When the threats started coming from south of the border, a lot of us felt it first as shock. Then something shifted. Across the country, in coffee shops, kitchens and community halls, Canadians started talking about what we were defending and what kind of country we wanted to be. Charlie Angus has been listening. Through his Substack, his Youtube channel and a cross-country run of rallies, he has become one of the loudest voices of a grassroots movement he calls, without apology, The Resistance. His approach will feel familiar to anyone who came up in the punk scene: no gatekeepers, no waiting for permission, just people showing up and doing the work themselves. Ahead of his appearance in Almonte, theHumm caught up with him to talk about what he’s hearing on the road, why small towns matter, and what a word like “resistance” really means.
theHumm: What I appreciate most about what you’re doing is the do-it-yourself, punk mentality you’re bringing to communities. It felt like that was missing from the online discourse. How important is DIY to all this?
Charlie Angus: DIY to me is fundamental. What’s happening in Canada is unique, because it was people who stepped up. We didn’t wait for leaders. We didn’t wait for organizations. People just did it. The boycott, the resistance, all of it — it’s the ultimate DIY movement. So I felt this was perfectly suited to my strengths, which are getting out into the community to talk, and trying to suggest directions we can go.
You’ve been taking this directly into communities, especially smaller towns. Is it important to you to be in the places where community is already established and people can coalesce around something like this?
We’re living in a unique, historic moment that nobody could have predicted. Nobody would have imagined that this is how Canada would respond. When Donald Trump’s threats against Canada happened, it was in small towns, around coffee shops, that people really counted up what it would take to defend their sovereignty, and also what kind of nation they wanted to hold on to. It happened at the grassroots level.
I’ve seen this from one end of the country to the other, from Prince Edward Island to the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, in community after community. It’s not the story you tend to see in the media. The media focus on the drama: Parliament, what the great leaders are saying, what tariffs are being discussed. But Canadians understand this is way bigger than tariffs. This is about the future of our nation and our right to have a say in what kind of nation we want to be.
Has anything surprised you about what you’re hearing as you travel?
When this began, we were very shocked. We couldn’t believe we were being threatened. I mean, who doesn’t like Canadians? So there was this initial outpouring. People were making AI-generated memes of the Canada goose, toques and hockey sticks. We didn’t really have the language of resistance, because we’d never had to resist before.
But it changed very quickly. People had a sense that what we were fighting for wasn’t just the border. It was our sense of our nation, and our nation was rooted in decency, in democracy, in inclusion. It was the antithesis of everything Donald Trump and the MAGA threat stood for. Canada was not going to go down that road, and we were going to resist with everything we had. I’ve seen that in every single community, from Calgary to Sudbury to Fredericton.
What I really love about this moment is that people will write the history of this time as a “great leader” history. They’ll write about the role Mark Carney played, and about Donald Trump and the threat he posed. But the story that needs to be told is that Mark Carney got his instructions very clearly handed to him by the Canadian people. It was the Canadian people who ran the boycott. The Canadian people who said, we don’t want to give up one more thing to these bandits. We will hold the line.
So to me the issue is this: if we could pull billions and billions of dollars out of the American economy and withstand a threat of the highest order, then we also have the power to decide what kind of nation we’re going to be. That’s why it’s essential for me to get out into communities. I want to hear what people are thinking about taking control right now. Let’s take control of our destiny. Let’s plan a future that is democratic, inclusive and sustainable. There are so many things that should be part of this conversation.
When the national issues feel so large, what role can ordinary citizens and local organizations play? What are you seeing people do?
That’s a big part of why I do the rallies instead of just sitting behind my microphone pontificating in the mornings. I need to tell the story to remind people how strong we’ve been, because you’re not seeing that in the news. People aren’t being told how effective the boycott has been. It is the most effective nonviolent political resistance movement in memory, and it was launched and maintained by Canadians.
You saw it in those August negotiations. They were trying to force us to give up the boycott, because they cannot stand an empowered people. They cannot stand a citizenry that refuses to buy their product and uses the power of individual decisions to create collective action.
What I want people to consider is that we have that power, and that the power for democracy isn’t going to come from the top down. The Prime Minister can hold $100-million summits, and I think those are important, but the future of Canada is going to be decided by us, as active democratic players charting our own future. There’s so much we need to discuss. What makes our communities sustainable? We’re facing serious climate issues. We’re seeing supply chains upended. How do we build a sustainable country, and what should it look like? That’s not something the Mark Carneys or the Doug Fords of the world are going to address. That’s going to come from us. So I’m out talking to people, hearing their stories and telling them what I’m seeing elsewhere. We are not alone. We have support around the world, and we’re all doing this together. If everyone does their part, we’re going to get through this.
That’s very reminiscent of the punk era. Bands went from town to town, and even if you felt like your own isolated little pocket, you knew you were part of something bigger.
Absolutely. Every time I come to a community I’ve never been to before, I feel like I’m coming home.
Is that giving you hope?
I have lots of hope. Am I optimistic about the future? Not very. But I’m very hopeful.
The word “resistance” can seem provocative, and it sounds inherently political. What does it mean to you beyond party politics?
In the early days, people were very afraid and weren’t sure what any of this was going to mean. I felt we had to resist. We had to say no. We had to say the line is drawn here, and you shall not go past it. To me, resistance goes back to the resistance against fascism in the 1930s and ’40s, and we are in that kind of moment now.
I didn’t know if people would think it was a crazy word, or that I was being over the top. But as soon as I said “Charlie Angus Resistance,” suddenly thousands of people started reaching out and saying, yes, let’s resist. It felt like the people were already there.
What are you hoping people take away from the rally in Almonte?
I want to update people on where we’re at in the struggle, but also on what they can do, and how they can be part of a really unique moment in Canadian history.
An Evening with Charlie Angus
What Now Lanark County, the Mississippi Mills Community Fund and theHumm are bringing Charlie Angus and his cross-country tour to Almonte on Thursday, October 22 at 7pm, at the Almonte Civitan Hall. Register at Tickets Please (TicketsPlease.ca, 485–6434). Tickets are $25 per person. For more information, contact mmcommunityfund@gmail.com. You can follow Charlie’s work on his Substack charlieangus.substack.com and his Youtube channel youtube.com/@MeidasCanada. Bring a friend, bring your questions, and be part of the conversation about what kind of country we want to build together.