This is not how a serious country behaves.
Canada is like the spoiled adolescent who has to clean up his room now that the adults are home.
For far too long, the Liberals have squandered deliberately every opportunity to make this country serious and powerful, instead choosing to rely on the US's strength and prestige. The Liberals and their gullible voters became offended when their sense of undeserved entitlement is threatened and now they have to do some real work which will transform the country from one of enervating weakness and torpidity to one driven to rise above the clouds.
Isn't that what we were before?:
But even if just performative, there are lessons in how Canada responded in recent days. Ones we should reflect on, and limitations we need to accept, to better prepare for the worst.
So how did Canada respond over the weekend?
We saw procurement contracts with American firms suspended. Liquor retailers pulled U.S. products, urging consumers to buy Canadian. The federal government also announced tariffs on $30 billion worth of imports.
While these moves likely had strong public support, none would seriously impact the U.S. economy.
That’s not to say they’re pointless. Symbolic retaliation has value when paired with a smart communications and government relations strategy targeting key U.S. decision-makers. But Canadians shouldn’t mistake these measures for ones that will impose meaningful economic costs south of the border—despite that being the stated aim.
Let’s start with booze.
Alcohol imports from the United States are relatively limited. Last year, Canada purchased roughly $1.5 billion worth of beer, wine, and liquor from the U.S., making up about a quarter of our total alcohol spending. While that’s a notable share of Canada’s purchases, it accounts for only about 0.5 percent of total U.S. alcohol production. Even if Canadian demand for U.S. products dropped by 20 percent—a substantial shift—the impact on total U.S. output would be just 0.1 percent.
What about government purchases?
In 2022, Canadian governments bought about $31 billion in goods and services from the U.S., but much of this is hard to replace. This includes $5 billion in machinery and equipment and $11 billion in medical equipment and pharmaceuticals, where domestic alternatives are limited. Relative to the U.S. economy, these purchases amount to just 0.05 percent of total output. Even a sharp reduction in Canadian government spending on U.S. goods would barely make a dent south of the border.
In short, the tariffs and all of the other street theatre meant nothing to the Americans.
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Ottawa should block Donald Trump’s chosen ambassador to Canada until the U.S. president stops questioning Canada’s sovereignty, says one expert.
“We could potentially use (this) as a way of signalling the seriousness with which the Government of Canada is viewing this unwelcome talk,” said University of Victoria international relations professor Will Greaves.
Strange.
Did anyone object to China's funnelling money into the Trudeau Foundation, or Justin's undying love for China, or Mark Carney's connections, or the secret police stations, or the detention of the two Michaels, or the rigging of our elections?
But if ONE emotional retard suggests that Trump will take over this country because he thinks that American lives are worth wasting over an imaginary takeover attempt, well, let's panic about that.
Again - strange.
Oh, NOW you want to work with the big guy:
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says part of why he is pitching Canada as a source of critical minerals for the U.S. stems from internal discussions held about President Donald Trump’s desire to access Canada’s supply, which Wilkinson sees as a possible motivator for his statements on the country becoming its “51st state.”
Canada is “deeply concerned” about the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the United States’ lead foreign aid agency, federal government officials say amid growing alarm about the impact to global charities and aid programs.
This USAID:
Over the last two years, USAID had funneled $2.3 billion in “humanitarian assistance” to Omar’s native Somalia. Last year it reported a request for $1.6 billion in aid and even with the Biden administration on the way out the door, it sent an additional $29 million in December 2024.
USAID support for Somalia had doubled under the Biden administration and with $3.3 billion from USAID allocated in the last 5 years, the end of the USAID gravy train for the Islamic terrorist state of Somalia must have been a painful blow for Omar, who is very close to the Somali regime. Former Somali Prime Minister Hassan Khaire had reportedly celebrated that “the interest of Ilhan are not Ilhan’s, it’s not the interest of Minnesota, nor is it the interest of the American people, the interest of Ilhan is that of the Somalian people and Somalia.”
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Federal watchdog reports and other documents show former President Joe Biden’s aid programs funneled the money toward a network of terrorism in the Muslim world — largely by reversing Trump-era policies. National security experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation the new Trump administration must take the trend more seriously.
“We should not be putting money into any country or areas where a terrorist group remains in control,” Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said. Roggio said that “aid, like money, is fungible.”
“It winds up propping up these groups,” the counterterrorism analyst told the DCNF. “It allows them to use … whatever money they have to invest into their terrorist activities.”
The State Department told the DCNF last week that “national security is and will remain a top priority” after President Donald Trump announced he is reevaluating foreign aid programs.
“The review period is a measure put in place for us to align our ongoing work with the America First agenda,” the department said. “The results of the in-depth review will be communicated transparently.”
Trump also placed dozens of senior officials on leave from the United States Agency for International Development, one of the entities responsible for funding to Afghanistan that the Taliban stole on Biden’s watch. The Trump administration closed down USAID’s headquarters Monday and may try to dissolve the agency altogether.
The largest share of Biden-era dollars linked to terrorism went to Palestinian organizations, Congressional Research Service records show.
The Biden administration gave $1,053,400,000 in taxpayer money to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which claims to help war-afflicted Palestinian civilians but is tied to terrorists fighting Israel, according to U.S. and Israeli intelligence. Biden reversed a Trump-era ban on UNRWA funding in 2021 but brought back the ban last year after Israel accused UNWRA workers of participating in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
Intelligence officials later revealed that more than 1,000 UNRWA employees, or around 10%, were linked to the groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, according to documents found on the bodies of dead terrorists and other evidence. A dozen took part in the Oct. 7 massacre, including a Hamas commander who was teaching in elementary school for UNRWA and led a siege against an Israeli kibbutz that killed almost 100 people.
This is what we wasted our money on:
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Actions by and for Women to Adapt to Climate Change: $10,011,255 going to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to train 5000 men on “positive masculinity.”
— Andy Lee (@RealAndyLeeShow) February 6, 2025
“The project’s beneficiaries, who will receive training on positive masculinity, are estimated to be over 5,000 men.” https://t.co/0sQn3nKjpv pic.twitter.com/G1QIFGOqvi
All of this because Trudeau will not even act in the interests of Canadians.
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