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.
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