In last Friday’s column, I mentioned being “hopeful” for 2026 as people began acting more as Canadians looking after one another’s interest without further reference to what only can be called the political “Hate Agenda”: Pitting rural versus urban populations, the alleged economic “stifling” of Alberta and Saskatchewan under the “woke” policies being delivered by the Trudeau “Liberals” in Ottawa, and lately the “separatist” drivel coming from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
By now, though, the most concerning issues that should be being addressed by Canadians are the threats being made against our very nationhood by United States President Donald Trump. Buoyed by his narrative respecting the need for the U.S.A. to “become great again”, he has found his flock of worshipful minions burdened by economic hardship, failing to recognize that it is Trump’s policies creating their personal mayhem. Equally disturbing, their nation founded on the principles of secularism now must rely upon American “evangelical Christians” influenced by religious networks portraying him as a “vessel” of God, a “masculine” warrior preparing the world for the Archangel Gabriel to come and blow the Last ‘Trump’et signaling our very demise.
To the “traditional” followers of Christ, though, he’s just another wannabe who makes soothing promises to not participate in proxy wars, no longer see American soldiers coming home in body bags, and no longer entertaining the idea of “regime changes” that in Iraq’s case not only led to the death of Suddam Hussein, but the creation of ISIS, the rise of al Qada and the horror of 911. So what does he then do in practice? Well, in Venezuela’s case he allowed the American military to invade Venezuela, arrested Dictator/President Nicolas Maduro to face questionable charges relating to narco-terrorism, tells the world that he has “taken back OUR oil”, and will now govern Venezuelan affairs for “as long as is necessary”.
Having now threatened the sovereignty of Mexico, Columbia, Iran, Greenland AND Canada, is there anything the world can offer that might give pause to Trump moving on to his next conquest? Will a Congress dominated by Republicans or six justices on the Supreme Court soldered to his hip in rewriting the Constitution intervene? Not bloody likely. IF the 2026 mid-terms can return control of Congress to Democrats, and they impeach him, who’s to say that the most powerful military force on the planet now purged of its most competent leaders, and now led by a skirt-chasing, alcoholic Secretary of War, will they support their government or merely let the Capitol grounds turn into a bloodier January 6th? Fortunately, we now know that even the United Kingdom will come to the aid of Denmark OR Canada should Trump move against their interests, but that move would forever destroy the NATO alliance, and at the same time embolden Russia and China to turn Ukraine and Taiwan into potential killing fields and ripe for take-over. What potentially might “save” us from such disaster is that Trump only acts when it best benefits him or his family, or has been convinced to act in such fashion by major business interests, and in Venezuela’s case, that being “Big Oil”.
In his 2023 Fort Worth Weekly article, “Operation Unresponsive”, Zac Aitch repeated the sentiment expressed by one of comedian George Carlin’s favourite punch line by maintaining that “It’s almost like Big Oil has its own military”. It’s not just “Big Oil”, though; it could be any wealthy citizen or company demanding that their government act on its behalf: the United Fruit Company in Guatamala, the Bay of Pigs invasion funded by a Cosa Nostra attempting to re-establish its gambling operations in Havana, or Henry Kissinger rationalizing the overthrow and murder of Chile’s newly elected President Salvadore Allende by suggesting that its voters were dangerously naïve in believing that they could trust an alleged “socialist-communist” provocateur to properly lead them through any economic crisis.
It’s also worthy of note that even Trump’s actions in introducing regime change to Venezuela are not “unique” in the annals of U.S. international relationships that have ended really badly for the United States, even if we left out Vietnam or Afghanistan. For instance, in 1901 the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now British Petroleum) was granted an exclusive right to oil concessions in Iran. In 1951, a government frustrated by the lack of revenue being paid in royalties finally nationalized AIOC, resulting in British and American oil interests agitating dissent that ended when Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi was installed as absolute ruler of Iran through a coup-like change in government.
The plot of the movie “Argo”, starring Ben Affleck, only partially demonstrated how well that action turned out for the United States when religious fundamentalists drove the Shah from power, and the repercussions that would follow in the Middle East when the new regime started funding multiple terrorist groups while trying to also become a nuclear power.
Trump’s actions in Venezuela originated from similar event structure. In 1976 the Venezuelan government decided to nationalize the nation’s oil infrastructure, which eventually led to the government of Hugo Chavez relying upon its royalty profits to fund the social and health care programs that kept him in public favour. However, when oil prices began sagging and infrastructure investment waned, Chavez refused to cut back on spending for his most popular programs, the economy collapsed and inflation rose by 30per cent almost annually, until it exploded when Maduro took over the government.
Economists have already conceded that inflation would have finally destroyed the nation’s economy even if Maduro hadn’t replaced Chavez, so the question must be asked as to why Trump chose to act against Maduro at this time: Was it due to the social turmoil unleashed upon Venezuela’s poor by Maduro that allowed Trump to demonize that nation by further aggravating America’s alleged illegal immigration status? Was Trump driven to act because he could no longer resist his covetous urges to control Venezuela’s massive oil reserves, much as he drools over Greenland’s rare mineral wealth or Canada’s fresh water supply? OR, was it the fact that Maduro wouldn’t change Chavez’s policy of having “preferred clientele” such as China and Cuba receiving Venezuelan crude, but felt that he could also use American business loans to further fund such ventures and reinvigorate the nation’s economy by so doing?
It really doesn’t matter, does it, as Canada is still overshadowed by the potential harm that a Trump economic blitz could do to our economy. Quite obviously, we must continue to expand our international market for Canadian goods and services, move more rapidly to a greener economy, and expand our ability to harvest our resource wealth while maintaining its potential manufacturing usage in Canada.
Unfortunately, we also have to extricate ourselves from purchasing U.S. built military equipment and rely more on our own ability to protect our borders, so right now that only means this: When is PM Carney going to make that phone call to Sweden’s royal family and upgrade our air defense system with Saab Gripens instead of America’s F-35?
That to me would be as good a place to start as any…
Ken MacDougall is a retired teacher and former candidate for the federal NDP.
