Someone needs to explain the following to Poilievre, Juvani and Majumber:
- "nothing could be more corrosive to Canada’s national character than meekly raising our haunches in Trump’s direction and assuming the mating position."
I don't think any of them has ever told a bully to fuck off! Lack of character here is concerning.
Lively, accurate and pretty macho commentary. May I point out that consumer boycott and travel decisions are largely made by women. Do not ever mess with a woman defending her home. Particularly a Canadian woman who routinely navigates snowstorms to get to work and then back home to put supper on the table. You have no idea who you’re messing with!
Now that was a fun read! And re-invigorating. Let’s do this Canada! And not just in a silly ‘elbows up’ fashion. But as part of a true nation building exercise. This may well be one of our ‘finest hours’!
Is anyone else getting tired of the Cdn analysis consisting of name calling?
Does anyone really believe the situation will drastically change when Trump (eventually) goes? It seems the Dems kept most of his tariffs and even increased them after his first term. And as much as they condemn the tariffs now they also campaign on restoring / onshoring American industry and jobs. The Dems condemn his tax cuts and yet ... the non-DSA candidates promise more tax cuts. Trump's approval rating may be down, but the Dems is down even more with the DSA trying to seize control of the party.
US Politicians are elected by their constituencies, and that doesn't include Canadians. Politicians in the USA of all stripes will joyfully throw Canada under the bus if they can grab the jobs outsourced to us; and take the resources too if it comes to that. Clarke Ries neglected to mention that the noble, harmless Delians resisted the Athenians, and were simply wiped out. Genocided.
And what happened to the Athenians after they did that? If memory serves, Athens' other neighbours were shocked by that act of brutality and formed a united front with the Persians, who subjugated Athens.
This is very much the thesis of the article: if we only obsess over our own vulnerabilities, it's not strategic thinking, it's just a more sophisticated form of panic.
It doesn’t make one sound tough, and it is just slack-jawed, third rate schlock.
Kind of like trying to pull off Hunter S. Thompson and sticking the Peewee Herman landing.
But if that is to where we have devolved, so be it.
If the Country is to be burdened with the Government pitting patriotic, Elbows Up heroes against snivelling quislings, I suppose you will find enough folks to fall for the bait, and swallow the myth.
Yeah, it was an 'interesting" read (lively as someone above noted) and likely cathartic for the author to write but it came across like the combined work product of Dennis Miller, Dennis Leary and Dennis the Menace - for better or worse I suppose.
And yeah, the elbows up versus sniveling quislings framing is getting very tiring. Talk about your false binaries.
The Americans don't want anything from us. They are perfectly happy with tariffs. Carney came to power on the promise that he could negotiate something better.
"Retaliation" only makes sense when you expect the other side to change its action, in a way that benefits you, as a result of your retaliation. Does anyone think that will happen?
Carney was elected, by the most easily frightened among us, to "stand up to Trump" and in the alternative because he was "the only one who could deal with Trump". So no deal means he is standing up, and deal means he has stood up. Either way he wins, but turns out perpetual trade war is a better ticket to popularity right now. And when they do make a deal it will be seen as sufficiently "hard fought" even if it's the same one on the table back in August he won't really tell us about. Jesus Christ, this guy got dealt five aces didn't he?
Oh and let's also conclude a mutual 'work without a visa' deal with our newly invented associate membership in the EU. That ought to show the US, because open borders are something that Trump hates and therefore good! How dare those evil conservatives disagree? Why this is popular among a permanently panicked and irrational population, when asked in general without providing any details. Popular and therefore cannot be challenged!
You voted for a guy who cared so much about Canada that he and his family didn't live there for 10 years before he parachuted into the PMO.
We are literally the only country so self loathing that this wouldn't be disqualifying. FFS. "Well of course he left Canada, he's very smart and important and we basically suck."
(Edit: it was actually 13 years. 13 years ago it was 2013. The world was very different. Canada sure was different. I was a very different person. Don't know about the rest of you. That's a long fucking time.)
... as opposed to a guy who really, really, really waned to be PM and has done literally nothing else in his life? No accomplishments... one line item on the resume?
strange comment... personally I was proud of him to be named gov in the U.K. Add to that the considerable international experience and contacts he gained. The same at Brookfield. All assets and experience for our benefit now... but maybe you have little leadership development experience.
Most frightened, sure, but there’s not much Canadians should find scarier than a high stakes negotiation with the US and Canada is hopelessly exposed, left represented by nothing more substantial than Pierre Poilievre. Poilievre, of course, is basically indistinguishable from any other MAGA politician, except most of them have had the benefit of holding down an actual job at some point in their lives.
Well, of course, not liking MAGA politicians should really be a big tent sort of thing. Former Progressive Conservatives are welcome. Reform probably not.
Canadianize “MAGA” to something else if you feel it will more clearly distinguish the poiticians who should be properly disliked.
All because Poilievre was too chicken not to accept Carney's premises. Ironically, he was put in the same position as O'Toole (govt stampeding population with disastrous and idiotic fear-mongering - does the opposition call them out or engage in flaccid me tooism) and made the same cowardly choice.
Despite getting the job because the CPC base was furious with O'Toole for that very reason.
Hopefully Jivani will be smart enough to learn the lesson, so as to be ready when a convoy of unemployed auto workers comes to Ottawa.
I couldn't believe we topped 2021 for running a national election during the height of an even bigger moral panic. Trudeau wasn't even supposed to last long after 2019 but for Covid letting him and his newly bought off media cast milquetoste O'Toole as a far right anti-vaxxer and gun nut. We're still not out of the shadow of the pandemic and its fallout in many ways.
Poilievre's strategy of ignoring Trump during the election and focusing on real issues obviously turned out to be the wrong one. Canadians are clearly idiot children and need to be told what they want to hear. I think his only play would have been to out-do the Liberals with anti-Trump rhetoric like Doug Ford did. This would have been highly cynical and disingenuous of course but that's clearly what Canadians who aren't die hard CPC base want to hear. Whether this would have been obvious or seem sensible to someone who was the front runner and figured he would soon have to actually negotiate with the president is another thing though.
I don't think Jivani is electable and making him party leader would be a big mistake. The Liberals and the media would have a field day with the narrative they would create around him. I fear he would win leadership over Jason Kenney though who wouldn't do much better and would be O'Toole 2.0. I'm at a loss to suggest any alternative.
Ignoring Trump was a mistake. And expecting the media not to demonize any CPC leader is as well. The play would have been to get the media repeating your message through horrifying them so much that they can't stop. Think Trump's cats and dogs.
As for how we should be handling Trump, it's with a made for Canadians tariff policy. Not future retaliation or groveling.
Yes definitely about feelings. Cultivating the feeling among
Quebec provincial voters that their salvation lies in re-electing a Federalist Party. Then the Laurentian satraps can rest satisfied that their status as kings of the puddle will remain unchanged. And afterwards there will suddenly be a trade agreement with the US with a loaf and a fish for everyone. Then in a few years high tea will to be replaced by a traditional tea ceremony but that will only affect our betters.
While in agreement with most key points that the author makes in this entertaining piece, there are some unwitting and, apparently, unrecognized ironies therein that warrant comment.
The author posits “A nation derives its longevity from its character, and nothing could be more corrosive to Canada’s national character than meekly raising our haunches in Trump’s direction and assuming the mating position.” I agree, but am nonplussed that the author fails to mention a good number of other sources of national character corrosion that, I submit, are very relevant to our current national predicament.
• Total and shameful neglect of Canada’s military, for decades.
• Endless and ballooning federal (and provincial) deficits, with no end in sight, and an electorate that couldn’t give a damn.
• A medical system that, once nonsensically held up as emblematic of the Canadian identity, is in utter collapse, with the sole consolation being that it now truly is emblematic of Canada.
• Flying the national flag at half mast for six months in response for a mass graves hoax and a bizarre national moral panic.
• Three successive national elections that installed a virtue-signalling, economically ignorant, intellectual non-entity as Prime Minister.
• A national electorate the majority of which seems to view economic growth as an also-ran insofar as election issues are concerned.
• A federal government that, in a tacit admission that the rules and regulations and Byzantine consultation and project approval processes in Canada constitute economic constipation, responds by opening yet another bureaucracy to ostensibly function as a regulatory enema, rather than simply fixing the constipating processes.
I could go on and on, but I think the foregoing makes the point, which is that Canada’s myriad of problems are entirely homegrown, courtesy of the bulk of the electorate that I suspect is now the “Elbows Up” crowd.
The author further posits that “Canada’s decision to drop the gloves has also starkly illuminated where our national weakness truly lies… Our national weakness is found in the vicarious thrill our homegrown bullies feel watching Trump and his coterie of titanic assholes demolish the foundations of a shining city upon a hill while a chorus of libtards wail in despair and eggheads with too many degrees beg him to stop”.
The author appears to suffer a variant of Trump Derangement Syndrome, if he truly believes that Trump Northers (for lack of a better phrase) constitute Canada’s national weakness. Whenever I see someone claiming that Trump, and/or those who root Trump on, are the source of Canada's woes, I see someone who should have followed the old adage that it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.
In my defence, the word count was already running long. Your general sentiments were laconically represented in the line "Canadians are a people who have grown used to mediocrity of late."
"Canada’s decision to drop the gloves has also starkly illuminated where our national weakness truly lies."
Oh has it now? He's found the source of all our woes has he? Yea, I don't think so. Anyway...
It's a rousing article, though it seems written with the author's belief in his predictions about the future, and with his belief that he knows what was in the trade deal. We'll see. I remain influenced by Conrad Black and Mark Warner, among others like-minded (although Conrad's recent assessment of Trump's presidency vis a vis this article means someone's going to eat it, and I do wonder if it might be Conrad - he might eat all of his books too in that case). I'm hearing loud and clear that I am supposed to take "annexation" seriously. I'm yet to do so but my mind is slowly opening.
The Dispatch was great. I'll take people's word that there are Canadians who want to see Canada fail. Myself, I've realized that not only did I want Canadians to be shocked out of their complacent vanity (that's happening, "pipelines won", great!) but also, I wanted that to happen on my terms (Liberals say "oops, yea Trudeau was a mistake, sorry about all the hate, the institutions need work") so that I could have less superficial relationships with my Ottawa neighbours - around whom I've always been quiet and careful because I don't want my kids' bday invitations to stop coming in (yes the fear is real). Unfortunately, they still act like Trudeau liberals ("Pierre Poilievre is just like Trump", "oh no the far right", etc.) and will continue to, I'm sure. So while I'm happy for the country (my daughters), I'm very selfishly dismayed that I am back to being a potential pariah. Excuse me while I go practice my eyebrows up smile-nod.
What the Americans haven't figured out yet is that Canada as a sovereign country is the only one that gets to decide if a trade deal is best for Canada. They keep going on about how this is the best deal for Canada. But we decide that, and it's driving them nuts
It’s not really Americans who are going to remember that there was a fight: it’s tribally partisan Republicans who are going to remember that there’s some reason they’re not supposed to like Canada. The same sort of low brow jingoism that led them to bash France incessantly in 2003 when France wouldn’t get onside with the invasion of Iraq, leading to “Freedom Fries” and choruses of “Cheese-eating Surrender Monkeys.” The fact that France was the indispensable ally in America’s successful revolution didn’t register. There was no understanding of French martial prowess, the horror of being bled white by World War 1, or the fact that a still-exhausted nation fought a prolonged rear guard action to facilitate the escape of their British allies at the start of World War II. A good year before America joined the fight against the Axis, for that matter.
It’s a mixed blessing that Trump’s trade war has now become a partisan issue. The Left is now against it because it’s Trump’s war. That suggests they may make moves to rectify it if they reclaim power. Unfortunately, the tribal partisanship of American politics means that’ll harden Republican support for Trump’s idiotic and self-harming policy.
Ultimately, Canada’s best move is to let the Americans figure out Trump’s folly for themselves. Hitting back undermines Trump because he didn’t expect it. Refusing to knuckle under raises American awareness of the trade war and also earns respect. Trump and his movement are ultimately going to fail because it’s based in ignorance and stupidity. The only question has been how long that failure takes. Trump seems to be rushing for the cliff at a sprint.
I absolutely LOVED every word of this..what an excellent dispatch, clearly explaining to all of us who have "gone to off" on the whole trade war circus what is and has transpired. 10/10 writing.
It looks like Trump’s game of chicken with Canada is losing steam. He has however many other similar games going simultaneously. In keeping with the “chicken” theme, many are coming home to roost, with the Canadian game looking like the best of a cascade of worsening economic dilemmas that threaten political obliteration for Trump and the Republican Party. The escalation ladder comes to mind. These are unnerving times. I enjoyed this piece immensely, and appreciated the nod to the muppets. Humour definitely helps.
“the flea that carries the Bubonic plague..” Man,great article Clarke. Being the 3rd boy of 6 I stood up to bullies for my younger brothers and myself. “Glass jaw” is so true. There is a time to stand your ground,and a time to look,listen and strategize. My older brother came home in the early morning hours with a bleeding nose,black eye ect. “Talking when you should have been ducking!” Is all I said,headed out the door and went to work. Lick your wounds brother,he still hadn’t learned. Great article,was losing hope in mankind. Thank you
That was a fun read although I still think we would have been better off making a deal, one that would allow us to recharge our country. Face it, after the last 11 years of basically letting our economy and military starve we weren’t in a great position. Bigs ships don’t turn around over night and there could be a lot needless pain when the layoffs start. Just ask the forest worker in BC.
Specifically, our increasingly unacceptable national weakness is that when the demented demolition circus running the American state looks north, our domestic supply of assholes keeps cheering it on from the nosebleed seats.
END QUOTE
A brilliant assessment of the people whom Pierre Poilievre worked so hard to seduce, from late 2021 forward. I hope the Alberta component of that contingent (likely the biggest component of the bunch) get shellacked come October.
Your brand promise of 'lively writing' delivers in this one. I've been starting to numb out to the whole trade war conversation but this woke me up :)
Agreed. Good article and I appreciated all the appropriate references...
Thank you! If you enjoyed the references, don't sleep on the links - the Statler & Waldorf link is to an iconic Milton Berle sketch.
I should also have added to my comment, "You had me at Statler & Waldorf. For a GenX Muppet kid that is the final word on credibility ;)
Someone needs to explain the following to Poilievre, Juvani and Majumber:
- "nothing could be more corrosive to Canada’s national character than meekly raising our haunches in Trump’s direction and assuming the mating position."
I don't think any of them has ever told a bully to fuck off! Lack of character here is concerning.
Good point. CPC are looking lost.
Lively, accurate and pretty macho commentary. May I point out that consumer boycott and travel decisions are largely made by women. Do not ever mess with a woman defending her home. Particularly a Canadian woman who routinely navigates snowstorms to get to work and then back home to put supper on the table. You have no idea who you’re messing with!
hahahahahaha! Don’t mess with mamabear! So right
Now that was a fun read! And re-invigorating. Let’s do this Canada! And not just in a silly ‘elbows up’ fashion. But as part of a true nation building exercise. This may well be one of our ‘finest hours’!
Is anyone else getting tired of the Cdn analysis consisting of name calling?
Does anyone really believe the situation will drastically change when Trump (eventually) goes? It seems the Dems kept most of his tariffs and even increased them after his first term. And as much as they condemn the tariffs now they also campaign on restoring / onshoring American industry and jobs. The Dems condemn his tax cuts and yet ... the non-DSA candidates promise more tax cuts. Trump's approval rating may be down, but the Dems is down even more with the DSA trying to seize control of the party.
US Politicians are elected by their constituencies, and that doesn't include Canadians. Politicians in the USA of all stripes will joyfully throw Canada under the bus if they can grab the jobs outsourced to us; and take the resources too if it comes to that. Clarke Ries neglected to mention that the noble, harmless Delians resisted the Athenians, and were simply wiped out. Genocided.
I'm getting tired of us name-calling like Trump, putting up stupid signs (Welcome to BC!) and then not actually fixing anything.
But apparently for most Canadians, including Line readers, false bravado not followed up by any action is just what this country needs.
And what happened to the Athenians after they did that? If memory serves, Athens' other neighbours were shocked by that act of brutality and formed a united front with the Persians, who subjugated Athens.
This is very much the thesis of the article: if we only obsess over our own vulnerabilities, it's not strategic thinking, it's just a more sophisticated form of panic.
Agreed on the name calling Eric.
I can't wait to read the Line columns after Carney signs whatever Trump puts in front of him.
(Gordie Howe Bridge for reference )
Also replace " Delians " with BC Lumber, Ont autos and steel and Que aluminum and electricity.
The language on this platform is atrocious.
It doesn’t make one sound tough, and it is just slack-jawed, third rate schlock.
Kind of like trying to pull off Hunter S. Thompson and sticking the Peewee Herman landing.
But if that is to where we have devolved, so be it.
If the Country is to be burdened with the Government pitting patriotic, Elbows Up heroes against snivelling quislings, I suppose you will find enough folks to fall for the bait, and swallow the myth.
Yeah, it was an 'interesting" read (lively as someone above noted) and likely cathartic for the author to write but it came across like the combined work product of Dennis Miller, Dennis Leary and Dennis the Menace - for better or worse I suppose.
And yeah, the elbows up versus sniveling quislings framing is getting very tiring. Talk about your false binaries.
Yup, had me nodding politely to the last few paras, no need for that cringe-worthy tiring twist.
Hit dogs will indeed holler.
The Americans don't want anything from us. They are perfectly happy with tariffs. Carney came to power on the promise that he could negotiate something better.
"Retaliation" only makes sense when you expect the other side to change its action, in a way that benefits you, as a result of your retaliation. Does anyone think that will happen?
Or is this just about feelings?
It's about maturity, history, clear eyed realism, culture, and most of all... balls.
Carney was elected, by the most easily frightened among us, to "stand up to Trump" and in the alternative because he was "the only one who could deal with Trump". So no deal means he is standing up, and deal means he has stood up. Either way he wins, but turns out perpetual trade war is a better ticket to popularity right now. And when they do make a deal it will be seen as sufficiently "hard fought" even if it's the same one on the table back in August he won't really tell us about. Jesus Christ, this guy got dealt five aces didn't he?
Oh and let's also conclude a mutual 'work without a visa' deal with our newly invented associate membership in the EU. That ought to show the US, because open borders are something that Trump hates and therefore good! How dare those evil conservatives disagree? Why this is popular among a permanently panicked and irrational population, when asked in general without providing any details. Popular and therefore cannot be challenged!
I voted for Carney because, like the majority of Canadians, PP lost the plot and we saw he cared more for his maga-mini americucks than Canada.
I'm not frightened of anything... maybe snakes.
You voted for a guy who cared so much about Canada that he and his family didn't live there for 10 years before he parachuted into the PMO.
We are literally the only country so self loathing that this wouldn't be disqualifying. FFS. "Well of course he left Canada, he's very smart and important and we basically suck."
(Edit: it was actually 13 years. 13 years ago it was 2013. The world was very different. Canada sure was different. I was a very different person. Don't know about the rest of you. That's a long fucking time.)
... as opposed to a guy who really, really, really waned to be PM and has done literally nothing else in his life? No accomplishments... one line item on the resume?
"politician"
tough choice, yes... lol
strange comment... personally I was proud of him to be named gov in the U.K. Add to that the considerable international experience and contacts he gained. The same at Brookfield. All assets and experience for our benefit now... but maybe you have little leadership development experience.
I wonder if you'r projecting self-loathing lol
Most frightened, sure, but there’s not much Canadians should find scarier than a high stakes negotiation with the US and Canada is hopelessly exposed, left represented by nothing more substantial than Pierre Poilievre. Poilievre, of course, is basically indistinguishable from any other MAGA politician, except most of them have had the benefit of holding down an actual job at some point in their lives.
What is a "MAGA politician" in the Canadian context other than a slur used by Liberals against opponents they don't like?
I can explain... it's a CPC member who is also an americuck with an orange baby fetish.
Well, of course, not liking MAGA politicians should really be a big tent sort of thing. Former Progressive Conservatives are welcome. Reform probably not.
Canadianize “MAGA” to something else if you feel it will more clearly distinguish the poiticians who should be properly disliked.
All because Poilievre was too chicken not to accept Carney's premises. Ironically, he was put in the same position as O'Toole (govt stampeding population with disastrous and idiotic fear-mongering - does the opposition call them out or engage in flaccid me tooism) and made the same cowardly choice.
Despite getting the job because the CPC base was furious with O'Toole for that very reason.
Hopefully Jivani will be smart enough to learn the lesson, so as to be ready when a convoy of unemployed auto workers comes to Ottawa.
I couldn't believe we topped 2021 for running a national election during the height of an even bigger moral panic. Trudeau wasn't even supposed to last long after 2019 but for Covid letting him and his newly bought off media cast milquetoste O'Toole as a far right anti-vaxxer and gun nut. We're still not out of the shadow of the pandemic and its fallout in many ways.
Poilievre's strategy of ignoring Trump during the election and focusing on real issues obviously turned out to be the wrong one. Canadians are clearly idiot children and need to be told what they want to hear. I think his only play would have been to out-do the Liberals with anti-Trump rhetoric like Doug Ford did. This would have been highly cynical and disingenuous of course but that's clearly what Canadians who aren't die hard CPC base want to hear. Whether this would have been obvious or seem sensible to someone who was the front runner and figured he would soon have to actually negotiate with the president is another thing though.
I don't think Jivani is electable and making him party leader would be a big mistake. The Liberals and the media would have a field day with the narrative they would create around him. I fear he would win leadership over Jason Kenney though who wouldn't do much better and would be O'Toole 2.0. I'm at a loss to suggest any alternative.
loser talk, lol
Ignoring Trump was a mistake. And expecting the media not to demonize any CPC leader is as well. The play would have been to get the media repeating your message through horrifying them so much that they can't stop. Think Trump's cats and dogs.
As for how we should be handling Trump, it's with a made for Canadians tariff policy. Not future retaliation or groveling.
They don't want our oil and potash? Where are you getting that idea?
Yes definitely about feelings. Cultivating the feeling among
Quebec provincial voters that their salvation lies in re-electing a Federalist Party. Then the Laurentian satraps can rest satisfied that their status as kings of the puddle will remain unchanged. And afterwards there will suddenly be a trade agreement with the US with a loaf and a fish for everyone. Then in a few years high tea will to be replaced by a traditional tea ceremony but that will only affect our betters.
You’re not raising your haunches are you?
No, the only thing that's rising is my gorge.
While in agreement with most key points that the author makes in this entertaining piece, there are some unwitting and, apparently, unrecognized ironies therein that warrant comment.
The author posits “A nation derives its longevity from its character, and nothing could be more corrosive to Canada’s national character than meekly raising our haunches in Trump’s direction and assuming the mating position.” I agree, but am nonplussed that the author fails to mention a good number of other sources of national character corrosion that, I submit, are very relevant to our current national predicament.
• Total and shameful neglect of Canada’s military, for decades.
• Endless and ballooning federal (and provincial) deficits, with no end in sight, and an electorate that couldn’t give a damn.
• A medical system that, once nonsensically held up as emblematic of the Canadian identity, is in utter collapse, with the sole consolation being that it now truly is emblematic of Canada.
• Flying the national flag at half mast for six months in response for a mass graves hoax and a bizarre national moral panic.
• Three successive national elections that installed a virtue-signalling, economically ignorant, intellectual non-entity as Prime Minister.
• A national electorate the majority of which seems to view economic growth as an also-ran insofar as election issues are concerned.
• A federal government that, in a tacit admission that the rules and regulations and Byzantine consultation and project approval processes in Canada constitute economic constipation, responds by opening yet another bureaucracy to ostensibly function as a regulatory enema, rather than simply fixing the constipating processes.
I could go on and on, but I think the foregoing makes the point, which is that Canada’s myriad of problems are entirely homegrown, courtesy of the bulk of the electorate that I suspect is now the “Elbows Up” crowd.
The author further posits that “Canada’s decision to drop the gloves has also starkly illuminated where our national weakness truly lies… Our national weakness is found in the vicarious thrill our homegrown bullies feel watching Trump and his coterie of titanic assholes demolish the foundations of a shining city upon a hill while a chorus of libtards wail in despair and eggheads with too many degrees beg him to stop”.
The author appears to suffer a variant of Trump Derangement Syndrome, if he truly believes that Trump Northers (for lack of a better phrase) constitute Canada’s national weakness. Whenever I see someone claiming that Trump, and/or those who root Trump on, are the source of Canada's woes, I see someone who should have followed the old adage that it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.
In my defence, the word count was already running long. Your general sentiments were laconically represented in the line "Canadians are a people who have grown used to mediocrity of late."
Agree..
"Canada’s decision to drop the gloves has also starkly illuminated where our national weakness truly lies."
Oh has it now? He's found the source of all our woes has he? Yea, I don't think so. Anyway...
It's a rousing article, though it seems written with the author's belief in his predictions about the future, and with his belief that he knows what was in the trade deal. We'll see. I remain influenced by Conrad Black and Mark Warner, among others like-minded (although Conrad's recent assessment of Trump's presidency vis a vis this article means someone's going to eat it, and I do wonder if it might be Conrad - he might eat all of his books too in that case). I'm hearing loud and clear that I am supposed to take "annexation" seriously. I'm yet to do so but my mind is slowly opening.
The Dispatch was great. I'll take people's word that there are Canadians who want to see Canada fail. Myself, I've realized that not only did I want Canadians to be shocked out of their complacent vanity (that's happening, "pipelines won", great!) but also, I wanted that to happen on my terms (Liberals say "oops, yea Trudeau was a mistake, sorry about all the hate, the institutions need work") so that I could have less superficial relationships with my Ottawa neighbours - around whom I've always been quiet and careful because I don't want my kids' bday invitations to stop coming in (yes the fear is real). Unfortunately, they still act like Trudeau liberals ("Pierre Poilievre is just like Trump", "oh no the far right", etc.) and will continue to, I'm sure. So while I'm happy for the country (my daughters), I'm very selfishly dismayed that I am back to being a potential pariah. Excuse me while I go practice my eyebrows up smile-nod.
What the Americans haven't figured out yet is that Canada as a sovereign country is the only one that gets to decide if a trade deal is best for Canada. They keep going on about how this is the best deal for Canada. But we decide that, and it's driving them nuts
It’s not really Americans who are going to remember that there was a fight: it’s tribally partisan Republicans who are going to remember that there’s some reason they’re not supposed to like Canada. The same sort of low brow jingoism that led them to bash France incessantly in 2003 when France wouldn’t get onside with the invasion of Iraq, leading to “Freedom Fries” and choruses of “Cheese-eating Surrender Monkeys.” The fact that France was the indispensable ally in America’s successful revolution didn’t register. There was no understanding of French martial prowess, the horror of being bled white by World War 1, or the fact that a still-exhausted nation fought a prolonged rear guard action to facilitate the escape of their British allies at the start of World War II. A good year before America joined the fight against the Axis, for that matter.
It’s a mixed blessing that Trump’s trade war has now become a partisan issue. The Left is now against it because it’s Trump’s war. That suggests they may make moves to rectify it if they reclaim power. Unfortunately, the tribal partisanship of American politics means that’ll harden Republican support for Trump’s idiotic and self-harming policy.
Ultimately, Canada’s best move is to let the Americans figure out Trump’s folly for themselves. Hitting back undermines Trump because he didn’t expect it. Refusing to knuckle under raises American awareness of the trade war and also earns respect. Trump and his movement are ultimately going to fail because it’s based in ignorance and stupidity. The only question has been how long that failure takes. Trump seems to be rushing for the cliff at a sprint.
I absolutely LOVED every word of this..what an excellent dispatch, clearly explaining to all of us who have "gone to off" on the whole trade war circus what is and has transpired. 10/10 writing.
It looks like Trump’s game of chicken with Canada is losing steam. He has however many other similar games going simultaneously. In keeping with the “chicken” theme, many are coming home to roost, with the Canadian game looking like the best of a cascade of worsening economic dilemmas that threaten political obliteration for Trump and the Republican Party. The escalation ladder comes to mind. These are unnerving times. I enjoyed this piece immensely, and appreciated the nod to the muppets. Humour definitely helps.
“the flea that carries the Bubonic plague..” Man,great article Clarke. Being the 3rd boy of 6 I stood up to bullies for my younger brothers and myself. “Glass jaw” is so true. There is a time to stand your ground,and a time to look,listen and strategize. My older brother came home in the early morning hours with a bleeding nose,black eye ect. “Talking when you should have been ducking!” Is all I said,headed out the door and went to work. Lick your wounds brother,he still hadn’t learned. Great article,was losing hope in mankind. Thank you
That was a fun read although I still think we would have been better off making a deal, one that would allow us to recharge our country. Face it, after the last 11 years of basically letting our economy and military starve we weren’t in a great position. Bigs ships don’t turn around over night and there could be a lot needless pain when the layoffs start. Just ask the forest worker in BC.
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Specifically, our increasingly unacceptable national weakness is that when the demented demolition circus running the American state looks north, our domestic supply of assholes keeps cheering it on from the nosebleed seats.
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A brilliant assessment of the people whom Pierre Poilievre worked so hard to seduce, from late 2021 forward. I hope the Alberta component of that contingent (likely the biggest component of the bunch) get shellacked come October.