Tom Mulcair: My family’s role in the success of grandpa Trump (a mea culpa)

Frederick (Friedrich) Trump, U.S. President Donald Trump's paternal grandfather, in a photo in 1918. He was born in Kallstadt, Germany in 1869 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1885. (Getty Images)

As Canadians react to the latest tariffs and threats from Donald Trump, we should all remember that the U.S. president’s family fortune began in Canada.

You’d think he’d show some appreciation, but apparently not.

I know, it’s hard to believe, but we really do bear some responsibility for Trump.

The Trump family fortune was made thanks to Canadian natural resources, of various kinds.

Donald Trump’s grandfather, Frederick Trump (born Friedrich), was a German-American businessman who founded a saloon in Bennett, B.C. at the time of the Klondike gold rush.

The saloon – called the Arctic Restaurant and Hotel-- was also, according to a detailed published report, a restaurant, bar and brothel.

Anyone who’s watched Trump’s behaviour and court cases may not be too surprised to learn about this particular aspect of his lineage.

During the Klondike gold rush, the Canadian government decided to build a railway from Skagway, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon. It completely bypassed Bennett, which quickly became a ghost town.

Grandpa Trump moved his establishment from Bennett to Whitehorse. That’s where Frederick really cashed in.

Now, in the best Canadian fashion, I feel I have to apologize for my own family’s role in all of this.

You see, at the time of the Yukon gold rush, the Canadian government quickly realized that the lack of infrastructure in the territory was making it very hard to enforce jurisdiction and to develop.

My own great grandfather, Paul-Émile Mercier, had been hired by the then Chief Engineer of the Dominion of Canada, Jean-Charles Taché, to help oversee the building of both a railway and a telegraph. The Yukon would now be connected to the world.

As luck would have it, M. Tache had a lovely granddaughter, Marie-Louise who, you guessed it, would become my great grandmother. Her adventures in the Yukon from 1896 to 1903 are the subject of a lovely book.

In the summer of 2021, I had the immense pleasure to help inaugurate the newest high school in Whitehorse, Yukon, named for Paul-Émile Mercier.

Call it the Canadian butterfly effect, eh, but my own family story is intertwined with that of a now very wealthy Frederick Trump eventually making his way back to the United States and…providing the world with Donald.

And for that, I’m sincerely sorry.

Tom Mulcair was the leader of the federal New Democratic Party of Canada between 2012 and 2017