Canada's "allies" have been largely silent while the Americans rat fuck us. Forgive me if I think this criticism rings hollow.
Was it "weak"? Who gives a shit if it works in the long run. Like it or not, Canada has an 8000+ KM border with the Americans. We don't have the luxury to tell them to fuck off.
Accepting your argument would lead me to start demanding our becoming a State so that we can at least vote for the President who dictates our lives. We would then only be brutally and hysterically shot down.
Diplomacy is the art of convincing someone else to have your own way. If we need to massage DJT's hurt feelings a bit in order to better out position, then that's what needs to happen. It has been ever thus in Canadian politics. (sleeping with an elephant, etc)
Let's be real— If the Americans sincerely wanted Canada as a state, by militarily means or otherwise, we'd be saying the pledge of allegiance by lunch time. Since that hasn't happened, let's use every tool we have, and yes that includes smooth talk.
I have a difficult time believing smooth talk can help maneuver a deal with Trump. Trump is a master of smooth talk so tricks won't work on him. He wants only the most he can get out of situation and nothing else. Trump is not benevolent. Far from it. This isn't about hurt feelings. This is about the fact we didn't show subservience. I would advise your sense of self respect on this.
Let's be real— If the Americans sincerely wanted Canada as a state, by militarily means or otherwise, we'd be saying the pledge of allegiance by lunch time.
END QUOTE
History suggests that if a people chooses to resist, they can make life hell for any invader, no matter how powerful. Yes, it would be ugly, but there would, I think, be limited appetite in the United States for the cost of subjugating its northern neighbours.
Americans know almost nothing about us, or almost anyone. What they "know" is based on their assumptions, tv stereotypes, what makes them feel good. I stunned an American working with me when I said very few Canadians would want to be Americans. He literally assumed most of us would move there if we could... bizarre. Another American I met had no idea we'd had any role in WWII, lol.
Spend any time in the US and watch US tv, especially news. The ignorance is studied, and it "informs" their international military adventures, with much documented effect. Not a good look, in total.
If Americans rolled into Canada they would discover (in a farcical way) that many of us know how to live outdoors, and shoot pretty well.
Sophistry from a former representative of the United Kingdom, a group who grovelled their way to a trade deal with Mr. Trump. At no time during the annexation hoax did our putative allies publicly support the post-nation state. The economies of Britain, Germany and France are flat lining, a situation that is only going to get worse. Strengthening our alliance with Europe is pointless, as it is a lost cause, so Mr. Carney's apology, while poorly received, is understandable. Geopolitics Rules OK.
"Trump will no doubt take this capitulation as proof..." If the author could predict the most capricious of world leaders, he would not be writing for The Line. With friends like these...
I think you are bang on! I think Carney doesn’t actually believe in his stated strategy of replacing trade with the US by diversifying trade with the EU and China and panicked in a moment of weakness. Nobody’s buying it including himself!
No, Mr. Quinn, the PM is not debasing himself by what you describe as kowtowing. He seems to forget that in Trump, you're not dealing with a normal adult. Carney and other world leaders realize that dealing with Trump is like dealing with an unexploded bomb. It is terrible watching him and other world leaders perform at those Oval Office events., grimacing rather than smiling and hoping all the while that they aren't served up cold on a platter. Sometimes you just have to 'eat it' and move on. So these same allies who also kowtow to Trump aren't going to be too judgmental about what Carney feels what he has to do to keep in trump's good graces. Nauseating but there you are.
Of Carney's apology you write,...."it will be seen as a sign of weakness and, more importantly, will cast doubt in their minds about how much they can trust Carney and, by extension, Canada. What is to stop him whispering something confidential in Trump’s ear, or disparaging them to Trump behind their backs?" What is this beyond some frivolous attempt to sow fear by making stuff uo? You have no more idea what Canada's allies are saying in foreign capitals about Mark Carney than I do. The situation is more complex than you seem to understand. Placing the ad was not Carney's move and he can't necessarily control what sub-national levels of government
choose to do to influence Americans on the value of our integrated trade system. However as the Prime Minister and person in charge of the negotiations to remove the tariffs it was an easier thing to do if it had even the most meagre chance of reviving trade talks that by all indications were at a promising juncture. Mark Carney is not a man inclined to bend the knee but he knows real politik when it slams him in the face.
He's figured out that pissing off the US serves no purpose. The ad delivered its message, and Trump can't put that Genie back in the bottle. Until he's dead or impeached, the US is not a rational nation, and should not be treated as such. It's just a game being played.
The rest of the article is pure speculation designed to rile people up. Not today, thanks.
I was invited to play a hockey tournament in Calgary. It was with the Solicitor General,RCMP,guards,counselors ect. I hit the ice and creamed the biggest guy,clean check into the boards in our zone. No hit hockey,’beer league’. I got the first penalty,of the first minute,of the first game. We won 4 to 2.
football vs. hockey?! lol I watch both and, yes, they're a useful analogy.
Lining up in static form; no-one allowed to move, then, with little strategy to consider, no creativity needed, slam into each other to see who moves. Sounds exactly like US foreign policy: not very bright but big and thuggish. Then there's the culture, "I AM THE GREATEST! IT WAS ME!!"
I like the fluid movement, the speed, the fast decisions, of hockey. "I'm just glad to contribute." Any wonder the US needed Canadian experience to build them a Special Forces? (go look it up)
I agree,he looked weak. It was embarrassing,for him and his party and our Country. What elbows? He was a goalie,he was never in the corners or on the boards. Words do matter
Powerful nations like the US , Russia, China see Canada as prey. “Elbows up” means nothing when you’re getting a kick in the nuts! Ask our steel, aluminum, and soft wood lumber producers if “elbows up” has helped.
The elbows up thing was always meaningless because it was just a dumb slogan that only a portion of the population even understood. It’s like saying rally around a random acronym that only those in the know understand. It’s not a strategy but a successful marketing campaign that got the slogan out without communicating any values and then let people assign their own values and then get upset when persona expectations weren’t met.
I don’t understand why it’s still being used. It’s dumb. Always was and still is.
Yes I concur Carney needs to watch it but as some have said here — what about Starmer and what about Rutte? Both UK and NATO hierarchy have determined that only playing this way works with Trump. Obviously everyone with a half-brain or more despises him but also comprehend his absolute power which he misuses daily and may do moreso when he feels threatened.
This is a very bad time for western allies and Canada in particular. Not such a great time for Ukraine either.
On what planet is Canada a "strong" country that can hit America hard? Even in the deepest Laurentian boomer fantasies this is as much nonsense as thinking Canada is the same country that burned down the White House.
The Americans (and the Chinese and Russians) definitely prefer Canada just the way it is, an underachieving Confederation that can't even get all it's oil to market. If the US really wanted Canada they could fund the right groups in Quebec and Alberta to agitprop Canada into it's arms. That the Russians and Chinese haven't even tried this yet tells you they like us where we are, a country that must apologize to Trump for the slightest of deeds.
Our allies, unlike Canadians, believe in actions and deeds, not words and warmest wishes.
They I'm sure more noticed that a miner and processor of our most geopolitically important export, Potash, just decided this week to export via US ports, not Canadian. A country that can't even stop that has a lot of work to do.
OMFG the sooner people understand Trump is temporary, but our geography is permanent the better. Canada has very few option unlike our “allies” separated by an ocean and in most cases a common language. It’s not like our “allies” are lining up to buy our steel or our softwood lumber!
It might take a bit more than fancy words and promises from a guy in a tailored suit for Canada’s traditional allies to start trusting us again especially in light of our government’s new flirtation with China.
Allies can't trust Canada? Hell, Canadians can't trust Canada. In fact, Canadians have to face a hostile Canada busy selling us out at seemingly every opportunity. Yes, selling us out to China, but not only selling future generations out with massive unproductive debt, little if any building of infrastructure and resource extraction under the spanking shiny new alternative called 'Memoranda of Understanding' that builds exactly nothing, pretending military investment increases capability when everyone knows 'military procurement' is gamed to be cover for political favouritism meant to award make work projects of dubious quality to the incestuous Laurentian class. As if any of this weren't enough for our elected government making a kind of economic cold war against Canadians, the incredible stupidity of accepting UNDRIP as the foundation for further 'reconciliation' makes a social war against private property rights and the very foundation of any and all current and future development. The Cowichan case is absolutely devastating against Canadians (land owners intentionally kept in the dark while their property ownership is negotiated away) and the public pays in every way to be governmentally raped under this travesty of justice.
You think a few words from our PM undermines allied trust? Get a grip: Canada by its internal actions as a nation undermines all allied trust and perhaps someday will begin to undermine Canadian's trust. But don't hold your breath. It's the last true example of what it means to be a Canadian: blame everything on the US.
Also, in that same light should the bulb be powered beyond a single watt, is the hostile takeover of our institutions welcoming Iranian terrorist proxies (Canada is 'home' to the third largest membership in the Muslim Brotherhood) and over 450 Hamas members... some in various levels of government. This, too, might conceivably undermine some level of allied trust. (Nobody in Ottawa can figure out why.) We find supporters of Sharia law throughout the country in every profession, installed in every institution. Doctor, nurse, lawyer, teacher, police officer, union leadership, professors, government bureaucracy, elected at the local, provincial, and federal level, no wonder citizens are shoved aside by scared police to get out of the way of the latest street 'demonstration' calling for the death of Jews. Sure, Jewish schools and synagogues are repeatedly shot at, firebombed, graffitied, while the latest blockage of traffic has men kneeling on streets to pray. (But so were over a hundred churches burned and nobody seems to think this unprecedented criminality should garner much if any public condemnation.) None of these are religious events, per se; they are demonstrations of growing anti-western power we have welcomed into the country, warmly embraced (with a few tsk tsks) and although we may label certain groups as terrorists, we do nothing about it and the members continue on as before (like Samidoun). We even have Carney pronouncing Canadian recognition of a potential terrorist state (in spite of that vote defeated in Parliament in 2024 but why let democracy get in the way of a 'good' opportunity to pretend to be 'world leader'?) called Palestine (that has exactly zero qualifications and commonalities to be recognized as a 'landed people') while local City Halls raise its flag in an act of incredible stupidity and ignorance... as if this were a Good Thing rather than a capitulation to a civic invasion in Canada dedicated to overthrowing it as a western liberal democracy in the name of Islam. Rather than address this growing threat, Canadians get to face new and ever more restrictive legislation attacking our rights and freedoms including potential prison time for committing 'Islamaphobia'... should anyone with two neurons to rub together dare publicly criticize this snivelling capitulation in the name of virtue. But why should allies worry if Canadians can't even get chuffed about this national betrayal? Gee whiz. Again, such a mystery. Let's get back to criticizing Trump and blaming Israel for the latest lie about its evil intentions. That's what real Canadians seem dedicated to practicing on a daily basis if the CBC has any say in the matter.
While I agree the apology was really dumb, we should keep in mind that, with the exception of China, Russia, Brazil, and other non western aligned nations, every other country of any consequence have kowtowed to trump in much more obsequious ways than Carney’s faux pas. We need to play for time to make the necessary transition away from the US, (which will never entirely happen), and it’s been determined the best way to achieve that is to play the man.
Carney isn’t alone in making pointless apologies or kowtowing to the US. Sure, it’s pointless. But other countries have certainly bent the knee in order to get some sort of compromise with Trump.
Should he be stronger? Yes, absolutely. But do allies understand why he did it? Probably yes, for the same reason we understood Ursula from the EU taking a bad bargain because it was better than nothing in her mind. Many reasonable people might disagree with her - but she still did it because the idea of long term ire from Trump was worse. Nobody wants the bullies eyes on them. Every country will be ridiculous in the face of Trump because he’s not a rational bargainer.
>>This all suggests the Canadian Armed Forces have a bright future ahead of them (notwithstanding many comments about whether the procurement system is up to the job). That is something many of us welcome. Canada is back, and many of us are glad to have you in these trying times.<<
The CF surely does not have a bright future because of this country's pathetic record on keeping Canada safe. (Canada is 'redirecting $4 billion from Veterans affairs. I wonder how this is going to benefit veterans?)
Ah, yes, of course. A lion's share of that money is paying for veteran's happy cabbage.
This tells me two things: the government rightly believes there will be no blowback because marijuana stigma. It is already the only prescription in Canada that gets taxed. How do they get away with it? Nobody gives a damn including the SCC. (Canada owes no duty of care to its veterans, apparently.)
Whatever your views on cannabis, the world did not end in Canada when it became legal as was predicted by opponents.
The second reason is they simply don't give a crap. Again, no requirement for duty of care.
Not sure I get this side topic or where it came from. But things done change fast. You may feel differently as more comes out about marijuana induced psychosis and the quiet effects it has on the health of the population. It’s not a magic no risk drug for everyone. And making it legal? I’m not sure that was for the better. It would be interesting if there was another vote on it in a decade to see what direction people voted. Guess it would depend on the portion of the population using it at the time.
Whatever you or I feel about it is moot because it's here. My comment is in response to the quote at the start of my comment. It's legal. It stops nausea in its tracks and I would rather use cannabis than pharmaceuticals as I don't do well with it. Separate of the weed issue veteran affairs is losing more funding than anything else in the budget. So again putting the weed aside I wonder how this is going to fix the problems at veterans affairs.Also I understand that AI will be making the decisions on a claim rather that human beings.
That he starts an article with “THAT” should indicate some amazing decemination of logical profundity. That there is none of the aforementioned matches the lack of any cogent argument contained therein. Try again Gregory.
The world Leaders learned from the White House meeting when Zelensky was bush wacked by Vance et al at, that to challenge Trump gets you nothing, even when a person is right. Many world leaders have kissed the ring.....example....Starmer with a invite from the King in hand....Rutt calling Trump "Daddy".....and key EU leaders coaching Zelensky before his second meeting..... Its hard to believe world leaders will think less of Canada because of the apology. AND Ford's ad was stupid, zero impact in the US other than getting Trump supporters POd.........
Canada's "allies" have been largely silent while the Americans rat fuck us. Forgive me if I think this criticism rings hollow.
Was it "weak"? Who gives a shit if it works in the long run. Like it or not, Canada has an 8000+ KM border with the Americans. We don't have the luxury to tell them to fuck off.
Accepting your argument would lead me to start demanding our becoming a State so that we can at least vote for the President who dictates our lives. We would then only be brutally and hysterically shot down.
It's out of the question.
Diplomacy is the art of convincing someone else to have your own way. If we need to massage DJT's hurt feelings a bit in order to better out position, then that's what needs to happen. It has been ever thus in Canadian politics. (sleeping with an elephant, etc)
Let's be real— If the Americans sincerely wanted Canada as a state, by militarily means or otherwise, we'd be saying the pledge of allegiance by lunch time. Since that hasn't happened, let's use every tool we have, and yes that includes smooth talk.
I have a difficult time believing smooth talk can help maneuver a deal with Trump. Trump is a master of smooth talk so tricks won't work on him. He wants only the most he can get out of situation and nothing else. Trump is not benevolent. Far from it. This isn't about hurt feelings. This is about the fact we didn't show subservience. I would advise your sense of self respect on this.
QUOTE
Let's be real— If the Americans sincerely wanted Canada as a state, by militarily means or otherwise, we'd be saying the pledge of allegiance by lunch time.
END QUOTE
History suggests that if a people chooses to resist, they can make life hell for any invader, no matter how powerful. Yes, it would be ugly, but there would, I think, be limited appetite in the United States for the cost of subjugating its northern neighbours.
Americans know almost nothing about us, or almost anyone. What they "know" is based on their assumptions, tv stereotypes, what makes them feel good. I stunned an American working with me when I said very few Canadians would want to be Americans. He literally assumed most of us would move there if we could... bizarre. Another American I met had no idea we'd had any role in WWII, lol.
Spend any time in the US and watch US tv, especially news. The ignorance is studied, and it "informs" their international military adventures, with much documented effect. Not a good look, in total.
If Americans rolled into Canada they would discover (in a farcical way) that many of us know how to live outdoors, and shoot pretty well.
Sophistry from a former representative of the United Kingdom, a group who grovelled their way to a trade deal with Mr. Trump. At no time during the annexation hoax did our putative allies publicly support the post-nation state. The economies of Britain, Germany and France are flat lining, a situation that is only going to get worse. Strengthening our alliance with Europe is pointless, as it is a lost cause, so Mr. Carney's apology, while poorly received, is understandable. Geopolitics Rules OK.
"Trump will no doubt take this capitulation as proof..." If the author could predict the most capricious of world leaders, he would not be writing for The Line. With friends like these...
I think you are bang on! I think Carney doesn’t actually believe in his stated strategy of replacing trade with the US by diversifying trade with the EU and China and panicked in a moment of weakness. Nobody’s buying it including himself!
No, Mr. Quinn, the PM is not debasing himself by what you describe as kowtowing. He seems to forget that in Trump, you're not dealing with a normal adult. Carney and other world leaders realize that dealing with Trump is like dealing with an unexploded bomb. It is terrible watching him and other world leaders perform at those Oval Office events., grimacing rather than smiling and hoping all the while that they aren't served up cold on a platter. Sometimes you just have to 'eat it' and move on. So these same allies who also kowtow to Trump aren't going to be too judgmental about what Carney feels what he has to do to keep in trump's good graces. Nauseating but there you are.
Of Carney's apology you write,...."it will be seen as a sign of weakness and, more importantly, will cast doubt in their minds about how much they can trust Carney and, by extension, Canada. What is to stop him whispering something confidential in Trump’s ear, or disparaging them to Trump behind their backs?" What is this beyond some frivolous attempt to sow fear by making stuff uo? You have no more idea what Canada's allies are saying in foreign capitals about Mark Carney than I do. The situation is more complex than you seem to understand. Placing the ad was not Carney's move and he can't necessarily control what sub-national levels of government
choose to do to influence Americans on the value of our integrated trade system. However as the Prime Minister and person in charge of the negotiations to remove the tariffs it was an easier thing to do if it had even the most meagre chance of reviving trade talks that by all indications were at a promising juncture. Mark Carney is not a man inclined to bend the knee but he knows real politik when it slams him in the face.
He's figured out that pissing off the US serves no purpose. The ad delivered its message, and Trump can't put that Genie back in the bottle. Until he's dead or impeached, the US is not a rational nation, and should not be treated as such. It's just a game being played.
The rest of the article is pure speculation designed to rile people up. Not today, thanks.
I was invited to play a hockey tournament in Calgary. It was with the Solicitor General,RCMP,guards,counselors ect. I hit the ice and creamed the biggest guy,clean check into the boards in our zone. No hit hockey,’beer league’. I got the first penalty,of the first minute,of the first game. We won 4 to 2.
Just like Canada.
Showing up to a tackle football game wearing skates.
Getting our raised elbows ripped from our bodies by a 380-pound linebacker.
football vs. hockey?! lol I watch both and, yes, they're a useful analogy.
Lining up in static form; no-one allowed to move, then, with little strategy to consider, no creativity needed, slam into each other to see who moves. Sounds exactly like US foreign policy: not very bright but big and thuggish. Then there's the culture, "I AM THE GREATEST! IT WAS ME!!"
I like the fluid movement, the speed, the fast decisions, of hockey. "I'm just glad to contribute." Any wonder the US needed Canadian experience to build them a Special Forces? (go look it up)
Is this how Laurentian fantasy novels start?
Atta boy Clay!
I agree,he looked weak. It was embarrassing,for him and his party and our Country. What elbows? He was a goalie,he was never in the corners or on the boards. Words do matter
Powerful nations like the US , Russia, China see Canada as prey. “Elbows up” means nothing when you’re getting a kick in the nuts! Ask our steel, aluminum, and soft wood lumber producers if “elbows up” has helped.
The elbows up thing was always meaningless because it was just a dumb slogan that only a portion of the population even understood. It’s like saying rally around a random acronym that only those in the know understand. It’s not a strategy but a successful marketing campaign that got the slogan out without communicating any values and then let people assign their own values and then get upset when persona expectations weren’t met.
I don’t understand why it’s still being used. It’s dumb. Always was and still is.
Yes I concur Carney needs to watch it but as some have said here — what about Starmer and what about Rutte? Both UK and NATO hierarchy have determined that only playing this way works with Trump. Obviously everyone with a half-brain or more despises him but also comprehend his absolute power which he misuses daily and may do moreso when he feels threatened.
This is a very bad time for western allies and Canada in particular. Not such a great time for Ukraine either.
On what planet is Canada a "strong" country that can hit America hard? Even in the deepest Laurentian boomer fantasies this is as much nonsense as thinking Canada is the same country that burned down the White House.
The Americans (and the Chinese and Russians) definitely prefer Canada just the way it is, an underachieving Confederation that can't even get all it's oil to market. If the US really wanted Canada they could fund the right groups in Quebec and Alberta to agitprop Canada into it's arms. That the Russians and Chinese haven't even tried this yet tells you they like us where we are, a country that must apologize to Trump for the slightest of deeds.
Our allies, unlike Canadians, believe in actions and deeds, not words and warmest wishes.
They I'm sure more noticed that a miner and processor of our most geopolitically important export, Potash, just decided this week to export via US ports, not Canadian. A country that can't even stop that has a lot of work to do.
OMFG the sooner people understand Trump is temporary, but our geography is permanent the better. Canada has very few option unlike our “allies” separated by an ocean and in most cases a common language. It’s not like our “allies” are lining up to buy our steel or our softwood lumber!
It might take a bit more than fancy words and promises from a guy in a tailored suit for Canada’s traditional allies to start trusting us again especially in light of our government’s new flirtation with China.
Allies can't trust Canada? Hell, Canadians can't trust Canada. In fact, Canadians have to face a hostile Canada busy selling us out at seemingly every opportunity. Yes, selling us out to China, but not only selling future generations out with massive unproductive debt, little if any building of infrastructure and resource extraction under the spanking shiny new alternative called 'Memoranda of Understanding' that builds exactly nothing, pretending military investment increases capability when everyone knows 'military procurement' is gamed to be cover for political favouritism meant to award make work projects of dubious quality to the incestuous Laurentian class. As if any of this weren't enough for our elected government making a kind of economic cold war against Canadians, the incredible stupidity of accepting UNDRIP as the foundation for further 'reconciliation' makes a social war against private property rights and the very foundation of any and all current and future development. The Cowichan case is absolutely devastating against Canadians (land owners intentionally kept in the dark while their property ownership is negotiated away) and the public pays in every way to be governmentally raped under this travesty of justice.
(See: https://michellestirlingg.substack.com/p/british-columbia-property-owners?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1584010&post_id=180121770&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=3s7a0&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email )
You think a few words from our PM undermines allied trust? Get a grip: Canada by its internal actions as a nation undermines all allied trust and perhaps someday will begin to undermine Canadian's trust. But don't hold your breath. It's the last true example of what it means to be a Canadian: blame everything on the US.
Also, in that same light should the bulb be powered beyond a single watt, is the hostile takeover of our institutions welcoming Iranian terrorist proxies (Canada is 'home' to the third largest membership in the Muslim Brotherhood) and over 450 Hamas members... some in various levels of government. This, too, might conceivably undermine some level of allied trust. (Nobody in Ottawa can figure out why.) We find supporters of Sharia law throughout the country in every profession, installed in every institution. Doctor, nurse, lawyer, teacher, police officer, union leadership, professors, government bureaucracy, elected at the local, provincial, and federal level, no wonder citizens are shoved aside by scared police to get out of the way of the latest street 'demonstration' calling for the death of Jews. Sure, Jewish schools and synagogues are repeatedly shot at, firebombed, graffitied, while the latest blockage of traffic has men kneeling on streets to pray. (But so were over a hundred churches burned and nobody seems to think this unprecedented criminality should garner much if any public condemnation.) None of these are religious events, per se; they are demonstrations of growing anti-western power we have welcomed into the country, warmly embraced (with a few tsk tsks) and although we may label certain groups as terrorists, we do nothing about it and the members continue on as before (like Samidoun). We even have Carney pronouncing Canadian recognition of a potential terrorist state (in spite of that vote defeated in Parliament in 2024 but why let democracy get in the way of a 'good' opportunity to pretend to be 'world leader'?) called Palestine (that has exactly zero qualifications and commonalities to be recognized as a 'landed people') while local City Halls raise its flag in an act of incredible stupidity and ignorance... as if this were a Good Thing rather than a capitulation to a civic invasion in Canada dedicated to overthrowing it as a western liberal democracy in the name of Islam. Rather than address this growing threat, Canadians get to face new and ever more restrictive legislation attacking our rights and freedoms including potential prison time for committing 'Islamaphobia'... should anyone with two neurons to rub together dare publicly criticize this snivelling capitulation in the name of virtue. But why should allies worry if Canadians can't even get chuffed about this national betrayal? Gee whiz. Again, such a mystery. Let's get back to criticizing Trump and blaming Israel for the latest lie about its evil intentions. That's what real Canadians seem dedicated to practicing on a daily basis if the CBC has any say in the matter.
While I agree the apology was really dumb, we should keep in mind that, with the exception of China, Russia, Brazil, and other non western aligned nations, every other country of any consequence have kowtowed to trump in much more obsequious ways than Carney’s faux pas. We need to play for time to make the necessary transition away from the US, (which will never entirely happen), and it’s been determined the best way to achieve that is to play the man.
Carney isn’t alone in making pointless apologies or kowtowing to the US. Sure, it’s pointless. But other countries have certainly bent the knee in order to get some sort of compromise with Trump.
Should he be stronger? Yes, absolutely. But do allies understand why he did it? Probably yes, for the same reason we understood Ursula from the EU taking a bad bargain because it was better than nothing in her mind. Many reasonable people might disagree with her - but she still did it because the idea of long term ire from Trump was worse. Nobody wants the bullies eyes on them. Every country will be ridiculous in the face of Trump because he’s not a rational bargainer.
>>This all suggests the Canadian Armed Forces have a bright future ahead of them (notwithstanding many comments about whether the procurement system is up to the job). That is something many of us welcome. Canada is back, and many of us are glad to have you in these trying times.<<
The CF surely does not have a bright future because of this country's pathetic record on keeping Canada safe. (Canada is 'redirecting $4 billion from Veterans affairs. I wonder how this is going to benefit veterans?)
Ah, yes, of course. A lion's share of that money is paying for veteran's happy cabbage.
This tells me two things: the government rightly believes there will be no blowback because marijuana stigma. It is already the only prescription in Canada that gets taxed. How do they get away with it? Nobody gives a damn including the SCC. (Canada owes no duty of care to its veterans, apparently.)
Whatever your views on cannabis, the world did not end in Canada when it became legal as was predicted by opponents.
The second reason is they simply don't give a crap. Again, no requirement for duty of care.
Not sure I get this side topic or where it came from. But things done change fast. You may feel differently as more comes out about marijuana induced psychosis and the quiet effects it has on the health of the population. It’s not a magic no risk drug for everyone. And making it legal? I’m not sure that was for the better. It would be interesting if there was another vote on it in a decade to see what direction people voted. Guess it would depend on the portion of the population using it at the time.
Whatever you or I feel about it is moot because it's here. My comment is in response to the quote at the start of my comment. It's legal. It stops nausea in its tracks and I would rather use cannabis than pharmaceuticals as I don't do well with it. Separate of the weed issue veteran affairs is losing more funding than anything else in the budget. So again putting the weed aside I wonder how this is going to fix the problems at veterans affairs.Also I understand that AI will be making the decisions on a claim rather that human beings.
That he starts an article with “THAT” should indicate some amazing decemination of logical profundity. That there is none of the aforementioned matches the lack of any cogent argument contained therein. Try again Gregory.
The world Leaders learned from the White House meeting when Zelensky was bush wacked by Vance et al at, that to challenge Trump gets you nothing, even when a person is right. Many world leaders have kissed the ring.....example....Starmer with a invite from the King in hand....Rutt calling Trump "Daddy".....and key EU leaders coaching Zelensky before his second meeting..... Its hard to believe world leaders will think less of Canada because of the apology. AND Ford's ad was stupid, zero impact in the US other than getting Trump supporters POd.........