You may have heard that many sectors of the Vermont economy have been thrown into turmoil by Donald Trump’s ridiculous tariff war with Canada. From tourism to energy to craft beer and spirits to maple products to construction materials (when we’re already in a housing crisis due in large part to high building costs), we have begun feeling the pain from Trump’s Quixotic crusade. (Meaning no disrespect to the Man of La Mancha.)

One small response to the situation has come in the form of a state Senate resolution, S.R.11, “supporting warm and cooperative relations on the part of both the United States and the State of Vermont with Canada and urging President Trump to remove all tariffs that he has imposed against Canadian imports and to refrain from subsequently imposing any new tariffs against Canadian imports.”

Seems like something we can all agree with, no? Even Republican senators can see the harm that threatens their constituents from a trade war with Canada. And indeed, the vast majority of Republicans signed on as co-sponsors, joining all the Democrats and Progressive/Democrat Tanya Vyhovsky. A total of 27 names are attached to S.R.11.

Checking my math real quick, that leaves a mere three senators who haven’t signed on.

The envelope, please…

The abstainers, for whom an unenforceable expression of amity with our northern neighbor is a bridge too far, are Sens. David Weeks and Terry Williams of Rutland and Russ Ingalls, whose Essex district includes nearly half of Vermont’s lengthy border with Canada. One has to think Trump’s trade war is being keenly felt in the Kingdom, and Ingalls’ absence from S.R.11 seems to indicate greater fealty to Trumpian orthodoxy than to the interests of his own constituents.

As far as I can tell, none of the three have explained their failure to publicly support the resolution. I can’t imagine they weren’t asked by their colleagues, since S.R.11 was introduced yesterday with 27 signatures attached, so it’s safe to say this resolution made the rounds and everyone must have been given an opportunity to hop on the bandwagon.

It’s only a single data point, but on this resolution Ingalls, Weeks and Williams appear to be taking a stronger pro-Trump position than unimpeachably conservative colleagues like Sens. Scott Beck, Patrick Brennan, Randy Brock, Brian Collamore, and Robert Norris.

I’ll just pause here and point out that, if Weeks and Williams are indeed especially Trumpy, it’s even more remarkable that both men are members of the Senate Education Committee, the only legislative panel without a Democratic majority. And with a Democratic chair, Seth Bongartz, who seems intent on succeeding his Bennington predecessors Dick Sears and Bob Hartwell as fusty, crusty centrists. According to a report from WPTZ-TV, which seems to be out front on this one, Bongartz is the only Democrat in either chamber who seems intent on barrelling forward with radical structural reform to the public school system while his House colleagues are ready to pursue a more deliberate course.

The resolution itemizes all the ways in which cross-border trade is vital to Vermont’s prosperity. Vermont exports to Canada amount to $845 million annually, while Canadian exports to Vermont total $2.6 billion. (We’re definitely on the positive end of the relationship.) We import 24% of our electricity from Canada, and Vermont Gas gets all of its supplies from the Great White North. The resolution doesn’t try to quantify the impact of cross-border tourism, but we know it goes strongly in both directions.

At the very least, Messrs. Ingalls, Weeks and Williams are looking the other way while all of their colleagues support this resolution in favor of the Canada-Vermont relationship. I hope somebody asks them why their signatures are absent from S.R.11.