Elbows Up doesn’t mean what you think it means. I’ve been noticing a lot of criticism of Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney is about the position of his elbows. Conservatives and NDP voters claim Carney ran on elbows up but dropped them. And that sounds like he dropped his defenses. But people are using it wrong. I’ll explain but I’m going to start at the beginning.

So Mike Myers, (yes, he’s a Canadian), was on Saturday Night Live earlier in 2025 after Trump kept saying that Canada should become his “cherished 51st State”. We were, collectively, telling the hoser to take off. Myers had found a shirt online that had “Canada is not for sale” written on it. And in the credits after the SNL show, he opened his vest and then motioned putting his elbows up.

This sparked a massive movement here in Canada.

It was hockey player Gordie Howe who talked about elbows up originally. It is a defensive strategy. You start to play with your elbows up and when people come close to you, they inevitably run into your elbow. The elbow is a pretty strong bone and can hurt people pretty good. And remember, too, that it was super effective in a time when helmets weren’t required attire on the ice.

But the premise remains. You put your elbows up so that people attacking you, hit them. They aren’t there to be used as weapons. Elbowing exists as a penalty in hockey for a reason.

What this means is that Carney isn’t going to overtly hit back against Trump. He’s going to defend Canada first and foremost. A co-worker said that because we don’t have a trade deal with the US yet that Carney is weak and put his elbows down. But that isn’t what has been happening. Carney has said, time and again, that he does not want a deal that is not in the best interests in Canada.

Anyway, I think a lot of Canadians don’t really understand what a defensive position is and don’t understand that keeping your elbows up doesn’t mean driving them into people’s skulls. Maybe they are expecting something more like this Simpson’s clip…

That’s one of my favourite clips because it illustrates how people often keep doing something potentially harmful/hurtful but put the responsibility on others.