Canada may find itself in a stronger position than the United States if a trade war breaks out between the two countries.
Don’t take my word for that. That’s Paul Krugman speaking.
You know, the distinguished professor of economics, winner of a Nobel prize in that field* and for almost 24 years until late last year the New York Times’ widely respected economics columnist.
Now publishing a Substack column, Dr. Krugman argued in his post yesterday that U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, due to be sworn in tomorrow and vowing to declare trade war on Canada immediately thereafter, may imagine that the United States would have the upper hand, but it ain’t necessarily so.
“He’s likely to have a rude awakening,” Dr. Krugman wrote, after celebrating the fact that since Justin Trudeau’s “embarrassing, grovelling visit to Mar-a-Lago … Canadians seem to have found their spine.”
“If you look at the actual composition of U.S.-Canada trade, it suggests if anything that Canada is in a stronger position if trade war breaks out,” he wrote. This is because, “outside oil and gas, U.S. producers have more to lose in terms of reduced sales in Canada than Canadian producers have to lose in reduced sales to the United States.”
Moreover, Dr. Krugman speculated (sensibly), “Trump really, really won’t want to impose tariffs on Canadian oil, which would directly increase energy costs in the U.S. Midwest.”
Indeed, he added, “Canada could weaponize its oil by imposing export taxes, and officials are reportedly considering that option if the trade war escalates.”
Meanwhile, speaking of grovelling trips to Mar-a-Lago and elsewhere in the Benighted States, no sooner was she supposedly back in Alberta than Premier Danielle Smith headed off to Washington yesterday to grovel at the feet of Donald Trump. Or, as the government’s official fiction writers put it in their news release, to “meet with key decision makers, governors, members of Congress and private sector leaders.”
“Alberta’s on-the-ground presence will help build relationships and start critical conversations that will lay the groundwork for collaboration with the new U.S. administration and reap benefits for Albertans, Canadians and Americans,” the presser chirped.
Actually, it probably won’t, Donald Trump being Donald Trump. But it might be worth a try anyway were Ms. Smith not refusing to sign onto the statement endorsed by all other Canadian premiers on how to respond to the threat of Mr. Trump’s proposed economic sanctions against Canada, which he also says he’d like to absorb as the 51st state.
Even reliably pro-UCP Postmedia political columnists are now meekly suggesting it might have been better if Ms. Smith had signed onto the plan – if only to prevent the federal Liberals, led by whomever replaces Mr. Trudeau, from campaigning against her sovereignist provincial government in the next federal election. If that happens, that will be an amusing counterpoint to the way Ms. Smith’s United Conservative Party campaigned against the federal Liberals and NDP in Ottawa to beat the provincial NDP in 2023.
Indeed, Mr. Trudeau said of federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Friday that “either he stands up to fight for all Canadians alongside all premiers and the federal government that are doing that, or he chooses to stand with Danielle Smith, Kevin O’Leary, and ultimately, Donald Trump.”
The Calgary Herald’s Don Braid even quoted former UCP premier Jason Kenney saying that it’s important, “to the greatest extent possible, that all the premiers in the broader Canadian leadership be united in our approach to these ridiculous threats coming from the president-elect.”
As noted here before, though, such a move by Ms. Smith could have sparked a rebellion by the MAGA fanatics in her own caucus and cabinet that would have seen her put out to pasture with Mr. Kenney, the first UCP premier and the last one to run afoul of the “Take Back Alberta” lunatics (his word) who had taken over the party he founded.
Since Ms. Smith has already broken ranks with the rest of Canada’s first ministers and is clearly more loyal to Mr. Trump’s MAGA ideology than her own country, it’s a certainty that nothing but distraction and division on the Canadian side will come from Ms. Smith’s six-day Washington junket.
There is also now uncertainty about how close Ms. Smith will get to the inauguration ceremony on Monday, the event having been moved indoors because “dangerous” cold temperatures of -5 to -11 degrees Celsius are forecast in the U.S. capital. (Canadian eyeroll.) Tens of thousands of ticket holders will no longer be able to see the ceremony, and whoever bought Ms. Smith her tickets will probably be out a few Greenbacks.
Meanwhile, on Friday Prime Minister Trudeau named former Alberta NDP premier Rachel Notley to a new Council on Canada-U.S. Relations.
Brian Topp, who served as Ms. Notley’s chief of staff and was once a member of a NAFTA advisory council, was also named to the group.
Other members of the 18-member council include former federal Progressive Conservative leader and Quebec premier Jean Charest, former Nova Scotia Liberal premier Stephen McNeil, Unifor President Lana Payne, and Senator and former Canadian Labour Congress leader Hassan Yussuff.
It will be interesting to see if this is just window-dressing, or if the influence of this council perseveres after the Trump trade crisis has passed.
*Let’s not get into a silly discussion about whether or not the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences is the same thing as a Nobel Prize in Economics, as it is usually called. It’s a nice distinction, nice enough not to worry about. DJC
Danielle Smith’s first meeting with Donald Trump came out empty, and she duped Albertans by thinking she was on a vacation. Her second visit to see Donald Trump will come up with the same results, and end up being a big waste of money.
That’s one thing the UCP excel at, wasting tax payers money on nonsense.
If a country’s military was using planes to spray another country with poisonous chemicals could someone, in the target country, who knows this is happening and does nothing be considered a spy?
Your “if” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Nothing of the sort is happening anywhere in the world right now. Better to focus and prioritize on what is actually real. PP and his horde of Trumpists are the most immediate threat we face.
“Even reliably pro-UCP Postmedia political columnists are now meekly suggesting it might have been better if Ms. Smith had signed onto the plan…”
In my comment a few days ago, regarding Danielle Smith’s refusal to go along with the rest of the premiers and the PM, I suggested Ms. Smith could probably be a more effective proponent of Alberta O & G working from inside the group than outside. I still feel that way, but I now realize that my error was assuming protecting Alberta’s financial assets was our premier’s primary goal. Given Ms. Smith’s posturing, however, I think that even more important to her than the O & G industry is keeping her base riled up.
Excellent column! Finally, Trudeau and the Liberals are connecting the bad actors on the right in public communications. The Liberals and NDP should have been connecting Poilievre to Harper, O’Leary and Smith in communications to the public for years. However, since it is so effective they probably won’t continue to mention them together. This may be a bit of a stretch but from now on Canada should be lobbying Michigan and Maine to join Canada. Look at a map of the US. Maine fits so nicely next to New Brunswick and Michigan could easily be part of Ontario. Seems like a no brainer to get these two states to join Canada. Lastly, just a reminder to everyone to stay off the lakes when the O’Learys are in cottage country.
The chances of Michigan joining Ontario are about the same as Hawaii joining Saskatchewan.
Last sentence you definitely got that right. Ship ahoy
We have a premier who high-tailed it out of the country for the U.S. on the day that country threatened to use economic force against us, refused to return for a high-level meeting of the premiers and prime minister, refused to align herself with Canada in standing up to proposed U.S. tariffs, then headed off to Panama, another country on the American hit list, before heading to Washington for the inauguration of the incoming U.S. president. The premier chose to go on a holiday and not return for 16 days during a national and provincial crisis. There is no evidence at all that she popped up in Canada during this time. If there were, she’d be crowing about it.
She abandoned Alberta. She abandoned Canada. Her loyalties are to the U.S. Who has been standing up for Canada? The other premiers and the prime minister. Danielle Smith does not respect Alberta and Albertans, or Canada and Canadians. Albertans are learning who has their back. It isn’t her. Albertans don’t want her stolen MAGA mottos and her 51st state alignment. Albertans are Canadians first. The premier of this province has lost her mandate to govern. MAGA fangirl needs to can the ¢rap and call an election. She’s drunken so much of the Kool-Aid, does she remember where Canada is?
Much has been said and written about her absence from the meeting of the Premiers with the Prime Minister in response to possible US tariffs. The group, despite each having regional interests to protect, thankfully reached consensus and displayed unity.
Karen may spin her recent activities by shamelessly claiming credit for any eventual divergence from Trump’s quoted twenty five percent tariffs directed at Canada. Meanwhile she remains awol, possibly intending to show up in the United States for a few more photo ops and claimed discussions around chemtrails and Covid responses intended to satisfy her TBA handlers. Giuliani’s calendar likely has slots available.
The only “back” Smith is interested in “protecting” is her own. Its about her getting her name and face out there. Who knows perhaps she thought she might jump to federal politics if PP is elected P.M.
Trump has 4 years (pending his health, 25th amendment actions, et al). He will precipitate more crises.
As for Dr. Krugman, I suspect he is right. After Ford threatened cutting off Ontarian electricity, I went and looked up how much the U.S. imports ( in total from Canada), and was shocked – it’s 33 terawatts (in 2023). That’s 33 million megawatts. And it goes all over their country. Ford is too polite to paraphrase Klein, but there is certainly a whiff of “let the southern bastards freeze in the dark” in the air.
There might be medium sized silver lining after all of this trade hooraw. If things truly go sideways, perhaps we will finally do something about our internal trade barriers.
The New West Partnership Trade Agreement between three western provinces, BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan, was signed in 2010 (following the lead of Quebec and Ontario’s Trade and Cooperation Agreement, 2009). Manitoba signed onto the NWPTA in 2017.
Touted as a 4% boost to western provinces’ gross domestic product, the NWPTA has achieved about half of that.
It isn’t wide-open, though; alcohol beverages, for example, are exempted from the NWPTA—that is, trade barriers remain in effect for alcohol. Manitoba is the only signatory to the NWPTA that does have a wide-open alcohol trade policy.
The NWPTA’s biggest effect: allowing contractors from one province to bid on government projects in another in the four western provinces. As I recall, there was some initial negative reaction from BC contractors who claimed Alberta contractors bidding on BC government projects had an unfair advantage—the “Alberta Advantage”—because their tax burden isn’t as high as BC’s. I don’t know if this was the correct interpretation of the NWPTA or what, if anything, came of it (I wouldn’t put it past unionized BC contractors to perfunctorily grumble about any policy implemented by their most-despised premier, BC Liberal leader Gordon Campbell).
@Scotty
Somewhere , recently, I read that Canada’s gdp would increase by 15% if we eliminated our internal trade barriers, which would greatly ameliorate anything the orangeutan fool imposes. Damn me if I can find that link again though.
Personally, I’ve been a wine smuggler for decades now. We like Shuswap/Okanagan wines, have family & friends in both areas, and visit at least biannually.
Gerald: New York State, including New York City, Michigan, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, including Boston, and the New England states, all rely on Canada for their power. If that got cut off, they’d be in deep doo doo.
I know. In the case of Michigan, it’s about 10-15% of their daily load. High enough that a loss of imports will send their grid straight to rolling blackouts. If Enbridge Line 5 is shut down too … Ralph Klein will be laughing from his grave.
To be fair, that pipeline is actually subject to a treaty, neither Trudeau or Trump can screw with it sans a formal declaration of war.
Cutting electricity to New York City? Yikes. I remember when the whole city went dark a few decades ago. There was also a substantial increase in babies 9 months later.
Precisely what he wants so he can declare a state of energy emergency.
Check how much aluminum the USA produces and then where, say, back in 2021, the top three foreign suppliers were. Hint: Canada supplied ~40% of imports as No.1. The next two largest suppliers were Russia and China.
Mr Trump has said he would impose 25% tariffs on all goods from Canada and Mexico. Canada and Mexico are the USA’s two largest trading partners.
Is there not some saying about not fighting a two front war?
He will be vacuuming roughly 223 billion dollars out of US pockets if trade continues as is.
I think Canada supplies much of the aluminum consumed in the USA. I am sure everyone from Coca Cola to Boeing will be pleased to see the price of a key raw material jump by 25%.
I do not think Trump actually understands what a tariff is.
“It’s hard to win an argument with a smart person, but it’s damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person” – Bill Murray
Erratically mentally challenged is a whole nother realm.
1939 Germany political opinion articles were mostly” he won’t do what he claims” and with the same line up of population purity and corporate allies (Arbeit macht frei), and ego needs and expansion ambitions being the claims.
Forget Trump 2.0, think Reich 4.2.
There are enough water needs to declare it “essential threat to US security” and poof we are invaded to secure the future of the US . Or even that tiny rare mineral could be the trigger. Exhibit Gaza today as barely threatened Israeli security needs on similar steroids.
We are way out gunned and out numbered 10 to 1.
And Quislings abound. Much like the ukraine huge amounts of the population will welcome US troops as the Ukraine welcomed invading Germany.
Danielle is doing anything she can to “own the feds/libs/JT” still. Destroying Canada fits her agenda
‘lil pp despite his bluster will pp himself and deliver coffee and doughnuts to the occupiers … again.
It is a crappy tune that looks like it is in our play list . We are going to do the “never again” again.
No one will step up to save us this time, tho as planned, oligarchs of any nation will share the spoils. It is another happy ending for the rich people and one of disaster capitalisms finest hours. Too bad about planet. Just wasn’t a priority.
Time to dust off your old, dog-eared copy of Richard Rohmer’s ‘Ultimatum’?
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/3923641-ultimatum
Y’all need to read more World War Two history, the Germans were not welcomed into Ukraine, in fact Ukrainians who were against the fascists greatly outnumbered the pathetic grovelling fascists who joined the organization of Ukrainian nationalists (oun-b/m). Folks like Michael Chomiak, Chrystia Freeland’s grandfather who published a NAZI PAPER, and was given the apartment of a nice Jewish family, who were killed.
In fact, the Nazis faced some of their fiercest resistance in Ukraine, a historical reality that has been whitewashed and replaced with the Banderite fantasies of the current Ukrainian fascists.
Canadians won’t welcome American troops with open arms either, especially indigenous nations within the geographical boundaries of “Canada”
Even IF the Americans were going to invade (which for those keeping score, Trump has specifically said he will not use military force) ALBERTA ALONE is much much larger than the Ukraine. The world’s most powerful military force has been spilling all sorts of blood and treasure in Ukraine, and while they have made significant gains there is already a new president in Washington who may very well throw the whole project out. My point being it’s taken them three years and they have yet to reach the Dnieper River, how much longer would it take to just subdue Ontario? It’s nonsensical.
The occupation of Canada would require a troop force in numbers I don’t think even exist within all of NATO anymore, and of course being that we are a NATO country Article Five would mean that all the other ones than America would be obligated to help in our defence, with actual troops and weapons, not the outdated caches they’ve been sending the Ukrainians.
In all likelihood the Americans would prefer to Balkanize Canada, and they’ve been chipping away at this for a very long time, and who knows, maybe they’ll get there someday, but I doubt it will be in my lifetime, a LOT of folks really despise those bastards.
But getting back to World War Two, the Nazis were an American and British project that was supposed to destroy the Soviet Union. It didn’t work out that way and all but the very most famous Nazis were absorbed into the new power structure the Americans formed after the Second World War. There isn’t going to be a pronounced turn to fascism in the United States they have been a basically fascist country since 1945. The fact that they’ve been able to convince everyone else otherwise while literally sticking a gun in their face and lifting their wallet from their pocket blows my mind. I could spend the rest of the day talking about just the recent crimes of the American state and I would still be talking when the sun went down.
To be honest I think Canadians read too much American press and they do so uncritically. Democrat friendly press has been screaming for years that Trump will be the Cheeto Mussolini, but more astute commentators note that you can’t get much darker than propagating two wars of empire that have killed MILLIONS of people (including a full on genocide) and destroyed two countries, probably for decades, if not forever. Three, forgot Syria. How’s it going to get worse ? He’s going to be mean to immigrants ? Wait till you hear about what America gets up to in the global south.
Bird: NATO, in my view, is a mechanism of American suzerainty over Europe, and, as such, Article 5 is essentially meaningless. What is the likelihood of Article 5 being successfully implemented by, say, Latvia, if the outcome was sure to be the nuclear destruction of Chicago, New York and Los Angeles? In the event of a conflict between NATO states, such as you suggest, who gets to use Article 5? Whoever asks first? As it happens, we have been on the verge of such an action for the past several weeks, not involving Canada-U.S. trade. I speak of the impending war between Israel (not a NATO member) and Turkey (a NATO member which has threatened to attack Israel in the event it continues to bomb Syria or, in the longer term, fails to hand over Jerusalem to the administration of Turkey). Were non-NATO Israel to attack NATO-member Turkey over either of those issues, and Turkey were to make an Article 5 request, what are the chances the United States or any other NATO member would come to the aid of Turkey? I think we all know the answer to that. DJC
Thank you for the laughs! Turkey just is never going to “get it”. They were permitted to join NATO, but my take on its has always been, why the hell did they take them in and then looked at a map, it keeps Russia a little further away. Europe could fight a war with Russia in Turkey. Turkey joining NATO in 1952, well that also gave Europe a place to be amongst the citizens of the U.S.S.R.
Bill Murray is apparently also a Trump supporter. Not sure where, but I read that.
Stormy Danielle and Kevin O’Leer y are Magats. She can stay there if she likes. Nenshi can step in, sign the premier agreement and Save Alberta and Canada.
Premier Smith, and presumably her ‘staff’, are scheduled to attend a Texas State Society event Sunday night in Washington, DC. This would appear to be the Black Tie and Boots Ball. It’s described as an elegant and dazzling event featuring ‘gourmet dining that will tickle your taste buds’ and ‘live music that will make your boots boogie.’ The news release claims that Premier Smith et al will be engaging with key US decision makers during the event. While they’re boogie-ing their boots? And filling their plates with gourmet delights? Who paid for the tickets? Taxpayers or some billionaire who wants to pillage the province? Which is worse?
The news release issued on Friday reads like a desperate attempt to justify a week of booze-filled partying. I’m anticipating an avalanche of selfies with this or that Governor posted on social media. That will be the extent of the ‘engagement’.
Reagan’s second and Kennedy’s inaugurations were colder than Trump’s will be. Tis nothing but cover for the old man’s bones and the likely poor ratio of supporters to protesters.
And I am not surprised Trump listens to O’Leary – both of their business dealings are …..”colourful” (y’all can read up on them via Wikipedia if you like).
I suggest we judge Ms Smith by the company she keeps.
Perhaps they moved the event inside to ensure less of chance of trump being shot at.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bbuBubZ1yE
Baby it is cold outside (Smith and O’Dreary) at least we can laugh. (Maybe.) You nailed it: “Meanwhile, speaking of grovelling trips to Mar-a-Lago and elsewhere in the Benighted States, no sooner was she supposedly back in Alberta than Premier Danielle Smith headed off to Washington yesterday to grovel at the feet of Donald Trump.”
Krugman is a great economist, but not so good at politics. If Trudeau hadn’t jumped to action and headed to Mar-a-Lago, he would have been forever blamed for dithering and “allowing” a trade war to happen. It’s pretty obvious that he has been laser focused on this issue. The MAL visit was doomed from the beginning but had to be done anyway.
As Mr.Krugman, I believe that the USA would be at a disadvantage in negotiations.
1) The majority of Canadian exports are inputs to US industry. The USA is making money off those inputs. Any tariffs by the US on those would be shooting itself in the foot. Some of those inputs, such as oil, potash, uranium, nickel, are irreplaceable for American farmers, manufacturers, and power producers.
2) Canada could levy counter tariffs on US finished goods. In fact, there would only be limited risk of inflation for Canadians as there is a whole world, including China, ready to step in and replace US suppliers. Only the US dollar is appreciating, other currencies have not moved much versus the Canada dollar. Given the hyper valued USD, those Canadian markets for US goods may take a long time to recover even once the trade war is over.
3) Americans can only turn to their own internal suppliers in a trade war if they tariff all countries, not just Canada. The US is already at full employment so inflation would likely result.
4) Trump wants to use tariffs to raise money for his tax cuts. Regardless of a trade war, he cannot exempt Canada or Mexico given their trade volumes that exceed China, and oil is the biggest. That means that he’s going tariff oil. This will be the GOAT of self harm. Canadians don’t need to threaten to cut off oil, electricity, and any other raw material.
Canadians just need to ride it out with the government providing support to displaced workers and firms. I don’t see the USA choking own its industries for the next 4 years, let alone 1 year.
It will be 2 years, when they have their mid term elections. Their house of Congress will go Democrat again, and probably their senate as well.
And your point 4 is the real crux of the matter. Trump has promised tax breaks, but he would never get them past his own congress & senate with their current federal debt.
So he is literally proposing robbing Peter (all American importers) with tariffs to pay Paul (only American wealthy) with tax breaks. He is playing true to form – being a con man. Looks and smells like the Ponzi scam that is.
Reg; And the US has a huge trade surplus in services with Canada which they don’t like to talk about. How about Canada put 25% tariffs on Facebook, X, Meta, and all services revenue crossing the border? Then remove all tariffs on EVs and solar panels from China and Canadians will save a lot of money while saving the planet. That’s a real win-win…
Sure enough the US is now freaking out about the 3% Digital Services Tax Canada tried to implement a couple of years ago. Let’s see how they feel about 25%. The digital services like Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, X, Uber, etc hate this as they see other countries trying it so they want to prevent it from becoming the norm like taxes on goods.
As it says in this CBC article “…it’s a bit of a wake-up call that we are not dealing with a friendly state anymore.” No kidding…
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trump-targets-canada-digital-services-tax-1.7438409
And Amazon has one of it’s facilities Unionized so today they pull them all out of Quebec – if this isn’t class war what do you call it?
So what has all of Smith’s sucking up to Trump accomplished? So far, nothing and thats likely to continue because Smith has little to offer except maybe to be a useful idiot and try sow division in what needs to be fairly united Team Canada.
Yes, I feel even the conservative media cheerleaders in Canada have realized the potential danger Smith poses for Poilievre and his Federal election hopes. Other parts of Canada, Ontario in particular, do not like this sort of disloyality at a critical time like this and it may even hurt Alberta’s interests in the long run. Last time didn’t the UCP’s badly timed bungling approach to COVID help scuttle the CPCs election chances? Polievre now is in the tough spot of having to choose to disavow Smith or not.
Krugman is also correct, despite our relative size we may have an advantage. While not as united as we should be, Canada has had time to carefully plan on how to respond. While most Americans have not been paying much attention. They will be very upset if their gas or other prices suddenly and unexpectedly increase.
“Yes, I feel even the conservative media cheerleaders in Canada have realized the potential danger Smith poses for Poilievre and his Federal election hopes.”
Yesterday I wrote Heather McPherson, my (NDP) MP, and asked her if the federal party could do a slight alteration to their position that they will vote to bring down the government when Parliament resumes. I asked her to instead agree to bring down the government AFTER Pierre Poilievre states clearly his position on:
(1) siding with Alberta or the rest of Canada on the idea of applying an export tax/restricting exports of oil and gas and
(2) how he would reduce emissions on climate change.
I saw what you did there.
I feel even the conservative media cheerleaders in Canada have realized the potential danger Smith poses for Poilievre and his Federal election hopes.
I missed that! Note to self: Donate a few dollars to Smith’s constituency fund.
While I am hopeful that the Beaverton headline, “Danielle Smith Seeks Asylum in the U.S.” is more truthful than satire, I suspect that I will not get my wish.
As for the heartening words about the strength of Canada’s position in regards to a tariff war with Trump, it seems that people need to be constantly reminded that we are not living in normal, or even sane, times. Surely, if there’s even the hint that Canadian action on counter-tariffs will be considered just cause for Trump to order major border crossing between Canada and U.S. to be occupied by the U.S. military. Trump will declare he’s avenging the sacking of Washington by those Canadian barbarians in 1814. Actually, there likely wasn’t a single Canadian there, but we live in a post-truth world, so whatever.
Trump has a severe case of Manifest Destiny on his mind, as he conquers for the U.S. to be bigger and better.
Canada should have joined the EU when it had the chance.
JM: I have long felt that we’ve claimed credit for the sacking of Washington for so long that we own it now even if none of us were there. The British will be happy for us to take credit. They have now all but officially accepted their status as Airstrip One. DJC
Many years ago, (2007), I happened to take a tour of the Parliament buildings. During the tour, the guide commented on how Ottawa was chosen over York – the get the national capital further away from the US, in case of repeat of the War of 1812.
An American tourist promptly piped up “we reserve the right to invade again”. Dead, uncomfortable, silence for about 1 second, until I said, “and we reserve the right to burn the White House to the ground the next time.” Laughter & applause, and a red faced American.
Interesting story, Gerald, it reminds me of a couple of my own.
Toward the end of the Harper Regime, as I passed through the security checkpoint for the public gallery, I told the security guard that the last time I’d been in the gallery was when John Diefenbaker was prime minister. He said: “Who?”
More recently, while entering the Texas Capitol in Austin, I listened in on a conversation while the security guard apologetically checked an unarmed family from Minnesota for firearms. “Do a lot of Texans try to bring guns into the building?” the father asked. “People here seem so nice.” (They do.) “Well, you know what they say,” the guard responded, “an armed population is a polite population.” Chuckles all round.
DJC
Back in the 1970s I happened to be in Ottawa while Diefenbaker was lying in state at Parliament. While my family was waiting in the line to get in an American tourist asked the RCMP officer what was going on and he answered: “Monsieur Diefenbaker, he is exposed in there”. My grandmother did not find this amusing…
Canada is not in Europe. The EU is also an undemocratic horrorshow that uses punitive economic measures to extract fealty of elected governments to unelected bureaucrats who do the bidding of international capital. Oh and you lose control of having a sovereign currency which basically means you’re not a real country anymore. But hey I guess we could go skiing, not that we can’t do that here.
Surely, if there’s even the hint that Canadian action on counter-tariffs will be considered just cause for Trump to order major border crossing between Canada and U.S. to be occupied by the U.S. military.
Not a problem: We dynamite the oil pipelines and power lines to the USA, dispatch our best military officers and senior NCO’s to China and Russia with orders to aid them [1], and suggest that any patriotic Canadian living in the USA[2] might want to think of creative sabotage ideas. Day Two, we start thinking of how to hurt the enemy.
1. No none knows more about how the US militaries operate than the CF.
2. There will be a few out of the roughly one million Canadians in the USA at any one time.
On the response to the orange tyrant’s threats Smith is offside with Doug Ford, Jason Kenney, and even Stephen Harper:
From Elizabeth May’s excellent weekly newsletter:
For most Canadians, the inauguration of a felon convicted of sexual assault, a con artist and reality television star for a second term, is disturbing. Now we also face a provocateur who has expressed a clear intention to attack our economy. It is rare that I agree with Stephen Harper, in fact, this may be the first time, but in a podcast reported by the Globe and Mail, he was right on.
“Mr. Trump last week also disparaged Canada’s military and said Canadians rely on the U.S. for defence: “They don’t essentially have a military. They have a very small military. They rely on our military. It’s all fine, but they’ve got to pay for that.”
“Mr. Harper challenged that position: “When we talk about subsidizing Canadian defence, I don’t know what he’s talking about. We have a shared defence of North America, and the United States does that because it’s in the vital interest of the United States.”
He also rejected Mr. Trump’s characterization of illegal migration into the U.S. from Canada as a major problem. “There is no migrant flow happening from Canada to the United States of any significant numbers. And I’m going to tell you right now, drugs, guns, crime – most of those things flow north, not south,” he said.
“I have a real problem with some of the things Donald Trump is saying,” adding that ”it doesn’t sound to me like the pronouncements of somebody who’s a friend, a partner and an ally, which is what I’ve always thought the United States is for our country.”
Since when has Canada ever had Alberta’s best interests at heart…especially during the last 10 yrs. A big “no” to export taxes on O&G going to Ottawa for redistribution. If there are to be export taxes, they should be collected and retained by the province doing the exporting.
The federal goverment has the absolute right to enforce export tax, but as for who gets the funds … I don’t know, but I agree, it should go to the province owning the resource.
Gerald: Unfortunately, the oil doesn’t belong to Albertan anymore. Ralph Klein was responsible for that.
Your persecution complex ignores TMX, paid for by all Canadians.
EDMONTON — For the first time in several decades Alberta received more money from the federal government than it sent to Ottawa, according to a new analysis — a nearly unprecedented shift due to a major economic contraction in Canada and astronomical levels of pandemic spending by Ottawa.
In crunching the figures, Trevor Tombe, a University of Calgary economist, found that Alberta had received roughly $68.5 billion in federal spending in 2020, and had sent roughly $57.6 billion in taxes, leaving a net gain to Alberta of roughly $10.9 billion.
https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/for-the-first-time-in-more-than-50-years-alberta-received-more-money-from-ottawa-than-it-sent
Yesterday it was reported that Danielle Smith will not be able to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration today, as a result of it being moved indoors. Instead, she will attend an inauguration function at the Canadian Embassy.
I am loving the mental image of how welcome she will feel there!
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-premier-smith-trump-inauguration-1.7435612
Well that was fun. Decided to not watch the full show, turned to CBC who thankfully wasn’t running the trump running of the mouth,, but had the CBC reporters on. Provided information and were way more informative and entertaining. Watched them interview Smith, not wanting to be caty, but really, that look might have worked at Ranchman’s back in the 1980s, but in Washington DC, today, not so much. It was interesting to watch them mingle prior to the luncheon. Turned off the sound and just watched the show. Ivanka would have been suitably dressed for a funeral also. Perhaps she knows more than she thinks. Didn’t see her with hubby though.
Ford threatening to take all American liquor off the Ontario shelves, now that is serious. My take on trump not signing tariffs today against Canada, makes me think some one has told him to wait. Guess he didn’t consider the Canadian reaction and all those “Canada is not for sale” hats. The man does know how to count hats.
It was reported Macron in a speech suggested, yes, Europe should buy more weapons, but not American. The weapons made in Europe are equally as good. It would create jobs, increase taxes received by government and not enrich American firms or having to rely on them. It may just be that Trump is not going to win this one. He wants to implement tariffs? It will increase the price of things for Americans and with his threats to eliminate social programs, Americans can’t afford it. During a transition under these circumstances Americans may not have enough money to buy much except essentials. Canadian do have a better safety net. We have a health care system. With trump trying to deport 11 milliion people there will be problems in the U.S.A., more violence–like what do you have to loose if its deportation or fight? There are a lot of guns in the U.S.A. Then of course those camps he has set up in Texas, it will make China look not so bad. Can hardly wait for China to simply point out what they do is not much different from the U.S.A. and China has always been clear about its focus. The U.S.A. always was preaching democracy, rule of law, etc.
CBC made me laugh, they reported Panama had said, the canal was on their property. Yes, it is and to start a war with them over the canal may bring other South American countries into a war. Its not that I’m all that worried about the South American military, bu”lt the cartels, that is a whole other thing. It is unlikely the cartels would become involved but if they think their business is going to be impacted, they won’t be happy and an unhappy cartel always has a way to make themselves happy again or at least their opposition very unhappy.
Now what was that line about, “living in interesting times”?
What bothers me the most out of this is how we always look for the external enemy instead of our own back yards. For all these Premiers and Feds who have failed for decades to address our own interprovincial trade barriers now to be scared into next week over Trump make me laugh. If we looked after our own problems we would have an incredible boost to GDP. We protect everything from liquor to not allowing pipelines etc… This has cost the Canadian economy billions. They talk about cutting off or exporting our Alberta energy to the USA, yet some provinces have basically cut it off for decades. Open up our own country end interprovincial trade barriers as all Canadians will reap the benefits.
And while we were all debating which gown our dear leader should wear to the ball, Brian Jean has quietly lifted the moratorium on mining in the Eastern slopes. https://www.aer.ca/about-aer/media-centre/bulletins/bulletin-2025-03
Trump has a habit of bullying lessor people and rivals. This is the behaviour of a bully and coward, threatening countries like Greenland, Panama, Mexico and Canada with territorial demands. Would he ever threaten China, Russia, the EU or even India with these same demands? Of course not. There you have it folks, cadet bone spurs is a chicken sh*t coward.
Thanks for this article although this shows that people like Mel Hurtig and those opposing the original FTA and NAFTA were entirely wrong about the problems of this kind of trade agreement in terms of the integration that comes with it. I do think the election of Trump shows that there is of legitimate complaints about the current economic climate where the rich keep getting richer and the poorer keep getting screwed. The good thing is that some of Biden’s economic policies were a bit of a break from the neoliberal past which has got us to where we are.
David: Serious question – did you mean to say, “were NOT entirely wrong”? DJC