Convicted felon, Donald Trump, is threatening to annex Canada. There are plenty of risks associated with that.
Throughout the Online Streaming Act (AKA Bill C-11) debate, there was plenty of hand-wringing about how Canada was somehow at risk of losing its cultural identity if nothing is done immediately about the internet. Obviously, it was all bullshit nonsense meant to disguise the fact that legacy media companies want a monopoly on freedom of expression and creative output in this country. If you wanted to speak, you had to speak on their terms, not your own. The reality is that, thanks to the internet, Canadian culture has never been stronger as more and more people are able to more freely express themselves without being required to seek the blessing of a major corporate organization like Bell Media or Rogers. This is something that should be celebrated, not be threatened by.
While the internet has been a huge gift for allowing people to express themselves like never before (after all, I’m one such person who is enjoying that gift), political developments in recent months within the world of politics is actually presenting itself as an actual very real threat to Canada.
In the months leading up to the inauguration of convicted felon, Donald Trump, Trump has repeatedly said that he wanted to impose a 25% tariff on Canada. These economic threats were made along with other threats such as a 25% tariff on Mexico and even a 100% tariff on China. As we noted back in November, that would mean the cost of everything is going to go through the roof – including those living in the United States.
While I was raising the alarms about the implications of all of this, mainstream media throughout November and December simply dismissed this as little more than either trolling, Trump being “bombastic”, a joke, something to not take seriously, a negotiating tactic, or just a ploy to get Canada to beef up border security. I have long been skeptical about all of that given that Trump has long been wanting to sew chaos around the world. Slapping massive tariffs on the goods and services of allied countries is an effective way to start breaking shit on the world stage.
This attitude of how these tariffs can be dismissed either because the Trudeau government was going to beef up border security and smooth things over or that it was never a serious threat all changed shortly after Trudeau stepped down. At the same time that was going on, Trump held a press conference doubling down on his tariff threat. In it, he said that he wanted to impose the 25% tariff unless Canada becomes the 51st state. The press conference did clarify one thing: the border security issue (which isn’t really an issue in the first place between Canada and the US in the grand scheme of things) was little more than a red herring. Dissolving Canada as a nation is a condition to have the tariffs removed.
While Trumps intentions were clear for a while, it was at that moment that Canada’s mainstream media finally started taking the tariff threats seriously. Panic began setting in as media talking heads began freaking out about what is going to happen when Trump is set to take office on the 20th. Given the media’s many years of experience in revisionist history, they also rewrote history to say that “other” people were thinking it was trolling, but not them. Yeah, they totally would never have implied that at all, so let’s all forget about all the things they said earlier on air and move on. The only impressive thing there was that they didn’t somehow work in blaming the internet for that one too (as that wouldn’t be the first time they passed off their mistakes as rumours on the internet before sweeping it all under the rug).
To be clear, when I saw Kamala Harris walk off the stage after her speech to conceding the election to Trump, I knew at that moment how absolutely fucked we all were. It was always going to be a massive shitstorm that was going to grip the world thanks to the terrible results of the US general election. This as the media was still insisting that Republican’s are somehow great or “strong” on the economy (spoiler: that hasn’t happened in my lifetime), so the results, for them, were little more than a different party taking over. Seeing the mainstream media react in pure terror that things are going to go south for all involved was nice to see as their conclusions gradually move closer to ones I’ve been making for months now. A little slow on the uptake, but at least they are moving closer to the reality of the situation (more than what I can say about their coverage of the Canadian link tax anyway).
In the process, there is the realization that Canada is facing an actual cultural and economic threat. Indeed, Trump’s calls to dissolve Canada as a nation is a deeply offensive thing to do to Canada. It’s showcasing a belief that Canada doesn’t deserve to exist as a nation at all. What’s more, Canadian’s are beginning to get a taste of what Ukrainians are going through with a maniac dictator living next door trying to wipe you from the map. It’s a threat to our sovereignty, economic independence, cultural identity, and more.
There are reasons why Canada and the US are separate nations. Historically, Canada was on the side of the British back in the day while the US was trying to expand the territory they owned back in the day. There were plenty of wars fought that ended in stalemate for the most part and the border was eventually drawn up to try and end the senseless conflict back in the day. As the years progressed, the relationship between Canada and the US has been one of mutual benefit and partnership. That has worked quite well for both parties and neither side saw any reason to alter that arrangement – at least until recent months.
With the expansionist rhetoric coming from the incoming president, Canadians have good reason to worry. Economically, Canada would never win in a trade war with the United States. At best, Canada could hope for stronger partnerships with places like Europe, Australia and New Zealand, but the pain of the 25% tariff alone would be significant. Forget taming inflation at that point, inflation is going to take off like a rocket ship under such a circumstance.
What’s more, there has been plenty of polling for Canadians that conclude that dissolving Canada as a nation and being brought under the American fold is a deeply unpopular concept. Canadian’s are content with the way things are and see no reason for that to change in such a dramatic fashion. What’s more, one of the only reasons to expand territory is to extract the resources of the invaded nation. It’s not a happy warm embrace where positive things come rolling in from the invading nation. It’s a case of extracting wealth and resources and stripping the producing areas to the bone.
That stripping of everything to the bone includes having a national identity. Who are we as a nation? Are we simply “not America”? Are we about things like hockey and maple syrup? Maybe we are about more than that? While these debates have been going on for quite some time now (given how many cultural similarities we have with the United States), a lot of these questions would get thrown out the window if Canada was forcibly dissolved into the US. Forget having any kind of identity at all, you are an American now whether you like it or not.
While I still snicker over the thought of how the heck America is going to deal with Quebec (I still give a sarcastic thumbs up and say “good luck with that!”), there is one notable thing about Trumps intention to erase Canada: there isn’t any plans to send in the military to occupy our streets – at least for now. Instead, the threats are through “economic force” for the time being. You know you live in fucked up times when the good news is that an invading army isn’t going to be something you see outside your kitchen window.
Still, that doesn’t mean that Canada isn’t in for a world of economic hurt for no real good reason. A considerable (and far too great) portion of Canada’s trade is with the United States. If it becomes economically unfeasible to trade with your largest trading partner, even if you finally get it in gear and start working with other international partners, it’s going to take time to make such a transition. Economic pain is inevitable.
For instance, having $50,000 saved up in your bank account sounds great on paper. The problem is when that $50,000 goes from being able to buy a new car to barely covering the cost of a loaf of bread, people are going to severely feel the pain no matter what. That retirement nest egg suddenly isn’t so valuable. People will find it harder to spend time finding ways to express themselves or starting a new business because the priority at that point will be to be able to not starve during the week. This harms a lot of things – one of which being freedom of expression.
All of this for what? Some dumb vanity project by Trump? Thinking that this would be how Trump figures out how to pay the American bills? Everything about this is highly unnecessary. As some have already said, America has enough problems for Trump to “deal” with (like he ever has any intention of fixing most of these problems in the first place). While I hope that either incompetence or another distraction is enough to deter these threats, that’s banking on a lot of luck for that to happen.
All this is a situation so screwed up, even the American flag hugging Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, is not happy with the US right now over this (which, truth be told, is quite the sight to see).
It’s frustrating all around. As far as I’m concerned, Trump can, to borrow a Ukrainian phrase, “go fuck himself”. I’m not looking forward to the next four years of this complete nonsense. Perhaps I’ll find myself going back to what I did every morning during the COVID-19 pandemic. I somberly sit down in my seat like a Star Trek captain and quietly say, “damage report”. It’s about all I can do given how little control Canadian’s have over the situation.
