Lorilee Craker was overcome with disappointment when — as key U.S. election results trickled in late Tuesday night — it looked like a second Donald Trump presidency was on the horizon.
The former Winnipegger, who’s lived in the U.S. for 30 years, was in disbelief Wednesday and worried about what the next four years could bring, after Trump’s victory was confirmed.
“Half of me is calm and resolute, and the other half of me, I can’t stop crying,” Craker said from Grand Rapids, Mich. “I’m really shocked. I just can’t believe this is happening.
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Lorilee Craker, a former Winnipegger who lives in Michigan, and her mother, Linda Reimer, during a visit to the city over the summer. Craker was disappointed by the U.S. presidential election result.
“I feel really disappointed in the country where I am living out my adult life. I feel like America has shown us who it is, and I don’t like it.”
Trump’s victory in the swing state of Michigan helped him defeat Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic party challenger.
The Republican Trump will become the first president with a felony conviction when he is sworn in.
Craker, an author and journalist, was unable to vote, because she doesn’t hold U.S. citizenship. She made a financial donation to Harris’s campaign. She said her American husband and adult children voted for the Democrat.
Concerned about racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric, she signed up Tuesday to volunteer for a non-profit organization that supports women refugees and newcomers.
“Today, we grieve, and we’re disappointed and and confused and angry. Tomorrow, we roll up our sleeves and we work for justice and dignity and hope,” she said.
Former Winnipeg resident Jack Epp, who lives north of Detroit, didn’t expect Trump to win by such a wide margin.
“Everything going into it seemed to imply it was going to be close,” said Epp, who moved to the U.S. for auto industry work more than 30 years ago and became a U.S. citizen in 2015.
He said he tends to vote for Democrats in presidential elections — casting a ballot for Harris this time — but he wouldn’t rule out voting Republican in the future, depending on the candidate. He has voted for Republican candidates in local elections.
Epp said the Democrats misread the American public, and failed to win over voters who were unhappy with President Joe Biden’s policies on the economy, immigration or the Israel-Gaza war.
He isn’t buying into doom and gloom that exists on the left following Trump’s win.
“I’m not at fear for the country falling to pieces,” said Epp, who believes most Canadians who live in the U.S. tend to lean to the liberal side. “The country has survived worse.”
Snowbirds from Manitoba were also taking stock of the election result.
Retiree Robin Varndell, from Stonewall, said she refused to visit the U.S. during Trump’s first term due, in part, to his hateful rhetoric.
After spending last winter in Texas, she and her husband will not return during Trump’s second presidency.
“The message Trump sends is the opposite of my values,” said Varndell. “I recognize he is not my leader. Me not going to the States is not going to have an economic impact at all, but the impact is for me.
“I have to look at myself in the mirror. I have to stick to my convictions.”
Some of the Canadians she met in Texas have already returned to the red state for winter.
“They were of the opinion it doesn’t matter, because it’s not their leader,” said Varndell.
Tom Pearson, a Winnipeg retiree who winters in Indian Wells, Calif., was left wondering what the next Trump presidency could mean for Canada, the Americans who rely on social safety nets and Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
“When Trump won in 2016, it was as though somebody gave the bigots and racists licence to crawl out of the swamp and espouse their views to anyone,” he said. “I think that’s going to happen again. I think we’re in for four more years of turmoil.”
Luc Barter Moulaison, a Winnipegger who is pursuing a PhD in political science at the University of Chicago, was surprised at how the election unfolded in Trump’s favour.
It appeared Democrats wanted to “be better at Trump’s own game than Trump is,” he said, pointing to promises such as Harris’s pledge to tighten border restrictions.
“A lot of Trump’s rhetoric was adopted by the (Harris) campaign,” he said. “I feel people were, like, ‘Why not vote Trump if (the Democrats) are going to do the same thing?’”
Americans didn’t just vote for a new president. People in several states voted on proposed amendments that would enshrine abortion rights in their constitutions, if approved.
Florida’s amendment did not pass, even though it was supported by 57 per cent of voters. A 60 per cent majority was required by law.
Abortions are banned after six weeks of pregnancy in Florida. The proposed change would have allowed abortions up to the point of fetal viability.
Kim Crookshanks, a former Winnipegger who lives near Orlando, expected the amendment to pass. The retiree, a non-U.S. citizen who could not vote, was disappointed and angry when she saw the result.
“There were two words, and the first word is ‘oh’ and the second word rhymes with ‘duck,’” said Crookshanks, also dejected by Trump’s win. “I couldn’t envision a world in which you wouldn’t want a woman to have the right to make their own decisions.”
chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca
Chris Kitching
Reporter
Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.
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