Jen Gerson: Once we were ruthless

Every capitulation is simply teaching Washington that our anger carries no price.

Time to channel our inner guides, Canada.

I will admit that I spent a lot of the last two weeks sitting by a pool in cottage country, sipping local ciders, and thinking about ways to blow up the Gordie Howe bridge.

“Vacations” take me to the bad place. Normal people get to wind down and relax. For me, the sudden liberation from schedule and constraint seems to free my brain to contemplate the implications of industrial sabotage.

And after such consideration, I have decided against it — blowing up the bridge, that is. (Please note, law enforcement: Take me seriously, but not literally, here. I am not going to blow up a bridge. I do not condone or endorse blowing up a bridge. Blowing up a bridge would be impractical. Worse than that, blowing up the bridge would be wrong.)

I’m merely illustrating that these are the sorts of bad thoughts that tend to fester in my head in the face of growing and incontrovertible evidence that Canada is weak, America knows it, and the U.S. administration is going to continue to escalate its aggressive trade policies towards us because we will allow it.

This week’s announcement of 50 per cent tariffs on a raft of goods is more proof that the Liberals’ ironclad strategy of “say tough things in public but then capitulate quietly on issue after issue” isn’t panning out. And I write that knowing full well that the statute being used to implement the tariffs is old, tenuous, and may not hold up. I’m not talking about them, for a moment. I’m talking about us.

Where do we even start with Prime Minister Elbows Up? Dropping the Digital Services Tax and retaliatory tariffs? The apology for the terrible sin of running a Ronald Reagan ad? And now we have the business of the Gordie Howe Bridge: to recap, Canada fronted $6.4 billion to build the span between Windsor and Detroit, which was to be paid back over decades through bridge tolls. At the last minute — and presumably at the behest of the rich MAGA donor who owns the competing bridge — Donald Trump announced the bridge would not open until the U.S. got a better deal. After more quiet negotiations, such a deal was struck.

Initially, Carney claimed that the U.S. would take a split of the operating profits — but only after the debt was paid off, something which was expected to bring real profits down to a very small amount. Effectively, he said the deal would give the Americans chump change.

Subsequent reporting suggested this wasn’t the case at all; that the Americans are to take their cut from operating revenue, which presumably will have the effect of dramatically extending our payback period.

In short, it’s a major concession, made worse by the fact that Carney appears to have lied.

And, frankly, I’m not sure which of these two pills is harder to swallow. Regular press conferences aside, Team Canada has been rather shockingly non-communicative about what the hell is going on with USMCA re-negotiations. I give the government some credit for the need to maintain “strategic silence” in order to pursue “strategic patience,” but if your entire brilliant communications strategy for rallying the Canadian public in the face of unprecedented American economic aggression amounts to “Shush. Just trust us. Carney’s super smart. He’s got this,” well, then, you really can’t lie and be dumb about it.

Carney came to power 18 months ago with an explicit “Elbows Up” promise that is deteriorating into a punch line. I don’t object to choosing not to rise to the bait of every provocation. But when “doing nothing” is accompanied by caving on everything, what you have is no longer “strategic patience.” It looks a lot more like “showing the Americans that we have no appetite for retaliation.” We’ve indicated with crystal clarity that aside from the odd mean speech, and the fact that Canadians are Big Mad, we will extract no material consequence for anything they choose to do. And absent consequence, they will continue to escalate past the point of diminishing returns.

Why?

Because they can.

Because they don’t care.

Because they take delight in their own contempt for our demonstrated weakness.

Every capitulation incentivizes greater demands. And if that’s the cycle we’re locked in, then the longer we put off extracting penalties, the more expensive the penalties become. Take a hit now, take a bigger hit later, or give it all up in the end. Standing up to the threat will require sacrifice. We understand.

Driving around Ontario’s cottage country — Loyalist Parkway, represent — I took note of all the ostentatious Canadian flags and “Elbows Up” signs. And, guys, it’s adorable. It really is. The Americans are charmed.

I don’t know how to say this kindly, but our anger doesn’t matter. Our feelings of frustration and betrayal are both legitimate and irrelevant. We are foreigners with no constituency — barely even real people — to most Americans. We are bit players in their expansive internal drama. We are flies, volunteering to have our wings removed for their amusement on a slow summer day. Do bullies care when the fly gets upset?

Anger without purpose, direction, or meaningful action is pointless. No, it’s worse than pointless. It’s indulgent.

This U.S. administration has calculated — correctly — that they can tolerate our anger because we’re not willing to engage in anything other than superficial expressions of that anger. They can afford to pay the bargain bin price we have set.

Oh, so now I see the Gordie Howe Bridge will open under terrible terms, but we’re not going to … hold a ribbon cutting ceremony. Good God, could we be more pathetic?

Once again, we’re retreating to costless symbolic action in a fit of pique and expecting the Americans to get the message. Watch out, guys, this little Pekingese is going full Elbows Up. Uncle Sam’s pinky toe is about to get a sharp and meaningful nibble.

Enough.

Better to submit with dignity than to subject ourselves to the humiliation of a fight of half measures.

If we’re that pissed off — and we ought to be — then we shouldn’t be wasting time on symbolic nonsense like cancelling parties. Keep the bridge closed. Renegotiate the deal. Shut it down for years, if necessary. Do what we elected you to do.

I bet a prime minister that doesn’t have the balls to accept the consequences of keeping a bridge closed for a while is not generating the credibility required to re-order the Western alliance. But thanks for coming out. Please enjoy the official portrait and the retirement villa in Nice. All due credit will be granted for trying so hard. Golf claps all around.

Look, I realize that I run into problems whenever I allow myself just enough room to hope that some leader in this country might have it in him to be serious. My disillusionment is entirely my own fault.

But here is my best read of the situation: the Americans are attempting to back us into a “Fortress North America” in which we become progressively more militarily and economically dependent while still being subject to whatever trade demands they choose to impose. They aren’t even being decent enough to spell out the terms of our own surrender, here. What they are aiming for is our subjugation and vassalage. One in which we buy the weapons they demand, die when we’re told, accept whatever economic conditions they’re willing to offer and thank them for the privilege of our continued protection.

Further, once these terms are put forward and accepted, there’s no reason to count on the kindness and magnanimity of the Democrats — presuming they ever hold power again — to secure a better deal or an improved relationship. Contempt for weakness is not confined to one party.

The stakes, for us, are existential.

And our response to date has been: angry polls, Mike Myers cameos, chippy slogans, pissy tweets, a Cathal Kelly column about the boorishness of American hockey players, Heinz ketchup, pulled bourbon, some leisure travel re-arrangements, and the defacement of a cute little beaver statue that was dressed up in an American jersey for the World Cup.

Jesus fuck, everybody. Pack it in. We used to be notoriously ruthless. What the hell happened to us? If this is all we’ve got, we might as well become the 51st state because there’s nothing left in the tank.

We are faffing around while the Americans turn up the pressure in a bid to break our “strategic patience.” And I can’t help but think that, maybe, a technocrat who has spent his entire life in obeisance to elite power structures — a guy who has probably never had to tell so much as a Burger King manager to fuck off — is perhaps not temperamentally well suited to tell the new American Empire to pound sand.

The Liberals were re-elected — tenuously and with significant reservations — to rally Canadians to the cause of enduring punishing retaliations and economic sanctions, to use Donald Trump as an opportunity to restore some national dignity and shared purpose after 10 years of sad and self-inflicted decline. All of this is fundamentally rooted in the country’s capacity to trust them — to both tell the truth about how they intend to handle this threat, and to demonstrate the competence to manage the crisis as it unfolds.

It requires honesty, resolve, and clear demonstration of purpose and strength.

Once those crack, there’s not much left to fight for, with elbows or anything else.

At least we built a bridge, and I guess nowadays that ain’t nothing. But it sure as hell is not enough.

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