Sunday, February 02, 2025

This Is All the Liberals' Fault

And it's high time that we acknowledged it.

The frat-boy who inherited his money and was parachuted into the highest office of the land expected Kamala Harris to win so that he may gradually carry on frittering away what is left of the Canadian economy, the one he was glad to trade off to China, his favourite country.

Fast-forward to today and we see that the Liberals are splintered but still determined to finish off Canada and Trump's sensible suggestion to plug holes in the northern border fell on deliberately deaf ears.

Canadians, predictably and stupidly anti-American, will crawl into spring a lot poorer than before.


Where we are and where we will go:

The moral superiority, which Peterson has long decried among Canadians, has been nauseatingly evident in the governments of the Trudeaux, père et fils. The Liberal future looks no better because the promise of Mark Carney is to enhance the rottenness of policies dreamed up by the World Economic Forum. Indeed, unlike Justin, who simply swallowed their dreams, Carney helped weave them: stakeholder capitalism (formerly known as socialism), diversity, equity, and inclusion (formerly known as racism), and global degrowth. The whole ball of mud.

This is the context for Peterson’s reflections on the position of Alberta in Canada, along with that of Saskatchewan and, if ever they opened their eyes, of British Columbia as well.

Again. the details are familiar, from robbery of western wealth via transfer payments to Laurentian Canada (and especially to Quebec), to the nonsense of official bilingualism that ensures federal bureaucrats are drawn almost entirely from Laurentian Canada (and especially from Quebec) to the endless whining and demands for more that emanate from Quebec all by itself.

Quebec alone, however, is not the problem. Peterson recounts a story from the late 1990s of his move from Harvard to the University of Toronto along with three of his graduate students. He tells his readers that he found it difficult to take them anywhere socially around the U of T without enduring the embarrassment of what he called “casual” anti-Americanism. It was evident whenever the question of their origin came up. They probably said “huh?” not “eh?” Or “out” not “oot.” A clear give-away.

Professors conducting their exquisite lives within the refined air of what they think is Canada’s finest university directed remarks at his junior colleagues that, if aimed at any but Americans would have been considered racist and sexist and xenophobic. The anti-American attitudes of his senior colleagues were akin to the “genteel” anti-Semitism I can recall from my own youth. ...

The question I was trying to answer in that long-ago course offering was: what is the myth my Ontario students found so comfortable that it informed their barely hidden and nearly axiomatic contempt for Americans? I found the answer in Ontario and Upper Canadian literature and eventually concluded that the experience that turned into an unquestioned truth –as myths tend to do—originated in the eighteenth century! It all began with the losers of the American Revolution, the Loyalists who settled in Upper Canada.

Quebec’s losers’ myth began even earlier, with the British victory in 1759 on the Plains of Abraham. And the defining attribute of all losers’ myths is moral superiority. We can see an echo in the current attitudes of the NDP and the Greens.

What about our own prairie myth? It is centered in the experience of homesteading, which is not a losers’ myth. The center of homesteader triumphalism, as we all know, is next-year country, Alberta.

**

Here’s what has to happen now: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party need to end their unconscionable self-serving break from Parliament immediately, so that elected MPs from across the country can discuss the best path forward for Canada now.

When asked if he would recall Parliament at a news conference Saturday, Trudeau said “we have the tools to support Canadians at this time” — read cheques for everyone like during COVID — which would make Canadians dependent on a Liberal government going into the upcoming election. So that’s a “no” on recalling Parliament, I guess.

(Sidebar: we also don't have the money for this.)

The voices of elected members of the House of Commons represent the interests of their constituents’ ridings across Canada, none of which will now be untouched by Trump’s tariffs. All MPs should have been involved in discussions about how to deal with Trump’s threats from day one.

Thanks to prorogation, the Liberal party avoided a confidence vote it was sure to lose, and is holding a leadership race that they could have very well held with Parliament open.

Canadians will want to know what happened during negotiations with the Americans, so the Liberal party had better have some answers. While some cabinet ministers appear to have been having a good time taking photographs in Washington, often with Democrats, it’s unclear what kind of negotiations were held, or what the content of them were.

It’s certainly not a good sign that on Jan. 31, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt expressed her distaste with Justin Trudeau, saying it would be “wise for him to talk to president Trump directly before pushing outlandish comments to the media.” Trudeau claimed at Saturday night’s news conference that Trump would not talk to him. This should have been predictable.

The first rule of being a successful negotiator is being able to make people like you. And Trudeau has done everything possible to undermine his relationship with Donald Trump and Americans.

Trudeau immediately made Trump his enemy in 2017. Only eight days after the president was sworn in, Trudeau posted, in response to Trump’s executive order limiting the number of refugees allowed into the U.S., his infamous tweet, “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada.” An undeniable migrant crisis in Canada followed.

And Canada’s lax attitude to border crossings just happens to be one of Trump’s complaints justifying the tariffs, except in the opposite direction. In the first 10 months of 2024, the U.S. Border Patrol intercepted more than 21,000 migrants crossing illegally from Canada into the United States, illustrating that Canada does, in fact, have a border security problem.

Trump’s other complaint is that in 2024, more than 21,000 pounds of fentanyl was apprehended at U.S. borders which his executive order points out is enough to kill more than four billion people. Fentanyl is odourless, tasteless, and therefore hard to detect. And only a tiny amount, two milligrams (about the size of grams of salt) is all that’s needed to kill the average adult, as it is 100 times more toxic than morphine. So, while only 43 pounds were actually intercepted coming from the Canadian border, this doesn’t justify dismissing concerns about Canada’s fentanyl market.

But don’t take my word for it. Mathieu Bertrand, chief superintendent of Serious Organized Crime & Border Integrity at RCMP Federal Policing told CBC in 2023 that Canada is not only a significant producer of fentanyl, we’re also an exporter, like Trump complains. And Canadian fentanyl has gone global. In other words, this is a real problem that Canada has to tackle, even if Canada is not as large a producer as Mexico at this time. Look around at our neighbourhoods. That could quickly change. We do ourselves no favours pretending it isn’t a legitimate concern. ...

Trudeau’s relationship with Trump and Americans has been going downhill since 2017, with the prime minister’s anti-American arrogance on full display recently on American television. Trump no longer takes Trudeau seriously, as evidenced by his Governor of Canada remark. Parliament never should have been prorogued with Trudeau at the helm.

An immediate election should have been held to ensure a government with an actual mandate would be place during the coming economic crisis.

Instead, negotiations have failed and we are now going to be issuing “25 per cent tariffs against a $155 billion worth of American goods,” including immediate tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods as of Tuesday. This will be followed by another $125 billion in 21 days to “allow Canadian companies and supply chains to seek to find alternatives.”

Whatever Trump’s complaints about the border, that doesn’t mean tariffs are justified, especially against longstanding allies, but one has to wonder if this all could have been avoided, perhaps by Canada taking the border crossing and fentanyl issues seriously, and by having Parliament up and running with a respected leader who can actually negotiate. 

Canadians, and especially the government’s Laurentian elite enablers, should unite in demanding that the Liberal party ends prorogation immediately, despite Trudeau’s stated plans to the contrary. The limits of our democracy have already been stretched far enough.

 **

Canada’s central bank says monetary policy is harmless in the face of a trade war with America. Tariffs will “badly hurt” Canadian jobs, investment and growth, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said Wednesday. 

“We produce and earn less than [the U.S.] without tariffs,” he told reporters, admitting the Bank is powerless to help.

 

 **

 

 

Someone here has to be a voice of reason:

Premier Danielle Smith, who vowed to work with Ottawa on a federal response while continuing her own diplomatic efforts in the U.S., was among those expressing disappointment while warning of the economic fallout.

“This decision will harm Canadians and Americans alike and strain the important relationship and alliance between our two nations,” Smith said in a statement.

“Alberta will do everything in its power to convince the U.S. President and Congress, as well as the American people, to reverse this mutually destructive policy.”

Analysts have said the policy could wipe off billions of dollars from the Canadian economy, strip many of employment and throw the country into a recession.

“When you look at the cross-border trade, I think the dependency on the trade flows north and south,” said Calgary Chamber of Commerce president Deborah Yedlin.

“You’re talking energy, you’re talking agriculture, you’re talking inputs, you’re talking small businesses, you’re talking large companies. There’s nobody that’s not going to be affected by this, and it doesn’t need to happen.”

Smith said Alberta will work with the federal government and other provinces on a “proportionate” response to the American tariffs through the strategic use of Canadian import tariffs on some U.S. goods that can be purchased from Canada and non-American suppliers.

“This will minimize costs to Canadian consumers while creating maximum impact south of the border. All funds raised from such import tariffs should go directly to benefit the Canadians most harmed by the imposed U.S. tariffs,” she said.

“Alberta will, however, continue to strenuously oppose any effort to ban exports to the U.S. or to tax our own people and businesses on goods leaving Canada for the United States. Such tactics would hurt Canadians far more than Americans.”

 

 

These boycotts are weak response to the economic juggernaut that is the US. They will have no measurable effect. It is political puffery:

Canadian alcohol producers are cheering decisions from several provinces to yank U.S. booze from provincial liquor stores.

They say the move will deliver a boost to homegrown business while adding ammunition to a federal plan aimed at getting the U.S. to back down from tariffs.

"No doubt, it's a big opportunity ... to showcase true nationalism, and it's supporting Canadian jobs, local manufacturing," said Bromlyn Bethune, the president of Toronto-based Steam Whistle Brewing.

Her comments came on the heels of Ontario Premier Doug Ford's Sunday announcement revealing that he would take aim at the nearly $1 billion worth of U.S. wine, beer, spirits and seltzers sold in the LCBO every year.

 

Who can afford that when groceries and rent are at an all-time high?

**

And what products are NOT Chinese, Catherine?:

 

This Catherine McKenna:

Trudeau Minister Catherine McKenna has accepted that she needs to "do a better job of explaining" where billions of taxpayer dollars went.

McKenna is the Liberal Infrastructure Minister. Under her watch, $187.8 billion was pledged towards infrastructure over the course of 12 years. Auditors, however, can not find where a significant amount of this money went.

"We need to fix this," said McKenna. "That’s something I am committed to because we obviously need to get a full accounting," according to Blacklock's Reporter.

"Let’s be one hundred percent clear. We have lost no projects. We have tracked all the projects," she added. "We have provided the information on all the projects."

McKenna's department was criticized by the Auditor General for their dodgy money practices. They kept abysmal records, "making it impossible to compare results year over year."

For those unfamiliar with Canadian politics, McKenna previously caught the public's imagination when footage surfaced online showing McKenna eating dog meat and bribing her way into an illegal cockfight in Indonesia.

The Post Millennial also discovered footage from the same trip, but this time McKenna is seen attending an arranged marriage and feasting on the same buffalo that was used to purchase the young bride.

 **

Justin said that there was no business case to sell our liquid natural gas:

 

 

Because the priority is always looking after number one:

New Democrats yesterday proposed a Buy Canadian program to “produce things we need in our own country” with union labour, said leader Jagmeet Singh. The Party did not comment when asked if its MPs would be compelled to sell shares privately held in U.S. corporations including non-union Amazon: ‘We need to change the rules to favour companies with unionized workers.’

 

The same party that sent jobs overseas now thinks we can just start up a manufacturing sector after decades of enriching China.

Wow ...



Not a priority - Canadian businesses:

Almost half of Canadian businesses plan to shift more investments and operations to the U.S. to mitigate potential tariffs and maintain market access, according to a report released on Wednesday by accounting firm KPMG. Almost two-thirds of Canadian businesses reported making more shipments to the U.S. ahead of President Donald Trump’s inauguration last week.
The results from the survey, which included 250 business leaders from across Canadian industries, come as Mr. Trump threatens to hit imports with punitive tariffs. In remarks delivered via satellite last week to global leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum, Mr. Trump urged businesses to “come make your product in America, and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on Earth.”
Looser regulations and lower taxes make doing business in the U.S. more attractive, especially in the face of 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian goods, economists say. In the survey, 85 per cent of the respondents agreed that the federal and provincial governments must cut taxes to stay competitive.

**

The CEO of Canada’s second-largest publicly traded company says Canadians want their government to do all the things that President Trump is demanding — and slammed outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for not preventing the trade war.

Trump, 78, on Saturday, signed an executive order to slap 25% across-the-board tariffs on America’s northern neighbor, citing its failure to meet his demands on helping crack the fentanyl and illegal immigration trade.

“Canada thrives when it works with America together. Win by helping America win. Trump believes that Canada has not held its side of the bargain,” Tobi Lutke, who co-founded Shopify, wrote on X.

 

Also:

 

 

 

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