The best thing about the Canadians’ use of a Ronald Reagan video to taunt President Donald Trump’s trade policies is that it exposes the 54% of today’s Americans who weren’t alive during the Reagan presidency to what a real conservative sounds like.

I was in another room when I first heard the commercial featuring Reagan’s voice coming from the television. I rushed to answer the siren’s song, pulling me back to a better time and place.

Listening to President Reagan make the case for free trade evoked a wave of warm nostalgia. I don’t care if his words were rearranged by the Canadians or even if Reagan’s record on trade didn’t always match his rhetoric. It was still wistful to hear a president espouse policy grounded in the clear principles of free markets, free minds and free men that once defined the conservative movement.

Reagan spoke of those convictions with reason and the confidence that sticking to them would benefit all Americans. Hearing Reagan’s voice and seeing him sitting at his desk in an everyman’s flannel shirt reminded me of how much we’re missing that sort of steadiness and strength in politics.

It prompted me to search the Internet for more of his speeches and think about how base our political discourse has become in the years since he left the White House.

Reagan employed self-deprecation over self-aggrandizement to endear himself to his listeners. His jabs at his opponents were wrapped in humor, rather than crude insults and name-calling. He let his accomplishments speak for themselves, rather than engaging in incessant braggadocio. There was no meanness about him.

In 1980, when Reagan became the first president to campaign on the promise to “Make America Great Again,” it was taken as a rallying cry for Americans to unite to pull the nation out of its malaise. Today, those same words are a battle cry to separate Americans.

Reagan didn’t spend his eight years in office blaming his predecessor, Jimmy Carter, for the mess he inherited. During the campaign, the harshest words he leveled at Carter were, “There you go again.” Reagan understood that to be respected, a president must behave respectfully. He exuded decency and dignity, even when under attack.

The anti-tariffs ad from the Canadians was designed to push Trump’s button. And he went off as expected, announcing a new round of tariffs on our neighbor and, in the process, giving lie to his claim that his levies are a response to an economic and fentanyl emergency. They aren’t. They’re a cudgel to punish his enemies and reward those who grovel at his feet.

Vindictiveness is not a conservative virtue. Neither is building monuments to your own ego. Real conservatives have accepted the mantle of conserving the nation’s founding principles and institutions. Today’s conservatives-in-name-only tear them down to enable their shortcuts around the rulebook.

The lineage of Ronald Reagan’s conservative philosophy, with its firm belief in constrained government, stretches back to James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. They wouldn’t recognize the brand of conservatism being practiced today.

A YouGov poll from earlier this year found 57% of Americans believe the Reagan era was the country’s best in terms of quality of life.

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That’s what happens when a nation chooses principled leaders instead of bullies and buffoons.

Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of the Detroit News.

It’s dark at 5 p.m. now that we’re done with daylight saving, so it’s a good time to read two novels by Minnesotans that feature ghosts, one who won’t stop talking and one who is fading away. These are so worthy of your TBA pile.

(Book Fluent)

“The Butcher and the Liar”: by S.L. Woeppel (Books Fluent, $21.99)

Marina would often ask me why she had to die. She never expected me to have an answer. She just liked to talk. But I probably should have told her right away, right after it happened. It would have explained why it was me she was forced to stay with — another question she often asked… she still didn’t know I washed her blood from a cooler in the Missouri River. — from “The Butcher and the Liar”

S.L. Woeppel (Book Fluent)

Daisy Belton is 9 when she discovers her father, a butcher and serial killer, cutting up the body of his latest victim. He isn’t surprised to see Daisy and makes her his accomplice by “going fishing” to flush the woman’s remains into the river. Her name is Marina and her spirit will be with Daisy for years, a reminder that Daisy has kept her father’s secret and her part in the crime.

This genre-jumping, involving novel is part magical realism, part psychological thriller, part romance and part coming-of-age for a girl who has seen too much. Like her father, adult Daisy is both a butcher and a liar.

The story begins in 2015 when 35-year-old Daisy returns to her hometown of Hellene, Neb., to watch the last auction at a cattle market where she and her friend Caleb Garcia spent hours as kids sitting on the catwalk and listening to the auctioneer. The narrative moves between Daisy’s childhood and 2015 when she owns her own butcher shop in partnership with Miles, who is like a brother to her.

In the childhood chapters, Daisy has a cold relationship with her father after she learns his secrets, but she lets him show her how to be a butcher. Somehow, Woeppel makes these scenes almost lyrical as Daisy is shown how to use the knives and put on chainmail gloves so she doesn’t cut herself while stripping meat from the bones.

In the chapters of Daisy as an adult, she is still having conversations with the dead Marina, who is sometimes Daisy’s conscience, sometimes her adviser on relationships. Daisy’s efforts to find Marina’s family in Croatia are touching and successful.

A constant presence is Caleb, even after he and Daisy haven’t seen one another for years. He knows she has a secret about why she never is in a committed relationship but doesn’t press for details.

Although this bare outline of the novel seems grim, it is laced with humor and a tenderness for the characters, who show us how guilt and childhood trauma can shape an adult’s life.

Woeppel grew up in Nebraska a few blocks from a cattle market. Her debut novel “Flipping the Birdie,” a superhero romance, won the $5,000 BookLife fiction prize presented by BookLife and Publishers Weekly.

“The Butcher and the Liar” is an independently published novel (which we used to call self-published), and it shows how far this form of publishing has come in the past few decades. It is getting great reviews from publications such as Kirkus Reviews, which called it “haunting and inventive.”

“Come Back, I Love You (A Ghost Story)”: by Kathleen Novak (Regal House Publishing, $19.95)

Minnesota author Kathleen Novak launches her new novel “Come Back, I Love You” on Nov. 12, 2025, at Magers & Quinn, Minneapolis. (Regal House Publishing)

That’s when I notice Bo is standing where he should have been sitting and Franny Hale is hovering in the spot I just left. She is so vague this time, ill-defined and transparent. And her transparency has color, like sky after rain, a pale and golden pink. Bo is transfixed by her. — from “Come Back, I Love You”

The ghost in Kathleen Novak’s new novel is gentle and quiet, but she wants something from Floria, who has moved into a 100-year-old little cottage on an “ancient lake” that seems to be Lake Superior. The narrator, whose name is not Floria, tells us little about herself except that she was married, lived for a while in a high-ceilinged apartment, and wanted a life of quiet. She keeps the paintings on the cottage walls that she learns were done by Franny Hale, the woman who lived there almost her entire life. Later, she finds sketches hidden in a catalog of a man who visited Franny while her husband was away at war.

Floria makes friends with her elderly, lively neighbor Mavis and her dog. The women bond over their love of the lake in all its moods. Floria (a name she’s taken from the lead character in the opera “Tosca”) tells Maeve about how Franny’s pictures are sometimes tilted and there are other manifestations of her presence. Does Franny want Floria to do something? Franny appears only a few times, getting more wispy each time. She seems happy when Floria plants a garden with the help of Bo, a long-legged, smart handyman who does repairs on the cottage.

Floria’s first summer in the cottage is glorious as she and Mavis watch activity on the lake and marvel over their good luck at living in such a place. But things turn when Mavis is hospitalized and moved to a nursing facility. Floria brings her flowers and fresh berries, but it is never the same. And Bo, with whom Floria has hoped to have a relationship, leaves for a year to live in the South.

So the title of this story, told by Floria in a no-nonsense voice, could have many meanings. Who should come back? Who is loved? Is it Mavis? Bo? Franny the ghost? Floria’s big Italian family about whom she often thinks? The lake?

It’s all of them, and the interesting part is that their intertwined stories do not end. Floria continues living in her beloved cottage, waiting for the next chapter in her life on the lake. We don’t know what happens to the other characters.

Novak is a poet and Minnesota Book Award finalist for “Do Not Find Me.” Its companion is “The Autobiography of Corrine Bernard.” Her historical novel “Steel” won the Northeastern Minnesota Book Award for best fiction of 2022.

She will launch “Come Back, I Love You” at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.

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How did we begin? No, this isn’t about the birds and bees. It’s about Drew Ross’ “Becoming the Twin Cities” (Minnesota Historical Society Press, $27.95), the story of how and why St. Paul and Minneapolis evolved separately but have come together in a metropolitan area with the two cities so close together that visitors don’t even know which one they are in unless they pay attention to road signs

Subtitled “Swindles, Schemes, and Enduring Rivalries,” Ross’ book explores how many people have tried — and failed — to unite  Minneapolis and St. Paul into one city. Their motivations include visionary ideals, commercial gain or political ambition. He uncovers the 19th-century history of scheming, social rivalries and grudges, as well as utopian idealism and personal ambition that explain how the Twin Cities have the different governments and distinct personalities we know today.

It won’t come as a surprise that the configuration of the Mississippi River had a lot to do with early settlements. Beginning with the story of Fort Snelling’s founding and Joseph Plympton’s expansion of a reserve around it, Ross follows up with the land-grabbing and moneymaking schemes of Henry Rice and Franklin Steele, explores the rivalries between local Republicans and Democrats (and their partisan newspapers) and details the battles over the locations and significance of the Capitol, the State Fair and the Midway neighborhood. Among other characters are Lt. Zebulon Pike, tavern keeper Stephen Desnoyer, architect Horace W.S. Cleveland, religious leader (and land speculator) Archbishop Ireland, and publisher Bill King as well as St. Paul’s favorite early settler Pierre “Pig’s Eye” Parrant.

Ross, who lives in St. Paul, takes dryness out of history and makes it come alive with his easy style. He is a a writer, editor and researcher who won the Minnesota Historical Society’s 2024 Solon J. Buck Award for historical writing.

Ross will discuss his book at 2 p.m. Saturday at Minnesota History Center, 345 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul. The program is free and open to the public.

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This is the challenge when tech-gift shopping: Make a splash without spending a fortune. In fact, you want to keep each purchase to a bit over or a bit under $100.

Here are a few suggestions:

AirPods Pro 3: Apple’s flagship earbuds give you the gift of silence, or close to it. If you are in a noisy airplane cabin, a couple of stalk squeezes reduces the roar to a nearly inaudible hum. Apple has been picking away at this problem for years and nearly has it nailed. $249 apple.com

Clara Colour: Kindle, meet Kobo. This lesser-known line of ebook readers has appealing and often unique features. The Clara Colour model boasts a dazzling color screen. All Kobos offer built-in public-library access, and they can archive articles sent from your phone or computer. $159 kobo.com

Kindle: Prefer a Kindle? For a bargain, check out the entry-level Kindle (with nothing else in the name). This is a black-and-white model, but that’s all you need for pristine reading of text. It’s about the size of the Clara Colour and is available in a fetching matcha color. $109.99 amazon.com

Pill: This Beats speaker gets its name because it’s shaped like a giant capsule. It sounds terrific, though. Use its USB-C port for lossless audio playback or to charge an external device. A lanyard is included. It’s dust and water resistant. Battery life is 24 hours. $149.99 beatsbydre.com

Beats Pill portable speaker

MX Master 4: Logitech fans will cheer the new version of its flagship mouse. This one has a trick: a Haptic Sense Panel that vibrates when pressed, opening an on-screen Action Ring. You can load up that overlay with any app- and system-level shortcuts you desire. $119.99 logitech.com

Snap Grip 4 phone grip

Snap Grip 4: Don’t call this a Pop Socket, but the idea is much the same: A clicky doodad on the back of a phone that makes it easier to hold. Ohsnap!’s product is “stupid thin,” has a kickstand function, attaches to metal and doesn’t block MagSafe charging. $39.99 ohsnap.com

Signature Slim Solar+: Prominent in Logitech’s bag of tricks over the years is the solar keyboard, which derives power from any light source. even in a gloomy room. Now it’s back with model K980, which has the same light-sipping strip to keep the keyboard going. $99.99 logitech.com

Genki Moonbase powerstrip

Moonbase: It’s a power strip, but unlike any you’ve ever seen. It glows in a variety of unearthly colors, because it’s not of this Earth. It’s called the Moonbase, after all. The strip has three generously spaced AC outlets along four USB-C ports on one end. $139.99 genkithings.com

Power banks with stands: Portable power banks are great for keeping your phone charged while on the go, but the two devices make for a heavy, bulky bundle. UAG has the answer: It has built kickstands into its Slim ($69.95) and Rugged ($109.95) power bank models. urbanarmorgear.com

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