DAVID MARCUS: Canada sees Trump trade war as ‘life and death’ while Americans barely notice

Gary Mar is a guy who knows a thing or two about trade between the United States and Canada .

As the president of the Canada West Foundation and a former minister dealing with trade for the Province of Alberta, he’s seen a lot — but nothing quite like the current asymmetrical trade dispute between the two nations.

America and our neighbors to the north face a Sept.

7 deadline to reach a new trade deal, or see crippling sanctions go into effect on both sides.

But the citizens of each country are not treating this looming crisis the same way at all.

"The 49th parallel [is] like a two-way mirror," Mar told Fox News Digital this week.

"Canadians look through it, and they see Americans.

But Americans look at the same mirror, and they see themselves.

So we get much more information on what’s going on in the United States than Americans ever get ... with respect to Canada." CANADIAN PM TELLS TRUMP TO 'STOP TRYING TO BE TOUGH' IN TRADE FIGHT This is a fair assessment.

For example, most Americans likely do not know that, since President Donald Trump took office, Canadian grocery stores and pharmacies have aggressive signs pointing out what products were made in America, to boycott them.

Nothing remotely like that has happened stateside.

Likewise, in the Great White North, these trade flare-ups are by far the biggest story in the country, fueled by a state-run media that might even hate Trump more than our domestic liberal media does.

In America, this story is lucky to hit the C-slot of a cable news show. ‘CAPTAIN CANADA’ FIREBRAND UNLOADS ON TRUMP WITH PROFANE ONE-LINER AS TRADE WAR ESCALATES The point is that, from the perspective of public opinion intensity, there is just no comparison.

Canadians think they are in an existential fight, while most Americans barely know it is happening.