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LISTEN | Two countries, one community:
The Current1:14:23Live at the Haskell Free Library, right on the U.S. border
Bestselling author Louise Penny says it would be foolish to dismiss the 51st state rhetoric that U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly leveled at Canada.
“I think that there is not a country that’s been invaded, a peoples who have been targeted … who hasn’t looked back and thought, what did I miss?” Penny told The Current’s Matt Galloway in a special show with a live audience.
“Where was the moment when it could have been stopped? And I think we’re living through that moment right now,” she said.
Penny was speaking on stage at the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, a unique venue that is split by the U.S.-Canada border. Part of the building is in Stanstead, Que.; part is in Derby Line, Vt.
The venue has become embroiled in the simmering tensions between the two countries over the past year, as Trump started a trade war and threatened to use “economic force” to annex Canada and make it the 51st state. Earlier this year, the U.S. government limited access on the U.S. side, forcing the library to renovate and create access on the Canadian side. Penny contributed to that renovation fund, which raised more than $140,000.
A black border line runs along the floor of the Haskell Free Library, which straddles the boundary between Canada and the United States. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
Her latest novel, The Black Wolf, explores a sinister plot to make Canada the 51st state — though she’s keen to point out she wrote the novel before Trump was re-elected. She spoke to Galloway about her surprise as the plot became real-world politics, here is part of their conversation.
You gave $50,000 for a new door for the Canadian side that some of our Canadian guests may have come through.
I do just want to say that the reason I could afford to do that is because of [my readers’] support. Because financially, I’ve been so fortunate over the course of a 20-year career. And so it just seemed natural, absolutely natural to say thank you and give some — not all of it — give some of it back.
You also said, creating the new door, these are your words, it’s like giving the finger to the current administration. You close one door, we’ll open another.
Well, and how symbolic are doors? Doors. They closed a door. And how elegant is the solution on the Canadian side, totally supported by the American part of the organization here, to just say, ‘Well, that’s all right. We’ll just open our own.’ And that’s what happened.
You’re good friends with Hillary Rodham Clinton, you wrote a book with her.
Yes.
WATCH | Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny on writing together:
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny on their political thriller, State of Terror
Good friends Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny talk about their first novel together, State of Terror, which follows newly appointed U.S. secretary of state Ellen Adams and her race to stop a series of international terrorist attacks.
Have you had any conversations with her about what’s going on right now?
A few.
Would you care to share the tenor and the tone of those conversations?
I do want to say she loves the Eastern Townships. She loves coming up. She was here this past summer and she said that it’s the first time since the inauguration that she’s felt safe. I’ve never heard her say that before. I think she’s afraid for the first time physically, but she is certainly afraid for the American democracy and the American republic.
You started this book before Trump was re-elected, right?
I started this because it’s two halves of a whole, starting with the Grey Wolf and then the Black Wolf is the second half of it. So in fact, it was designed three years ago.
WATCH | How a Quebec town pushed back against new rules for library:
Quebec town pushes back as U.S. tightens access to iconic border-straddling library
Once a symbol of partnership between two friendly nations, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House in Stanstead, Que., has become a point of tension lately, with American authorities now deciding the way it functioned for decades posed too much of a border security risk.
And so how do you, at that point, start thinking about 51st state, long before those words have come out of the current president’s mouth? You said to me that you worried that you’d gone too far. Now you worry whether you didn’t go far enough.
It was a bit of a shock to hear Trump talk about the 51st state.
If you read the book you’ll see that it just seems, I hope, like a natural progression.
And then when it actually happened in the real world, obviously as a Canadian I was appalled. And unsure how seriously to take it. I think we’re still trying to parse that. The other part was obviously thinking more personally, if this is in my book, are people going to think that I’ve simply ripped it from the headlines and ripped it off and taken advantage of what is a very shattering experience?
How seriously should we take it?
That is a really interesting question. I think it would be foolish to underestimate what he’s capable of. I think that there is not a country that’s been invaded, a peoples who have been targeted or an individual who’s been rounded up, who hasn’t looked back and thought, what did I miss? Where was the moment when it could have been stopped? And I think we’re living through that moment right now.
And it behooves all of us, certainly behooves me because I’m 67. I am 20 years into a career that has so overshot any of my expectations. If I don’t stand up, and I am in a position where I can, then shame on me. I think it’s time that we stood up, those of us who can.
