Trump’s 51st state rhetoric regards Canada is serving a number of different functions, but beneath it all Trump understands the threat posed to the United States by the Laurentian Elite who run Canada, and their disgraced and soon to be replaced poster boy, Justin Trudeau.
Trump and his people are well aware of a number of growing threats to US interests happening with the neighbors. His talk of tariffs is merely a negotiating tool to force the Canadian government to start governing like adults.
An incredible amount of illegal migrants, terrorists, and highly dangerous drugs like Fentanyl are flowing into the US from the northern border, and Trudeau has done squat fuck all to stop it, and in many ways has encouraged it through his globalist immigration policies.
Canada is also moving into the Chinese sphere of influence and control. Let us not forget that CSIS confirmed ChiCom interference in Canadian politics back to Mulroney, and direct interference in the last two elections. Nothing has been done about that.
China is also buying land and resource access in Canada, which Trump, and every administration previous to his, rightly viewed as theirs, insofar as the historical precedent has been set by Canada and the US having an incredible trade relationship. Trump wants them out.
The discussion around tariffs was a component of the disagreements between Trudeau + Freeland last week which lead to her resignation as Deputy PM + Finance Minister. Trump is already orchestrating major Ws for Canada, and signaling to the government he means business…
…TL;dr – what Trump is doing is good for The United States and will ultimately be good for Canada. We will not become an official 51st state, but Canada will definitely improve if it heeds to Trump’s demands. The status quo is leading us to hell.
This is so insane it’s hard to even respond to, but let’s give it a shot.
Canada’s policy has been massively anti-Chinese all thru Trudeau’s reign. We have sanctions on China. We arrested a Huawei VP for the US, which previous government officials felt was insane. We are not friendly to China, and their influence ops are not particularly effective. Our intelligence services are working against Chinese influence but do nothing to stop American or Israeli influence.
America has 100X the influence that China has over Canada. Israel has a 100X the influence that China has over Canada. China is not even in the running.
Canada’s land and resources do not (or should not) belong to America. As Russia proved recently, if the resource is in your country, you can take it away any time you really want to. BA Canadian is saying that the US rightly owns our resources is beyond offensive.
There are only two countries in the world which are a threat to Canada: the US and Russia. Russia is a minor threat to some our northern island possessions, the US is an existential threat. There is only one country in the world which could invade and conquer Canada. We have one-tenth the population and an army which is a joke. We are no threat to the US at all, and if we moved to let Chinese military forces in (which we won’t) America would bomb or invade the hell out of us.
America, on the other hand, has a proven record of being run by deranged warmongers who will invade or otherwise destroy foreign countries. We are zero threat to the US, the US is a huge threat to us. It is a maxim of strategy that you plan based on other countries capabilities, not their intentions, because intentions can change.
No one who doesn’t want a nuclear deterrent is a Canadian patriot. It is the only way we can be safe from the implicit (or under Trump, nearly explicit) threat of American force.
It is true that the neoliberals who have run the country from Mulrooney on have been terrible for Canada. But they have been terrible exactly because they over-integrated us with America from the Free Trade and NAFTA deals on. The old Canadian economy, from about 1880 to 1990 or so was based on having a real manufacturing sector to balance the resource sector. When resource prices were high, we subsidized industry. When resource prices were low (and thus the dollar was low) our manufacturing became more competitive and we subsidized the resource industry and paid welfare to laid off resource workers. That mixed economy produced one of the best economies in the world for over a century.
But American style conservates in Canada seem to want to deepen our vassalage to America. Our interests are not the same as America’s in all cases and acting as if they are is delusional.
The last real Prime Minister of Canada was Justin Trudeau’s father Pierre. He was willing to tell the US to go to hell when necessary. During one trade dispute he actually closed the border to trade flow to the US.
No PM since then has been willing to give the middle finger to the US and they have made us weaker and more dependent on America. We used to not ship raw seafood or logs, for example—all primary processing was done in Canada.
Now, ever since the fall of Britain in WWII (they won the war and lost the peace) there’s no question we’ve been a vassal state, but there’s abject vassalge and there is dignified vassalage where you’re able to stand up for your own interests.
Too many American influenced Canadian conservatives have bought into ridiculous ideas. To think that Trump cares about the welfare of Canadians is so out to lunch that I can’t find words to describe it. It’s questionable if Trump cares about anything but Trump. He cares about America as an extension of himself. He sure as hell doesn’t care about any other country except perhaps Israel.
Trump wants things from Canada which he thinks will make America better off. That’s all. This isn’t a “tough love” situation where he’s trying to make us do the right thing because it’s good for us. It might work out that way in some parts, but it’s not his intention, it’s a result of him destroying the post-cold war international order which was terrible for Canada and Canadians and putting the boot to neoliberalism.
But Trump’s policies are intended to take industry away from America’s allies and bring them to the US, just as were Biden’s. He’s more brutal and honest about it, but Canada can’t afford to lose even more industry.
Get nukes, and run Canada for Canadians. Only a Canada with nukes can be a sovereign country, free from the implicit threat of invasion. Force the Americans to downsize their embassy and move it far from Parliament, and watch Americans like hawks so they don’t run a color revolution.
Both the neoliberals who run Canada now and the American-style conservatives who want to replace them are bad for Canada and any Candian who wants Trump to push Canada around is a traitor. Someone who wants to pucker up and kiss the boot that’s kicking him.
Feral Finster
Wait wut? I have heard this trope frequently from Canadian conservatives, but when I ask them for concrete examples of this nefarious Chinese influence, they can never produce anything specific. Apparently this influence is so insidious that nobody can find it, or perhaps the inscrutable Chinese never actually use this malign influence that they supposedly wield. Sneaky…..
Meanwhile, Biden more or less snapped his fingers and told Trudeau to do something about the trucker protests, whereupon Trudeau rushed to violate pretty much every principle of Canadian law and human rights in breaking those protests up, and it’s *China* that has an outsized influence on Canada?!?*
This sounds like the russiagate conspiracy theory, aka “Liberal QAnon”, repurposed for Canadian conservatives.
*That’s not to say that I necessarily agree with the subject matter of the protests, but protesters in a cause I don’t agree with are entitled to the same human rights as those in a cause that I favor. “Sauce for the goose” and all that.
Mary Bennet
Good grief. First, what is the Laurentian Elite?
Second, we Americans do not need another impoverished, unstable country on our border. A prosperous, peaceful Canada is good for us. The Great Lakes contain some 20% (the figure I have seen) of the world’s most precious resource. The treaties now in place between two giant (formerly) productive and internally peaceful countries are what protect that resource for the benefit of citizens in both countries.
Third, the way to prevent foreign, whether Chinese or KSA or Russian mobster or anyone else’s, capital buying up your real estate is to pass laws which forbid the practice. Something which our Congress needs to do yesterday, and possibly the Canadian Parliament should as well. I am not aware that Mr. Trump regards foreign ownership of American real estate, including farmland, a critical national resource, as any kind of problem at all.
IDK about Chinese buying Canadian land, but it is true, the grain of truth which underlies the quoted Twitter screed, that China badly wants Arctic Sea access. I suspect the Chinese regard it is a major affront to have been mostly kicked out of the illegal ivory trade in Africa, and now they want walrus for their white gold. The tipping point there, I suggest, came when a court in either Kenya or Tanganyika, I forgot which, sentenced a Chinese national woman to a lengthy prison term for her part in organized ivory poaching. That is not supposed to happen when you are An Important Superpower.
Ivory is not, of course the only nor the most important reason China wants Arctic access, but it is the easy-to-understand emotional hook to get public support for this policy when historically China has sought to expand to the south and west.
Curt Kastens
The idea that the resources of Canada should belong to Canadians is bat shit delusional.
I do not have the time to look it up in Wikipedia but I bet that the population of Canada is at most 40 million people. Yet the population of the United States is or soon will be 360 million. Unless its poplution gets reduced by a Soviet nuclear attack in the very near future. To that population of 360 million we have to add the population of Mexico and the rest of Central America.
The last time that I looked at a map Canada was on American soil. In fact it occupies by my estimation about 40% of American soil. That means that 10% of the potentially legitimate population is trying to bullshit the rest of us in to thinking that they are the legitimate controllers of 40% of the legitimate territory of America. This claim appears to be based upon an arbitrary line drawn across the prairie by the English almost 200 years ago. This artificial line is no more legitimate than divides Ireland.
Both artificial lines are there because the English Monarchy has been able to get away with drawing the lines there. The English have been benificiaries of appeasment.
Real authentic Canadians. like members of the band Guess Who are well aware of their obligations. They have been saying Share the Land since around 1970.
I have heard it said that quite a number of years after the struggle for the independence of the Republican of Ireland a number of the founders of the IRA said that in hindsight they think that they had made a mistake. Rather than fighing for Irish independence they should have been fighting to establish a British version of socialism leading to communism. The people who live in the parts of America that are not occupied by the confederacy should have been doing that. Trying to establish a legitimate republic from Panama to Moan Alaska.
Well now it is undoubtedly to late for that. But it might not be to late for Mexicans and Canadians with the help of the few real Americans that are left in between them to burn down the Confederacy and lynch its leaders just like Mussolini was lynched.
With all the writing that people have done about how important it is to do the greatest good for the greatest number it should be clear that Canada belongs to real Americans form Tijijuana just as much as it does to some Smith living in Winnepeg.
But a key point not to forget is that niether Manatoba nor Maryland nor Monterray belongs to counterfit Americans. Confederates are counterfit Americans that real Americans are not required to share with. In fact confederate Americans should be deported to that large iceberg that just broke free of the Antarctic currents. If the confederates are packed close enough they should be able to benifit from warming the local environment.
Curt Kastens
i should have not forgotten to mention that this arbitary line between the Confederacy and Mexico was also drawn up to benifit pro slavery Confederate interests. It is just as illegitimate as the line between Canada and the Confederacy.
Americans who view these lines as legitimate are confederates not unionists.
In Britian real Britons understand that the legitimate border of the Republic of Ireland is not the shores of the Island of Ireland but the shores of Ireland Greet Britian and all of those little Islands in the neighborhood such as the Isle of Mann. And the proper name for the country is the United Republic of Ireland, Wales, Schotland and England. And the legitimate constitution is the Irish Constitution. And finally it should not be forgotten that the spirtual mother of this nation is Thomas Paine who was driven in to exile by an abusive spiritual father.
different clue
I can see how a nuclear deterrent would deter a coherent USA country from invading Canada as a coherent invading-force country.
But how would a nuclear deterrent deter 150 million destitute MexAmeriCaribbean climate refugees from disorganizedly swarming over the border?
Purple Library Guy
Curt, fuck off. No way would you be making those arguments in favour of hundreds of millions of people from India coming to the US. What? Their population density is higher than yours and national boundaries are just lines on a map, right? Or like all the other principles, does that one only apply when it will get an American something they want to steal?
Oakchair
Trump’s 51st state rhetoric regards Canada is serving a number of different functions,
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There is one word that sums up Trumps 51st state rhetoric, Trolling. The functions being served are the same as any and every high school level internet feud.
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His talk of tariffs is merely a negotiating tool to force the Canadian to start governing like adults.
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Similar to how punching your wife is merely a negotiating tool to force her to bring you Poutine and beer.
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are flowing into the US from the northern border, and Trudeau has done squat fuck all to stop it,
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It’s not every day you see a political party campaigning on doing more to help it’s larger richer neighbor at the expense of their own country.
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Chinese interference in Canadian politics. Nothing has been done about that.
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Translation: Free speech, and free association has always been commie plots to brainworm the help.
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China is also buying land and resource access
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Buying shit is what evil commies do. It’s a conspiracy to infiltrate so they can rape your snowmen and pillage your maple syrup.
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” –Jesus Christ warning us of the evils of Communism.
KT Chong
“I suspect the Chinese regard it is a major affront to have been mostly kicked out of the illegal ivory trade in Africa, and now they want walrus for their white gold.”
Ivory trade is actually illegal and banned in China. China shut down all ivory carving factories and retailers on 2017. The maximum penalty for smuggling and trading ivory in China is life imprisonment. Prison sentences are mandatory.
https://www.worldwildlife.org/press-releases/chinese-consumer-demand-for-ivory-remains-down-two-years-after-ban-but-worrying-trend-among-travelers-grows
The report also mentions a poll that shows over 80 percent of Chinese support the ban and would not buy ivory. So, Chinese, both the citizenry and government, really do not feel a “major affront to have been mostly kicked out of the illegal ivory trade in Africa.”
The only people who are getting kicked out of Africa are Americans and French, if you have not been following the news lately. Africa is welcoming Chinese and Russians as they are kicking out America and France.
Even before China implemented a full ban of the ivory trade in 2018, China had already been cracking down and prosecuting ivory smugglers and traders under the more general ban on wildlife trade:
https://cites.org/eng/news/sundry/2013/20131128_china_ivory_prosecutions.php
BTW, China has banned ivory trade since January 1, 2018. The US had banned ivory trade only eighteen months earlier in June 2016. EU and the UK have banned only since 2022, i.e., four years after China had implemented its ivory ban; and the penalty for ivory trade in EU and the UK is only a fine or less than five years in prison.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/dealing-in-items-containing-ivory-or-made-of-ivory
KT Chong
“The maximum penalty for smuggling and trading ivory in China is life imprisonment. Prison sentences are mandatory.”
Forgot to link: https://www.ifaw.org/news/wildlife-traffickers-convicted-in-china
Curt Kastens
Purple Library Guy,
Of course I would not say that 150 million Indians are allowed to come to America. India is not located with in the legitimate borders of America. That is obvious. It is located 2 oceans away. The legitimate border of America extends from Artic Contentall Shelf to the northern border of Panama. South of the Northern Border of Panama lies the legitimate nation of Latin America.
Where the legitimate borders of India lie is pretty clear on the north and south side of India. But on the east and west side the borders are not so clear. Because back in 1948 the nation was illegally partitioned. Millions of hindus were forced to uproot themselves and move (w)eastwards and millions of Muslims uprooted themselves and moved we(a)stwards. Now it would be tempting to blame the English for division as well. But if they were responsible it was only because it was to easy to pull it off as there was a lot of local support for this division.
If the Indians think that their country is to small they can do three things. They can do three things. First they can get on the good side of the Chinese. If they get on the good side of the Chinese the Chinese might let them settle in Tibet. If I were in charge of America I would make it easier for the Indians to get in on the good side of the Chinese by giving Alaska north of the Panhandle to the Chinese. But there would be some strings attached. The Chinese would not be allowed to have any military forces in Alaska. That means the only weapons that Chinese could have in Alaska would be pump action shotguns and bolt action rifles and handguns. And all transportation between Alaska and China would have to be carried on US crewed ships and air craft.
China would be in much more giving mood if they got control of Alaska. Second the Indians could work out a deal with the Russians to allow people in India to immigrate to Russia. Indians and Russians love each other I think that would be a win win situation for both countries. Third the Indian government could work out a deal with the American government to allow a reasonable number of people in India to immigreat to Thunder Bay Minnesota and Duluth Ontario. Both those cities could use some spicing up. Again it would be a win win for everyone involved.
These are all fair proposals. I doubt if anything will come of them because nothing is going to happen anymore other than the collapse of industrial civilization and mass human suffering before the inevitable near term human extinction. Other than posssibly a global nuclear war before those things happen. The only thing that we have time for is the quick lynching of lots of people who have been exploiting those in more vulnerable positions than themselves. But unless someone comes up with a way to conduct clandestine communications those that are vulnerable will never have the means to do that.
Carborundum
This is not an example of what a lot of Conservatives think. This is an example of what some vocal windbags / wannabe IO operators are trying to make people *believe* a lot of Conservatives think. With diligent repetition and success goading people into responding as if this were something more than drooling idiocy, it may *become* an opinion held by a measurable minority of Conservatives. This is particularly true if Ottawa keeps mishandling the files key to Western Canadian interests and the Ontario electorate keeps visibly supporting this mismanagement.
If Trudeau wasn’t so overweeningly self-identifying as the hero of Canada’s story he would realize he is the number one factor – by far – encouraging the growth of these ideas and take himself out of play to stop feeding the fire. Unfortunately, this situation plays quite strongly into various of his particular personality pathologies and he’s probably not capable of the self-abstraction / effacement required to make that move while he still sees any possibility of daylight at the end of the tunnel at all.
As to having a nuclear capability, it’s a tool not a magic wand. The single most potent thing we could do to increase the possibility of American military action would be to make overt moves towards developing a nuclear capability and the possibility that we could do it covertly, particularly given the transitions since 2015, are zero. (There was a theoretically viable channel prior to that, but it has been closed off.) Even the most positively disposed of American administrations wouldn’t tolerate such developments.
Our moves will have to be a lot more subtle than just military deterrence. On the rhetorical front, we need to avoid messaging that mirror images crap like that Twitter thread at the top of the piece. People like that are ridiculous and they need to be destroyed in toto; he’s exactly the type of rube Trump loves to use.
capelin
“We are not friendly to China, and their influence ops are not particularly effective.”
Reading https://xcancel.com/RealAndyLeeShow should disavow one of that opinion. Trudeau and the libs are swimming in China-red patronage.
Mary Bennet
Curt,
The last time that I looked at a map Canada was on American soil. In fact it occupies by my estimation about 40% of American soil.
The United States does not own all the land of the continent, North America, which is, like all Gaul–leaving aside the Central American isthmus, divided in three parts. These are Canada, The United States and Mexico. All three have distinct histories, cultures and systems of government, not to mention three official languages. I can say with utter confidence, that no US citizen, other than possibly a few monarchists in the former Confederacy has the slightest interest in joining the British Commonwealth.
mago
CK has his say then the dogs (of war) go out to play.
And nobody gives a good flying
fuck.
Let’s face it, the Western ruling class is batshit crazy with their toxic ideologies and genes.
The distortion is baked in.
It’s not just me and it’s not just you, but it’s all around the world.
More on topic regarding the alleged Chinese menace, some years ago the Chinese monied class scooped up huge swaths of Vancouver real estate, thus disenfranchising the native whites who previously disenfranchised the aboriginal inhabitants of said territories.
Karma is such a bitch.
We’re in a hand basket on the road to hell.
Mark Pontin
“Poor Canada. So far from God and so close to the United States,” to rephrase Porforio Diaz. Eh, Ian?
shagggz
@PLG,
“Curt, fuck off.” – Thank you. That was some of the most unhinged jibberish I’ve ever read here, rhapsodizing on what is “legitimate” like a jazz soloist to musical notes.
someofparts
So I guess after they revoke my birthright citizenship they will deport me for reading this website. Turns out thinking I would die of medical neglect was optimistic.
In cheerful news, it seems another prole has taken a literal shot at another CEO, so maybe we have some momentum here!
someofparts
shagggz – As someone who loves jazz, it hurts me to hear the garbage Curt spewed compared to such a divine musical form. Let me suggest an alternative comparison.
When I was a child we had a neighbor whose youngest son used to enjoy putting cooking pots on his head and then banging on them with a wooden spoon. His parents were amused by this and nicknamed him Jughead, which was the name we knew him by.
Sure, our jughead is not as charming as his namesake, but even so I think the comparison is more apt.
Curt Kastens
Have all the real leftist died and gone to purgatory? Or have they just gone senile?
I maybe getting a bit senile myself. But I still seem to recall that back in the late 19th and early 20th century the goal of many leftists was one goverment for the entire planet.
Maybe setting such a goal doomed those type of leftist to extinction? i myself do not think that a one goverment for the entire planet is a good idea. if this goal was ever achieved humanity would be placing it eggs all in one basket.
But reducing the number of governments on the planet to say 10 (con)federations would be a wonderful metric idea. One of those 10 should (legitimately) be the (con)federation of North America.
Liberating Canada from the clutches of the ideological decsendents of the pro slavery US confederacy is a worthy goal if that is seen as an intermediate step towards creating the larger legitimate entity, not as an end in and of itself. It is no more legitmate than Scotland getting independence so that the Scots can steal the North Sea oil from the Welsh and the Irish parts of the UK. It is no more legitimate than Catalonia getting independence so that they can steal the Catalonian coast lie from the Spanish people. Or any other thing of value that is found in that part of SPAIN.
Legitimate governments have to be large because they have to be able to control their airspace. Legitmate governments do not have to be democratic though because after the 19th century democracy was a bat shit crazy idea. Theocractic rule, Monarchy, and military rule have always been bat shit crazy ideas. Having no government at all has also always been a bat shit crazy idea. The bottom line is that the only governments that are legitimate are the ones that I say are legitimate. The criteria that I use to make that judgement call is do I think that they are actually making an effort to follow the golden and platinum rules at the macro scale. I do not think that a tortress Canada would meet that criteria. A fortress America would meet that criteria because it would include enough vulnerable people in it that those in charge could legitimately say we do not have to power to help the world. But we do have the power to help those on our Continent. Well at least potentially for a few more years anyways.
different clue
I wonder if Curt Kastens is attempting some sort of social satire here. Or maybe just trolling us all.
Revelo
Nukes is an absurd idea. If USA wants to control a rebellious Canada, it will use the usual regime change color revolution methods: stir up Quebec independence movement radicals, stir up some Native American (aka First Nation) radicals, sponsor some false flag terrorist incidents, bribe journalists and politicians, assassinate journalists and politicians not open to bribery, etc. War will be quickly won by superior economic power and superior CIA expertise at this sort of thing. What good would nukes be in countering such attacks? Plus USA could simply pre-emptively destroy nukes while they were being built and blame the resulting radiation contamination on crazy Canadian government radicals, thus discrediting the government. Followed by breaking Canada up into several small governments to avoid a repeat attempt to get nukes. Etc.
Curt Kastens
Revelo,
Al the more reason to embrace Pan Americanism instead of some kind of fortress mentality, Anyways because of climate change with or without CIA instigation Canada will probably break in to smaller pieces some time in the 2030s and sometime in the 2040s it will be every man woman and child for themselves.
OK I have revealed myself. I know that in reality it is to late for Pan Americanism. It is to late for anything. But if we are going to give advice about should be done, advice that we know with 100% certianity will not be followed by anyone with any power anyways, that advice should be advice about what should be done with the assumption that the world actually has a future. If we are ptetending that the world has a future we should pretend properly.
Curt Kastens
Germany, France, and the UK all have much larger populations that Canada and they are much further away. And those countries can not defend themselves from Confederate US subversion. Canada does not have a prayer in hell of defending itself.
Canada remains a formally independent country because that is the way the US deep states wants it. I bet that there are two reasons for this state of affairs. One those in charge of the US do not want to bring a bunch of people in to the US that have positive views of socialized medicine. Second they want Canadians to have to pay for the construction and upkeep of the infrastructure that benifits the US.
By the way, about health systems. I think that the German system is better than the Canadian System. I would also add that if the US system health insurance companies charged people based on a percent of their monthly income and companies could not deny payment if a doctor determined that treatment was neccessary then the US system would be better than the German system.
For any alien who does not know in the US most people have to pay 20% of the doctors bill themselves in any case. So if the doctor is giving an unneccessary treatment the patient is going to be pissed off. Unless he or she does not know better. But the proof is in the pudding. Did the patient have a pain or symptom that caused him/her to go to the doctor? Was the issue resolved? Then the treatment was probably neccessary. What the insurance companies should be allowed to do is not pay doctors for overcharging. But now we are dribbling in to the North Western Territory.
Purple Library Guy
Curt, you say you’re a radical, but Canadians just see yet another in a long line of Americans who think the US has a manifest destiny to grab the whole continent. Americans talk like that all the time, and it’s bullshit all the time. You can frame it as some sort of high-minded neutral thing where the whole continent is a new, neutral entity somehow starting from scratch all you want, but it wouldn’t be, it would be the greater United States and it would use United States institutions and United States laws, and except for a few alt-right quislings, Canadians are not interested in that shit.
On the surface, you just have a totally unrealistic idea of what countries are and what national borders in fact represent. But if you weren’t an American, you wouldn’t be thinking that way–you’re only saying this crap because you instinctively know that the results would fundamentally represent your people conquering other people. Your rhetoric is dishonest, fooling yourself so you can try to fool us. Self-interested fake high-mindedness is contemptible.
Curt Kastens
No, dispute my best rhetorical attempt, the USA will never grab the whole continent. The Canadians have and will continue to stop them from grabing the whole continent.
different clue
@Revelo,
If some or any First Nations Indigenous peoples or persons rise up against something in Canada, it might be spontaneous or real. Just as if some or any American Indiandigenous peoples or persons rise up against something in America, it might be spontaneous or real.
Of course it might suit the interest of the CanadaGov to claim such a radical upsurge is an American-engineered color revolution in Canada, just as it might suit the interest of the AmericaGov to claim such an upsurge is a Canadian-engineered color revolution in America.
(Going off on a semi-tangent, I notice that it is becoming quite the Leftist habit to call every upsurge a ” Western-engineered color revolution”. I notice that because the Left has not figured out how to call the insurgency in Myanmar a “Western-engineered color revolution”, that the Left has avoided discussing or even mentioning it at all. With the exception, so far, of Naked Capitalism which has been following it. And with the counter-exception of Mr. Bhadrakumar of India Punchline who has tried spreading the theory that it is a Western color-revolution aimed primarily against India . . . but who hasn’t gained any traction for his theory just yet so far as I know.)
Jessica
Ian,
I would be angry if I were in your place. If the US has its way, Canadian medicine would descend to US levels and threaten the lives of many with health issues.
I wish I saw a way forward for Canada. I’ve spent time in Canada (OK, much of it in Alberta, which is the most America-like part of Canada I am told) and Canada is distinct from the US, but I am not sure it is distinct enough for enough Canadians to be willing to go through what it would take to secure sovereignty. This is particularly true outside of Ontario, which after was founded as an anti-USA.
I think that for better or worse (and right now, more of the latter and increasingly so). Canada is joined to the US as though with a bungee cord. The farther Canada gets from the US, the greater the force pulling it back toward the US.
I wish this were not true. I would much prefer that Canada remain as independent of the US as possible. When I have driven over the border from the US into Canada, I have often felt a slight but noticeable shift in the background psychic energy, a shift to greater sanity. (That I usually crossed into BC may be a factor.)
Canada’s situation is not unique. Most all of American’s satrapies face increasing pressure from the declining empire.
One strength that Canada does have is that being so close to the US and with outright absorption of at least certain parts of Canada having been a real threat (lower BC in its early days for example; of course the 1812 invasion), Canadians identity as specifically not American. In my experience, Europeans identify with their nation and somewhat with Europe (more so the within-EU expats), but can be blind as their elites try to change Europe to be more socially brutal like the US. I would hope that if the US ever blew up the Saint Lawrence Seaway, Canada’s response would be less supine than Germany’s response to the US blowing up Nordstream.
Jessica
BTW, nukes are not the answer. Oreshniks. Rig all the bridges in Eastern Canada to blow. Train folks now for harassment activities against an unnamed invader. Let the US think it is preparation for Chinese hoards. Doesn’t matter. Folks will learn what they will need to know. Yes, most of Canada’s population is near the US border but the US will be after the Albertan oil, so Canada can play Road to Moscow.
If and when Russia wins its war against NATO in Ukraine and after China has built up its military a bit more, if (big if) Canada has a prime minister who has a pair, wait for the first provocation from the US (and Canada needs to be quietly letting US interference in Canada come to light rather than fighting with India (as much as India is in the wrong; one enemy at a time)), then with no warning to anyone, during an apparently meaningless visit to Moscow, announce a defense treaty with Russia.
Another strength Canada has is that few Americans see Canada as any kind of enemy. US elites might want to take over Canada, but ordinary Americans wouldn’t have much interest in such a fight, wouldn’t be willing to make much of a sacrifice for the project.
Ian Welsh
In my experience Canadians do, as you say, identify as “not America” more than Canadian. I grew up in British Columbia and it was very true there. Quebec is the exception, they’re “not Anglo” but Quebec is run in very “not American” ways, more than any other Canadian province. Many may not like being part of Canada, but they would hate being part of America even more.
different clue
How many Canadians are descended from United Empire Loyalists ( “Tories”) who left the US after the Revolutionary War?