Every word of this piece is excellent and accurate. As Canadians, we need a slap upside the head and a giant reality check. The era of complacency is over and thank you for explaining things so clearly.
I absolutely loath the messenger (Trump), but its true. We are a member of Nato, NORAD etc and we should take our commitments seriously... It really is embarrassing that our word means nothing to this degree.
Mike, you have noted something important. So, so many Canadians are making a real big deal out of DJT not keeping America's word (treaties, yada, yada, yada) but they are completely silent on Canada not keeping it's word.
From my own reporting, and that of a few notable others (Sam Cooper, Murray Brewster) this is not about keeping our agencies in line, it’s about ensuring the political will exists. Because for a decade now our security agencies at the highest level have been raising alarms internally - which got to two PMO’s, and were dismissed as alarmist. We took advantage of America in these regards, and so have no podium to stand on now.
Trump is a populist and was elected by his base to deliver. The sentiments that elected him are emboldened and not going away.
The Orange man is bad and I deeply (and I mean deeply) did not like his very real attacts on our sovereignty.
We absolutely must read the room and strategically respond.
In Danielle Smith we had ready a perfect Canadian to go on a MAGA charm offensive - it would be supremely dumb to not deploy her.
Hearing the concerns from the base, and actually responding to them is a heck of a lot better than escalating a trade war.
I will gamble on making a meaningful effort to give the American people what they asked for, which if executed correctly will also benefit Canadians - over escalating a trade war.
In other words, don't get distracted on Trumps blustering - listen to the real (and not imagined) concerns of those who elected him and commit to addressing those concerns.
Also stop trying to make me outraged that Kevin O'Leary went to Mar-a-lago, so many people have gone there. Its the new normal.
One of the biggest problem with Canadians is that we would rather rail about big bad orange man down south than doing anything to fix long standing issues. The hour of reckoning is here, let's see if Canadians can get over themselves and take care of business!
Aren't we though? We also tend to trust national institutions that have proven unreliable if not down right corrupt. Until and unless we get involved in the process we leave ourselves open to abuse by unscrupulous, self-interested politicians.
"We are not responsible for the immigration or fentanyl problems currently plaguing the United States."
While Canada is not solely responsible for the fentanyl issue, both Provincial and Federal Governments have at best ignored Canada's role, and at worst have helped able it.
If 25% of what Sam Cooper write about this is true, Canadian Banks are willing and able money launderers on a massive scale. TD Bank was fined a record US$3B for laundering drug money in the US. Canada and Canadian banks have become the world wide hub in dirty money which facilitates all of this.
The freshly cleaned money has been a major source of capital fueling the housing cost increases in BC and Ontario.
Our ports are porous and fentanyl precursors come into Canada in a steady stream to enable production here and in the US. While the amount of fentanyl seized at the Canadian border is minimal compared to Mexico, that doesn't mean its not being produced here, or that the chemicals to make aren't being transported through here.
The most heartening item about the CAN/US agreement to stave off the tariffs was the joint task forces on fentanyl. Canadian governments haven't been taking it seriously. Now they are forced to with someone checking their work.
Pretty sure that Sam Cooper is 100% correct. Has anyone noticed that there’s been literally zero coverage of this in msm? Absolutely none. In fact, we routinely hear Vassy Kapelos on Power Play along with her panel pundits parroting the PMO position by stating & restating that ‘it’s such a smallll amount crossing in from Canada.’ There’s nothing to worry about folks, rest easy, we’re being picked on by that mean, bad man.
That Cdn mindset of keeping our heads in the sand runs deep.
It will not be a US defence policy we will be “forced” to follow. That’s not what they are demanding. They are demanding we at the very least, follow our own defence policy. That would mean we have to fund it. We have come up with some excellent defence policies in almost every term of Liberals or Conservatives in power. They simply did not fund it. Some exceptions since Pierre Trudeau (who had a minimalist policy but skimped badly on even that) were initially the Mulroney govt and Harper who funded Afghanistan deployments appropriately— but not much else.
I agree with the sentiments expressed in this article. The US political and military establishment is done asking nicely and to the Canadian doves who are upset over this turn of events they need to ask themselves:
Q: Where has some (most) of our defence spending capability gone in recent years?
A: A national daycare program. An almost free national dental program, and a 1/64 baked national pharmacare program. On top of that were very generous Covid income relief measures that have saddled us with debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay for. The debt servicing costs are crowding out new spending.
Those who follow politics closely don’t have to go far to find Canadians who are horrified by thoughts of a Conservative government that will strip down or cancel many of these new social programs. The NDP and Liberals will be chasing those voters for support, so the American government will be watching with great interest in our upcoming election campaign. There is little appetite on the left for guns, warships and planes or soldiers supplied with adequate kit. These voters have expectations for different spending priorities.
Président Trump was not the first to wreck the relationship assumptions of Canadians. In 2021 President Biden put the kibosh on the enormously important Keystone XL pipeline (for crude from Canada to the USA). We had assumed for years that the Canada/USA oil relationship was mutually supportive with both cross ownership and cross supply. President Biden blew that assumption up. It is not mentioned by Canadian media because they still have no clue about how serious that relationship is to Canada, and because it’s beyond the Eastern horizon in Western Canada, but President Biden crushed every assumption of our mutual relationship. Only the West noticed the loss of tens of billions of export dollars and the new realities of the broken relationship. President Trump is merely continuing what President Biden started. Get the message.
Trump is not only rewriting the Canadian/US relationship...he's bringing immediacy, North American security, impatience and vision to the political leadership. Canada fails on all these...as do most federal governments.
Trump, notwithstanding his sometimes ill-timed-but-interesting visions, will turn out to be the most influential president of this century.
Everyone gets tired of people who make promises and don't keep them. Politicians are no different. Canadian governments past and present have ignored requests to beef up our NATO obligations. The US and other NATO partners are fed up with the broken promises and now view us as laggards who ride on our Neighbour's coat tails. They don't trust us anymore and won't until we put on our big boy pants and show we can be relied upon. They will monitor that until we prove ourselves as a nation. If we don't comply, we will be ignored and /or punished for our inaction.
Trump 1.0 asked us rudely, but did little about it.
Obama asked us numerous times too....
So now Trump 2.0 is done asking, he is telling. People can get their shorts all tangled about "how" he is doing that, but we were not responding to the numerous requests, were we?
I agree on the need to increase defense spending and the need to demonstrate to Americans that we're taking defense seriously. I categorically reject attributing anything Trump's doing to a coherent strategy: he's a stupid man with an ignorant, undisciplined mind who's driven by his narcissistic ego. MAGA is a cult of personality that will applaud and embrace anything Trump does, so there's little purchase in trying to influence them either. Canada needs to focus on doing what Canada needs to do for its own interests, and rely on that influencing Americans who aren't part of the Trump cult.
If Canada really wants to register with Americans and American policy makers as having sharply pivoted to a serious approach, it's going to be necessary to take some big, splashy moves that will garner attention. For the Navy, that could include publicly campaigning for Canada to become part of AUKUS and acquiring a nuclear submarine fleet capable of effectively patrolling the Arctic. It could also include moves towards acquiring a couple of amphibious assault ships, which are effectively also small aircraft carriers that would enable Canada to project power to crisis areas (something General Rick Hillier pitched when he was Chief of the Defense Staff.) For the Air Force, it means bulking out expeditionary capabilities with more tactical aircraft, more tankers, more cargo aircraft, and more aggressively replacing our maritime patrol aircraft fleet. For the Army, it means re-building an armored force suitable for fighting a ground war with NATO, building some real capability in air defense systems for ground troops, and massively expanding the ground forces by building out the militia to have a serious reserve force. Cap it all off by stepping up participation in international military exercises: sending a Canadian brigade to a training cycle at the US Army's National Training Center or a Canadian submarine wreaking havoc on a US carrier group in a naval exercise would make a splash.
George, I can accept that you have little regard for DJT; he is not, as my late mother in law used to say, everyone's cup of tea. That is understatement to be certain.
Having said that, he is absolutely correctly calling out Canada's incapacity, both deliberate and unwitting, at meeting it's own commitments. Commitments which we made and commitments which we SHOULD make. Commitments that we made include our promise to meet defense spending minimums which clearly we promised but just as clearly had and have no intentions to meet.
Commitments that we should make include the absolutely basic for any country to have secure borders. We have a history of being over run by folks who illegitimately claim refugee status. We have a history of having so many "temporary" residents whose temporariness has already expired or is going to expire imminently and we have no plan whatsoever to ensure that those folk do in fact leave. Further, we have a system that allows those "temporaries" to appeal and delay so long.
All of that leads to the US no longer being willing to play nice. Some people are upset at DJT's manners. Why are they not upset at Canada's lies and deliberate unwillingness to meet the minimum obligations of nationhood?
Yes. Also, please write a few paragraphs about how the Cult of Trudauist "Lieberal" Party For Canada's Destruction is rending Canada apart, right from how the "parliament", federal civil service and the legal system functions down to the security on the streets.
TANSTAAFL. (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch). Increased defense spending better be accompanied by increased revenues. Future generations have already been mortgaged more than enough!
Agree 100%. Another route is to kill off a few sacred cows like excessive regulation, oligopoly protection, universal Medicare which prohibits free market competition ( with the usual hypocrisy like clinics for the wealthy), subsidies to legacy media or inefficient industries,etc.
Yep. And all because central Canada (looking right at you Ottawa, Ontario & Quebec) says pipelines are so bad so let’s put in as many insurmountable regulations & other roadblocks as possible.
Try explaining that to Canadians who think they have "free" healthcare. (The free lunch part).
As for increased spending only coming with increased revenue-- I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one. That spending needs to happen today, and cuts to other federal programs need to fund it. We can have those boutique programs back when we've a functional military able to secure our borders and meet our treaty commitments, and our revenue is high enough to fund them.
What are the boutique programs you want to cut and how much money will they provide?
Maybe we start clawing back OAS benefits on six figure, double pension income households, who no longer have mortgages, sooner than we do now. Oh, and BTW, dividend income must be included for sure if that isn't happening now.
I don't know what these are, but I have been saying for years that we have what it takes to be richest country on earth... And none of the ambition to do it.
Your first two sentences - is what bothers me about Canada for years also.
Briefly. Canada has several faces, and some of them are very nice. Some of the faces of Canada are not nice at all. Over the years as I observe the national politics, it is turning out that this country is incapacitated by red tape and is in reality run by a hypocritical griftocratic asshole oligarchy. As manifested by the current "Liberal" party, the way they run the country and their priority on themselves over the country. That is one of the meanings of Asshole Canada, a fair and healthily self-critical label on ourselves.
100% agree. The laurentian elites have been a disaster.
It reminds me of the French elites (in this case Parisian, because everything of importance in France happens in Paris - read: everything is extremely centralized), which happens to coincide with most of them being graduates of the vaunted ENA - National School of Administration and all of them ending in positions of power.
The real question is why can't these elites be challenged in any meaningful way and how do we loosen their grip on power?
The current Constitution ensures their grip on power. The unelected-for-life Senate assists their grip on power. The Supreme Court for-life appointments assist their grip on power. You see what needs to be changed.
Every word of this piece is excellent and accurate. As Canadians, we need a slap upside the head and a giant reality check. The era of complacency is over and thank you for explaining things so clearly.
Debbie, I suggest - quite respectfully - that your last sentence should be amended to read, "The era of complacency should be over ..."
I offer my suggested adjustment simply because I have little faith in our fellow citizens.
That's a valid suggestion and you are quite right about your lack of faith. Sadly, I share that feeling.
I absolutely loath the messenger (Trump), but its true. We are a member of Nato, NORAD etc and we should take our commitments seriously... It really is embarrassing that our word means nothing to this degree.
Mike, you have noted something important. So, so many Canadians are making a real big deal out of DJT not keeping America's word (treaties, yada, yada, yada) but they are completely silent on Canada not keeping it's word.
It's shameful
Yeah, but Canadians are nice. And just because we don't keep our word doesn't mean we don't *care*.
Yes, "nice and hypocritical."
Yes, it is a shameful time to be Canadian.
From my own reporting, and that of a few notable others (Sam Cooper, Murray Brewster) this is not about keeping our agencies in line, it’s about ensuring the political will exists. Because for a decade now our security agencies at the highest level have been raising alarms internally - which got to two PMO’s, and were dismissed as alarmist. We took advantage of America in these regards, and so have no podium to stand on now.
We need to remember that Trump is not a 4 or even 8 year aberration. He is a reflection of the mood of the US public.
👍 👍👍
Yes! Exactly this.
Trump is a populist and was elected by his base to deliver. The sentiments that elected him are emboldened and not going away.
The Orange man is bad and I deeply (and I mean deeply) did not like his very real attacts on our sovereignty.
We absolutely must read the room and strategically respond.
In Danielle Smith we had ready a perfect Canadian to go on a MAGA charm offensive - it would be supremely dumb to not deploy her.
Hearing the concerns from the base, and actually responding to them is a heck of a lot better than escalating a trade war.
I will gamble on making a meaningful effort to give the American people what they asked for, which if executed correctly will also benefit Canadians - over escalating a trade war.
In other words, don't get distracted on Trumps blustering - listen to the real (and not imagined) concerns of those who elected him and commit to addressing those concerns.
Also stop trying to make me outraged that Kevin O'Leary went to Mar-a-lago, so many people have gone there. Its the new normal.
ABSOLUTELY CORRECT
One of the biggest problem with Canadians is that we would rather rail about big bad orange man down south than doing anything to fix long standing issues. The hour of reckoning is here, let's see if Canadians can get over themselves and take care of business!
Canadians are really good at making excuses. We are too good at it for our own good.
Aren't we though? We also tend to trust national institutions that have proven unreliable if not down right corrupt. Until and unless we get involved in the process we leave ourselves open to abuse by unscrupulous, self-interested politicians.
If we monetize and export this talent for making excuses we would be a superpower
"We are not responsible for the immigration or fentanyl problems currently plaguing the United States."
While Canada is not solely responsible for the fentanyl issue, both Provincial and Federal Governments have at best ignored Canada's role, and at worst have helped able it.
If 25% of what Sam Cooper write about this is true, Canadian Banks are willing and able money launderers on a massive scale. TD Bank was fined a record US$3B for laundering drug money in the US. Canada and Canadian banks have become the world wide hub in dirty money which facilitates all of this.
The freshly cleaned money has been a major source of capital fueling the housing cost increases in BC and Ontario.
Our ports are porous and fentanyl precursors come into Canada in a steady stream to enable production here and in the US. While the amount of fentanyl seized at the Canadian border is minimal compared to Mexico, that doesn't mean its not being produced here, or that the chemicals to make aren't being transported through here.
The most heartening item about the CAN/US agreement to stave off the tariffs was the joint task forces on fentanyl. Canadian governments haven't been taking it seriously. Now they are forced to with someone checking their work.
Pretty sure that Sam Cooper is 100% correct. Has anyone noticed that there’s been literally zero coverage of this in msm? Absolutely none. In fact, we routinely hear Vassy Kapelos on Power Play along with her panel pundits parroting the PMO position by stating & restating that ‘it’s such a smallll amount crossing in from Canada.’ There’s nothing to worry about folks, rest easy, we’re being picked on by that mean, bad man.
That Cdn mindset of keeping our heads in the sand runs deep.
Stephen Harper says there is vastly more flowing from the US into Canada than from Canada into the US.
Direction of flow isn't the problem to focus on here, IMO.
We still fix the border by fixing the border.
It will not be a US defence policy we will be “forced” to follow. That’s not what they are demanding. They are demanding we at the very least, follow our own defence policy. That would mean we have to fund it. We have come up with some excellent defence policies in almost every term of Liberals or Conservatives in power. They simply did not fund it. Some exceptions since Pierre Trudeau (who had a minimalist policy but skimped badly on even that) were initially the Mulroney govt and Harper who funded Afghanistan deployments appropriately— but not much else.
I agree with the sentiments expressed in this article. The US political and military establishment is done asking nicely and to the Canadian doves who are upset over this turn of events they need to ask themselves:
Q: Where has some (most) of our defence spending capability gone in recent years?
A: A national daycare program. An almost free national dental program, and a 1/64 baked national pharmacare program. On top of that were very generous Covid income relief measures that have saddled us with debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay for. The debt servicing costs are crowding out new spending.
Those who follow politics closely don’t have to go far to find Canadians who are horrified by thoughts of a Conservative government that will strip down or cancel many of these new social programs. The NDP and Liberals will be chasing those voters for support, so the American government will be watching with great interest in our upcoming election campaign. There is little appetite on the left for guns, warships and planes or soldiers supplied with adequate kit. These voters have expectations for different spending priorities.
Those unwilling to put in the National service could always draft dodge in the US.
Let the leftist disappointment be very large and enduring. And remind them of a possible long mandatory National Service - in the uniform.
Président Trump was not the first to wreck the relationship assumptions of Canadians. In 2021 President Biden put the kibosh on the enormously important Keystone XL pipeline (for crude from Canada to the USA). We had assumed for years that the Canada/USA oil relationship was mutually supportive with both cross ownership and cross supply. President Biden blew that assumption up. It is not mentioned by Canadian media because they still have no clue about how serious that relationship is to Canada, and because it’s beyond the Eastern horizon in Western Canada, but President Biden crushed every assumption of our mutual relationship. Only the West noticed the loss of tens of billions of export dollars and the new realities of the broken relationship. President Trump is merely continuing what President Biden started. Get the message.
Trump is not only rewriting the Canadian/US relationship...he's bringing immediacy, North American security, impatience and vision to the political leadership. Canada fails on all these...as do most federal governments.
Trump, notwithstanding his sometimes ill-timed-but-interesting visions, will turn out to be the most influential president of this century.
If thats what it takes to improve the state of our armed forces,it might not be a bad thing
I think we could cut some of the lesbian pirate musicals in foreign countries before we ditch healthcare.
Everyone gets tired of people who make promises and don't keep them. Politicians are no different. Canadian governments past and present have ignored requests to beef up our NATO obligations. The US and other NATO partners are fed up with the broken promises and now view us as laggards who ride on our Neighbour's coat tails. They don't trust us anymore and won't until we put on our big boy pants and show we can be relied upon. They will monitor that until we prove ourselves as a nation. If we don't comply, we will be ignored and /or punished for our inaction.
Biden asked us fairly politely.
Trump 1.0 asked us rudely, but did little about it.
Obama asked us numerous times too....
So now Trump 2.0 is done asking, he is telling. People can get their shorts all tangled about "how" he is doing that, but we were not responding to the numerous requests, were we?
That's on us.
I agree on the need to increase defense spending and the need to demonstrate to Americans that we're taking defense seriously. I categorically reject attributing anything Trump's doing to a coherent strategy: he's a stupid man with an ignorant, undisciplined mind who's driven by his narcissistic ego. MAGA is a cult of personality that will applaud and embrace anything Trump does, so there's little purchase in trying to influence them either. Canada needs to focus on doing what Canada needs to do for its own interests, and rely on that influencing Americans who aren't part of the Trump cult.
If Canada really wants to register with Americans and American policy makers as having sharply pivoted to a serious approach, it's going to be necessary to take some big, splashy moves that will garner attention. For the Navy, that could include publicly campaigning for Canada to become part of AUKUS and acquiring a nuclear submarine fleet capable of effectively patrolling the Arctic. It could also include moves towards acquiring a couple of amphibious assault ships, which are effectively also small aircraft carriers that would enable Canada to project power to crisis areas (something General Rick Hillier pitched when he was Chief of the Defense Staff.) For the Air Force, it means bulking out expeditionary capabilities with more tactical aircraft, more tankers, more cargo aircraft, and more aggressively replacing our maritime patrol aircraft fleet. For the Army, it means re-building an armored force suitable for fighting a ground war with NATO, building some real capability in air defense systems for ground troops, and massively expanding the ground forces by building out the militia to have a serious reserve force. Cap it all off by stepping up participation in international military exercises: sending a Canadian brigade to a training cycle at the US Army's National Training Center or a Canadian submarine wreaking havoc on a US carrier group in a naval exercise would make a splash.
George, I can accept that you have little regard for DJT; he is not, as my late mother in law used to say, everyone's cup of tea. That is understatement to be certain.
Having said that, he is absolutely correctly calling out Canada's incapacity, both deliberate and unwitting, at meeting it's own commitments. Commitments which we made and commitments which we SHOULD make. Commitments that we made include our promise to meet defense spending minimums which clearly we promised but just as clearly had and have no intentions to meet.
Commitments that we should make include the absolutely basic for any country to have secure borders. We have a history of being over run by folks who illegitimately claim refugee status. We have a history of having so many "temporary" residents whose temporariness has already expired or is going to expire imminently and we have no plan whatsoever to ensure that those folk do in fact leave. Further, we have a system that allows those "temporaries" to appeal and delay so long.
All of that leads to the US no longer being willing to play nice. Some people are upset at DJT's manners. Why are they not upset at Canada's lies and deliberate unwillingness to meet the minimum obligations of nationhood?
Yes. Also, please write a few paragraphs about how the Cult of Trudauist "Lieberal" Party For Canada's Destruction is rending Canada apart, right from how the "parliament", federal civil service and the legal system functions down to the security on the streets.
TANSTAAFL. (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch). Increased defense spending better be accompanied by increased revenues. Future generations have already been mortgaged more than enough!
Agree 100%. Another route is to kill off a few sacred cows like excessive regulation, oligopoly protection, universal Medicare which prohibits free market competition ( with the usual hypocrisy like clinics for the wealthy), subsidies to legacy media or inefficient industries,etc.
And it’s just bloody embarrassing.
Yep. And all because central Canada (looking right at you Ottawa, Ontario & Quebec) says pipelines are so bad so let’s put in as many insurmountable regulations & other roadblocks as possible.
Try explaining that to Canadians who think they have "free" healthcare. (The free lunch part).
As for increased spending only coming with increased revenue-- I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one. That spending needs to happen today, and cuts to other federal programs need to fund it. We can have those boutique programs back when we've a functional military able to secure our borders and meet our treaty commitments, and our revenue is high enough to fund them.
What are the boutique programs you want to cut and how much money will they provide?
Maybe we start clawing back OAS benefits on six figure, double pension income households, who no longer have mortgages, sooner than we do now. Oh, and BTW, dividend income must be included for sure if that isn't happening now.
OAS to high-income households is a bit... I mean, they're paying tax so the government can give it back to them, so they can pay tax on that income...
Anyway, pick a country from the list. I'm sure you can find some boutique programs to offend your sensibilities:
https://w05.international.gc.ca/projectbrowser-banqueprojets/filter-filtre#resultsTbl
ASSHOLE CANADA
Excellent comment. It has a few other meanings besides the one created by Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson.
I don't know what these are, but I have been saying for years that we have what it takes to be richest country on earth... And none of the ambition to do it.
But asshole Canada summarizes so much better.
Perhaps you can clarify what you had in mind?
Your first two sentences - is what bothers me about Canada for years also.
Briefly. Canada has several faces, and some of them are very nice. Some of the faces of Canada are not nice at all. Over the years as I observe the national politics, it is turning out that this country is incapacitated by red tape and is in reality run by a hypocritical griftocratic asshole oligarchy. As manifested by the current "Liberal" party, the way they run the country and their priority on themselves over the country. That is one of the meanings of Asshole Canada, a fair and healthily self-critical label on ourselves.
I think "hypocritical griftocratic asshole oligarchy" should be on a T-shirt.
Not sure if "hypocritical griftocratic asshole oligarchy is not for sale" would fit on a hat.
100% agree. The laurentian elites have been a disaster.
It reminds me of the French elites (in this case Parisian, because everything of importance in France happens in Paris - read: everything is extremely centralized), which happens to coincide with most of them being graduates of the vaunted ENA - National School of Administration and all of them ending in positions of power.
The real question is why can't these elites be challenged in any meaningful way and how do we loosen their grip on power?
The current Constitution ensures their grip on power. The unelected-for-life Senate assists their grip on power. The Supreme Court for-life appointments assist their grip on power. You see what needs to be changed.
Pack the Senate; pack the SCC.
Is that in between Crotch Lake, and Bummer's Roost?