I won't blame the US for the shabby state Canada is in. When I did an MBA in the 80's Canada's crappy productivity was a major topic in the International Economics course. Nothing has changed. When I lived in Japan for most of the 90's, I came to realize the CBC's view of Canada was a fabrication. Too many of our governments hate our industries, too many of our industries are oligopolies, too many of our jobs are public sector, too many of commitments are ignored and too many of us are lost in the green fog. Had we behaved responsibly for the last 40 years, Trump's policies wouldn't matter nearly as much.
I never cease to be impressed by how binary Canadians are. Either Trump and the Americans are barbarians at our gate or we don't deserve our nation because we have such dreadful politicians. A smart country would figure out how to deal with the border and offer Trump great reasons to co-operate with a Canadian vision of North America.
For example, Canada makes the best water bombers in the world. The Americans have a lock on long stay drones: let's work together and create a North American Fire Watch and Suppression Force. An internal Coast Guard as it were.
There are literally dozens of other, win-win, co-operative ideas to dangle in front of the American President.
Instead, we lamely "Buy Canadian" and feel guilty about our snowbirding.
Yeah, after Covid and being barred from public life for not getting the mRNA vaccines, I have no romantic illusions left about Canada. Canada is a pathetic joke of a country. In fact, I don’t even consider myself “Canadian” anymore, I identify as “Albertan” first and foremost. My number one wish is for Alberta to separate from the rest of Canada, either as a part of the USA or as an independent country (which would immediately make Alberta one of the wealthiest countries in the world. I’ve felt nothing but condescension as an albertan from the rest of the country my entire life. Even the maple leaf on the flag has absolutely nothing to do with Alberta. I never saw a maple tree or leaf in real life until my twenties, so how exactly does that flag represent me? Canada, as a “post national” state according to the PM, represents mostly woke idiocy and poor governance, and I’m embarrassed by it. Even this brouhaha over tariffs is embarrassing: Canada (as a blatant vassal state of the USA) has absolutely no leverage or response to US tariffs and all the “tough talk” of our politicians and pundits is pure cringe. Alberta needs to separate from this country of brainwashed mental children NOW.
Canada has been warned for decades, and at least 3 past US presidents, about our failure to secure our border, and the trade barriers in sectors like dairy, poultry. Few Canadians realized the extent of the drug trafficking and money laundering until recently, if they do now. We can bemoan our position, or take the measures to help ourselves out, and this does not mean booing national anthems at hockey games. I’m still waiting for the measured, rational “hero” to make their way forward. Lamenting about past “trust broken” isn’t the answer. Assuming there WAS trust brought us here. Politics and public opinion are fickle, and can change on a dime. Should a deal be struck on trade etc. in a month, this all goes away, except for the hard feelings caused by pundits and opinion authors. “Why Booing the US is Necessary” comes to mind. I’ve listened to “The Hub”, “Munk” podcasts and read their articles quite religiously, but I’m still shocked at the hosts who are openly lamenting the US ditching DIE initiatives, clamouring about social justice, repeating absolute false hoods about Jan 6 in the US, (namely that officer Sicknick died of injuries sustained during the riot), ignoring Biden and how he tried to coerce media companies into running interference for him, among multiple other issues.) Humpty that needs putting back together isn’t the trust between the US and Canada, it’s our own sovereignty and self-reliance. We need a renaissance, a renewal of liberal core values. DIE and “social justice” are, literally, ANTITHETICAL to liberalism. I’m still not seeing it, anywhere, except maybe from Poilievre. I’m certainly not seeing it come from any of our media, or if someone has, please point it out.
As Kilping said “If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise”…..
I think writing off this very productive friendship and trading partnership is premature.
We actually don't need any of the King's Horses or the King's Men, or the President's Horses or the President's Men. It would be better if those idiots would just get out of the damned way.
Actual Canadians and Actual Americans could figure this thing out over a weekend.
This time has me down too, but we're not doomed, not yet.
"If tariffs come into effect, Canadians - and not just a few - will begin to lose their jobs. At the very least, the ranks of the unemployed could grow by hundreds of thousands; although some estimates go as high as 2 million (Canada’s workforce in 2023 was 16.5 million)."
Great. This means we can kick a lot of immigrants out (who cost us an insane amount of money and resources), stabilizing the housing market in the process.
I'm just not-getting-replies to my new, 180-flip advocacy of Canadian nuclear weapons.
Unsurprisingly! Loathed the idea myself, for 50 years. But it was the solid logic of not having a gun in your home - solid as long as there are police you can call. If NO police could possibly come, and invasion is possible, you now DO need a gun.
So we need our own nukes. And should ask our good allies, America, to help us build them!
Not expecting replies, but I've got to keep saying it. I'm literally scared if we don't. We're in that first stage of disaster, denial - like the people who didn't want to leave the solid-seeming Titanic. But the NATO ground has melted beneath our feet.
There's one difference. Right now Canadian leaders are FINALLY waking up and uniting to serve Canada. Until this year they, like all the US leaders, were busy destroying their OWN people. The destruction climaxed in 2020 when ALL countries and corporations and churches and schools around the world united and worked assiduously to ruin their own people and enrich Bezos.
Now Canada and Mexico are working with each other and internally, united to protect their OWN people. THAT'S THEIR JOB. People aren't supposed to trust a foreign government. People are supposed to trust their OWN government to serve its OWN people.
Now you've got them moving in the right direction for the first time since 1965. Be glad! Be thankful!
Americans are still fucked. Our politicians are feuding and screeching over trivia while Bezos and Elon and Trump and all the politicians continue to decimate our jobs and industries and businesses and lives and culture.
Polly, Canadian (non) leaders MIGHT be waking up but they show no signs of anything approaching effectiveness. Instead, they are all making sounds - get rid of interprovincial trade barriers; more east-west pipelines; diversify our customer base; yada; yada; yada - but they are NOT doing anything substantive whatsoever to accomplish those putative goals.
What I am saying is that it is the usual Canadian formula of all talk and no action. My wife puts it another way: they are all talk and no walk.
I understand people's hopes for reform but I am absolutely convinced that our political class and, yes, we the electorate, are quite willing for the next fellow/province/whatever to make sacrifices but remember, that is for the other fellow to do, not for me or mine!
In short, you are an optimist and I am a pessimist. Time (very, very short) will prove one of us correct.
Allen, I would prefer to be neither a glass half full nor a glass half empty type but rather a glass-that-can-continually-be-refilled-as-I-earn-that-refill type. My point is that the issue is one of what CAN happen IF I do my job right and IF the government does it's job right.
How much of that delay in actually doing something other than talking, do you think is the result of Trudeau shutting down Parliament and Ford calling an election, shutting down the Ontario government?
Trudeau has made lots of promises but without a parliament to pass funding or laws to make it happen, it still just empty words. Just like the lost, I mean last, decade.
Tariffs are not new or sudden. They have been around for ever. Europe is full of them. Even Canada. Disruption is called for in USA and Canada. Just saying.
Interesting. Have you ever lived in New York? Say the Bronx? I did in the 1970’s. I owe a lot to USA and my friends and business associates there
New Yorkers are hard. Like really hard. Even rude and crude. To become a multi millionaire in real estate( an even more difficult pursuit) is the environment that k believe developed Trumps negotiating style.
For all their toughness New Yorkers are also by and large really good family folks. Trumps compassion towards his fellow citizens is well documented.
I can’t stand listening to Trumps rallies. I
Detest Trudeau’s speeches. I even can’t be bothered by Poilievres rallies. But in short bites you can identify policies.
The good that men do lives after them. Trump ? Trudeau? Poilievre? Which 2 out of 3? Or none?
I won't blame the US for the shabby state Canada is in. When I did an MBA in the 80's Canada's crappy productivity was a major topic in the International Economics course. Nothing has changed. When I lived in Japan for most of the 90's, I came to realize the CBC's view of Canada was a fabrication. Too many of our governments hate our industries, too many of our industries are oligopolies, too many of our jobs are public sector, too many of commitments are ignored and too many of us are lost in the green fog. Had we behaved responsibly for the last 40 years, Trump's policies wouldn't matter nearly as much.
Poignant and moving, Peter.
You speak for many Canadians, including me. TY.
Thanks. I remain optimistic this will all get sorted, and for the better.
I have deactivated the account.
I never cease to be impressed by how binary Canadians are. Either Trump and the Americans are barbarians at our gate or we don't deserve our nation because we have such dreadful politicians. A smart country would figure out how to deal with the border and offer Trump great reasons to co-operate with a Canadian vision of North America.
For example, Canada makes the best water bombers in the world. The Americans have a lock on long stay drones: let's work together and create a North American Fire Watch and Suppression Force. An internal Coast Guard as it were.
There are literally dozens of other, win-win, co-operative ideas to dangle in front of the American President.
Instead, we lamely "Buy Canadian" and feel guilty about our snowbirding.
Time to grow up. Without a functioning government we are screwed.
Yes , trust truly is lost in buckets and gained by the drop.
A big issue in Canada is that some regions in Canada trust Ottawa just as much as they trust Trump, which isn't much.
Yeah, after Covid and being barred from public life for not getting the mRNA vaccines, I have no romantic illusions left about Canada. Canada is a pathetic joke of a country. In fact, I don’t even consider myself “Canadian” anymore, I identify as “Albertan” first and foremost. My number one wish is for Alberta to separate from the rest of Canada, either as a part of the USA or as an independent country (which would immediately make Alberta one of the wealthiest countries in the world. I’ve felt nothing but condescension as an albertan from the rest of the country my entire life. Even the maple leaf on the flag has absolutely nothing to do with Alberta. I never saw a maple tree or leaf in real life until my twenties, so how exactly does that flag represent me? Canada, as a “post national” state according to the PM, represents mostly woke idiocy and poor governance, and I’m embarrassed by it. Even this brouhaha over tariffs is embarrassing: Canada (as a blatant vassal state of the USA) has absolutely no leverage or response to US tariffs and all the “tough talk” of our politicians and pundits is pure cringe. Alberta needs to separate from this country of brainwashed mental children NOW.
Ya that drippy condescension wears on a guy, doesn’t it?
Canada has been warned for decades, and at least 3 past US presidents, about our failure to secure our border, and the trade barriers in sectors like dairy, poultry. Few Canadians realized the extent of the drug trafficking and money laundering until recently, if they do now. We can bemoan our position, or take the measures to help ourselves out, and this does not mean booing national anthems at hockey games. I’m still waiting for the measured, rational “hero” to make their way forward. Lamenting about past “trust broken” isn’t the answer. Assuming there WAS trust brought us here. Politics and public opinion are fickle, and can change on a dime. Should a deal be struck on trade etc. in a month, this all goes away, except for the hard feelings caused by pundits and opinion authors. “Why Booing the US is Necessary” comes to mind. I’ve listened to “The Hub”, “Munk” podcasts and read their articles quite religiously, but I’m still shocked at the hosts who are openly lamenting the US ditching DIE initiatives, clamouring about social justice, repeating absolute false hoods about Jan 6 in the US, (namely that officer Sicknick died of injuries sustained during the riot), ignoring Biden and how he tried to coerce media companies into running interference for him, among multiple other issues.) Humpty that needs putting back together isn’t the trust between the US and Canada, it’s our own sovereignty and self-reliance. We need a renaissance, a renewal of liberal core values. DIE and “social justice” are, literally, ANTITHETICAL to liberalism. I’m still not seeing it, anywhere, except maybe from Poilievre. I’m certainly not seeing it come from any of our media, or if someone has, please point it out.
As Kilping said “If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise”…..
Wise words.
I think writing off this very productive friendship and trading partnership is premature.
We actually don't need any of the King's Horses or the King's Men, or the President's Horses or the President's Men. It would be better if those idiots would just get out of the damned way.
Actual Canadians and Actual Americans could figure this thing out over a weekend.
This time has me down too, but we're not doomed, not yet.
"If tariffs come into effect, Canadians - and not just a few - will begin to lose their jobs. At the very least, the ranks of the unemployed could grow by hundreds of thousands; although some estimates go as high as 2 million (Canada’s workforce in 2023 was 16.5 million)."
Great. This means we can kick a lot of immigrants out (who cost us an insane amount of money and resources), stabilizing the housing market in the process.
I'm just not-getting-replies to my new, 180-flip advocacy of Canadian nuclear weapons.
Unsurprisingly! Loathed the idea myself, for 50 years. But it was the solid logic of not having a gun in your home - solid as long as there are police you can call. If NO police could possibly come, and invasion is possible, you now DO need a gun.
So we need our own nukes. And should ask our good allies, America, to help us build them!
Not expecting replies, but I've got to keep saying it. I'm literally scared if we don't. We're in that first stage of disaster, denial - like the people who didn't want to leave the solid-seeming Titanic. But the NATO ground has melted beneath our feet.
There's one difference. Right now Canadian leaders are FINALLY waking up and uniting to serve Canada. Until this year they, like all the US leaders, were busy destroying their OWN people. The destruction climaxed in 2020 when ALL countries and corporations and churches and schools around the world united and worked assiduously to ruin their own people and enrich Bezos.
Now Canada and Mexico are working with each other and internally, united to protect their OWN people. THAT'S THEIR JOB. People aren't supposed to trust a foreign government. People are supposed to trust their OWN government to serve its OWN people.
Now you've got them moving in the right direction for the first time since 1965. Be glad! Be thankful!
Americans are still fucked. Our politicians are feuding and screeching over trivia while Bezos and Elon and Trump and all the politicians continue to decimate our jobs and industries and businesses and lives and culture.
Polly, Canadian (non) leaders MIGHT be waking up but they show no signs of anything approaching effectiveness. Instead, they are all making sounds - get rid of interprovincial trade barriers; more east-west pipelines; diversify our customer base; yada; yada; yada - but they are NOT doing anything substantive whatsoever to accomplish those putative goals.
What I am saying is that it is the usual Canadian formula of all talk and no action. My wife puts it another way: they are all talk and no walk.
I understand people's hopes for reform but I am absolutely convinced that our political class and, yes, we the electorate, are quite willing for the next fellow/province/whatever to make sacrifices but remember, that is for the other fellow to do, not for me or mine!
In short, you are an optimist and I am a pessimist. Time (very, very short) will prove one of us correct.
Your pessimism is based on decades of experience. I am a glass half full type, but when it comes to my government I see a glass half empty.
Allen, I would prefer to be neither a glass half full nor a glass half empty type but rather a glass-that-can-continually-be-refilled-as-I-earn-that-refill type. My point is that the issue is one of what CAN happen IF I do my job right and IF the government does it's job right.
How much of that delay in actually doing something other than talking, do you think is the result of Trudeau shutting down Parliament and Ford calling an election, shutting down the Ontario government?
Trudeau has made lots of promises but without a parliament to pass funding or laws to make it happen, it still just empty words. Just like the lost, I mean last, decade.
Long live the USA
Tariffs are not new or sudden. They have been around for ever. Europe is full of them. Even Canada. Disruption is called for in USA and Canada. Just saying.
All true. The US President expressing a desire to annex Canada is, however, somewhat more rare.
Interesting. Have you ever lived in New York? Say the Bronx? I did in the 1970’s. I owe a lot to USA and my friends and business associates there
New Yorkers are hard. Like really hard. Even rude and crude. To become a multi millionaire in real estate( an even more difficult pursuit) is the environment that k believe developed Trumps negotiating style.
For all their toughness New Yorkers are also by and large really good family folks. Trumps compassion towards his fellow citizens is well documented.
I can’t stand listening to Trumps rallies. I
Detest Trudeau’s speeches. I even can’t be bothered by Poilievres rallies. But in short bites you can identify policies.
The good that men do lives after them. Trump ? Trudeau? Poilievre? Which 2 out of 3? Or none?