, a resident of Norway House, Manitoba, chuckling.
Ford, more than Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, has punched back at the Trump administration's trade actions, which are hurting his province's automotive and steel industries.
Ford outraged Trump with a recent TV ad featuring former President Ronald Reagan's condemnation of protectionism during last weekend's World Series games.
"Canadians have united in a way I've never seen. Patriotism is surging north of the border in big and small ways," Ford wrote in the Post article.
Carney said on Saturday he had apologized to Trump for the ad.
Trump halted U.S.-Canada trade talks and threatened an extra 10% tariff on Canadian goods in response to Ford's Reagan ad. Polling firm Angus Reid said on Friday that most Canadians - 57% - support Ford's advertisement, although 43% said the ad put Canada in a worse negotiating position.
Given the historically close relationship, Canadians have felt betrayed by U.S. trade actions, Trump's insults, and even the actions of Prince Harry, the second son of Canada's head of state, King Charles of Britain. Harry sported a Dodgers cap at a recent LA game.
"Prince Harry and Meghan Markle commit baseball treason in Dodgers caps," said a tongue-in-cheek Toronto Life headline on Wednesday. "Off with his hat!"
JAYS ATTRACT NEW FANS
The Jays have long represented Canada, not just Toronto, with a maple leaf in the team's logo.
"There are people watching now that never watch baseball," said Dan Hunt of Warren, Manitoba, sporting a Jays cap.
This is not the first time the Jays have given fans hope amid economic gloom. The team won the World Series in 1992 and 1993, when Canada, and Ontario especially, were struggling in a recession. The night the team won the 1993 Series, an estimated 1 million people spilled onto Toronto streets.
Ford will be watching the game from home after complaining about high ticket prices. Enthusiasm for the games reportedly resulted in the most expensive Canadian sports event ever.
"I’m going to be sitting in my man cave because I’m not paying, whatever, 1,500 bucks for a ticket," Ford said last week.
(Additional reporting by Ed White; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Rod Nickel; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
