If you recall, I left Saturday’s readers of last week’s column ruminating over the lengths to which future President Donald Trump will attempt to screw over friends and foes alike in his blind obsession to bend the world to his countenance before it can again become as one with the MAGA universe.
When the United States finally elected Joe Biden as President in 2020, and the expected “red wave” of MAGA candidates saintly endorsed by The Donald to win in 2022 didn’t wash away Democrats in either the Senate or House, I had hopes that this would be our last tilt at the political purge game now sweeping the U.S.A. Unfortunately, no matter how many times we may pinch ourselves and try to awaken from this political nightmare, we still are waking up to the prospect that Trump will be again proclaimed President of the United States come January 20, 2025.
Back on August 5th, 2024, when Internet “streamer” Adin Ross showed Trump a picture of Justin Trudeau, only to have this “future President” give credence to the conspiracy theory suggesting that the PM’s father could actually be Fidel Castro, we should have realized that the NAFTA agreement would end up again having to be renegotiated. But what new “evil” had we recently unleashed against the Unite States that rated a 25% tariff rate applied against our whole $450 billion export value as well as Mexico’s trade, when even Trump’s Enemy One, China, would only merit a 10% mark-up?
Well, given that on any given day of the week 50 people “illegally” cross into the United States from Canada (1 per 200 km) and 6,300 from Mexico (2 per km), our borders are “too porous”, thus allowing Vivek Ramaswamy (ex-Republican presidential candidate, pharmaceutical entrepreneur and co-worker with Elon Musk attempting to pare $3 trillion from the U.S. annual budget) to recommend building an impenetrable wall along the Canada – U.S.A. border.
Oh, there’s a drug “thing” problem to consider as well, fentanyl coming into the U.S.A. from China, heroin from south-east Asia and cocaine from Columbia, Mexico and other Central American nations, but that concern is only the result of American consumer demand for these drugs, so not nearly as “important” as ridding the nation of 23 million “illegals”, almost all of whom just happen to be “non-white” or Muslim.
Now, given that I’ve been appalled by the flipflop emotings coming from Ontario premier Doug Ford’s throat (echoed in the Greek chorus conducted by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith), he’s not trying to lose some weight with this exercise, but merely telling Canadians in as wimpish voice as possible that Trump having now launched this new hot air balloon, Mexico “has got to go”, with NAFTA now becoming a bilateral agreement with only Canada and the U.S.A. as “partners” – at least in name.
Honest to God, though, I am sick of listening to the natterings of provincial premiers who cannot accept their political roles as being nothing more than branch managers of corporate Canada, with a head office in Ottawa. Now Scott Moe, not wanting to give the impression that Smith speaks for him, is now vowing to travel to Washington to personally negotiate our province’s component of whatever new “agreement” Ontario and Alberta can get from The Donald. Here’s what I think will happen when he starts that journey. First, he’ll arrive at Ronald Reagan airport, only to find that there’s no limousine and police escort to whisk him downtown. However, a taxi fare of just over $150 ($210 Cdn) will eventually find him arriving at the White House, only to be greeted by a receptionist politely asking, “Saskatche – what? Where is that?” Next will come the Secret Service’s full body frisk, followed by being offered a Big Mac and a 2% beer while he waits for The Donald to return from the golf course.
The meeting will probably not go much better, either…
It’s not as if Canada doesn’t have some “issues” with the U.S.A., such as stemming the flow of military hardware crossing into Canada (and Mexico). Moreover, Trump has no program to address drug addiction issues, as they would require government funding, a “no-no” in Elon Musk parlance. Human trafficking is also a cross-border “issue” not being properly addressed, simply because American law enforcement divisions won’t keep Canadians informed on such matters. Canada would probably also like to relocate a substantial number of Mexican “illegals” without criminal records and having serious agricultural credentials to move to Canada and assist Indigenous communities in establishing meaningful food sustainability programs, an issue that is increasing in its necessity even as California’s market garden crops are being ravaged by climate change and severe drought.
Given that it’s unlikely that Trump would agree with any of the points to be made that he should address nationally, especially when made by “outsiders” such as Canada or Mexico, perhaps it’s time that we gave him the Trudeau Salute; the question, however, is who’s going to lead us in presenting such a gesture? Neither Trudeau NOR Poilievre have the backbone to confront Trump face-on, and if Wednesday’s meeting with the premiers is any degree of telegraphing to Canadians as to what our approach will be when negotiations start, all it will end up being is “everyone working together” to sit at such meetings and take the Neville Chamberlain line of compromise, concede, and give in to clauses that in the long run are only going to make our lives harder and more expensive in the future.
In crisis negotiations it is often good strategy for the population most aggrieved by the need for such arbitration to lead. Given Canada’s inability to label Trump as the narcissist he truly is, I’d rather have Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum leading this negotiating team. Her “Make my day” even as the guns rolling across the border into Mexico to the major drug cartels allows the continuing slaughter of the guilty and the innocent in her nation, at least shows that she’s not quite ready – yet – to throw our gutless politicians under the bus.
We’re going to be economically hurt, no matter what finally ends up being negotiated, so why not go into the session equipped with the verbal fireworks necessary to turn this into just another U.S. war “stalemate” like Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq?
