I don’t think the government should support privatized profits and socialized losses. These industries can pull themselves up by their bootstraps like they tell us to do. They can save for a rainy day like they tell us to do. They can spend less money on stock buybacks and executive compensation (the avocado toast and lattes of the corporate world). They should have learned from the pandemic that their infinite profit margins are sometimes subject to external forces that they have no control over. Why should the government continue rescuing them from their own shortsightedness? These companies are going to (if they haven’t already) raise prices in anticipation of Trump’s tariffs and if these tariffs arrive, they’re going to raise prices again. And then they’re going to bitch to the government that they aren’t making any money! We the people get to finance these profiteering companies in exchange for what? Nothing.
Except Trump. Trump is the reason we cannot have nice things. Getting ready to retaliate is as bad as retaliating. Trump accepts complete submission only and Trudeau knows it, which is why he is allowing himself to be humiliated with the “Governor” comments. Freeland wanted to fight Trump which would accomplish nothing beyond making things worse.
Having said that, I think Trudeau’s days as PM are numbered and Freeland might just end up replacing him. If so, she’ll see up close and personal how effective the “stand up to Trump” strategy is. If there is one thing he hates more than someone standing up to him, it’s when that someone is also a woman. So she can be in charge until fall of 2025 at which point I predict the Liberals are going to get absolutely trounced at the polls and we will have a Conservative-majority government (which to be clear I do not want) led by Poilievre. I’m pretty sure he also wants to scrap with Trump and I am sure Trump will be stunned into submission by his big chihuahua energy.
Trump would not be aware of Canada being careful with money or not doing some stupid GST holiday on potato chips, come on. We’re talking about fiscal prudence, not invading Minnesota. Trump isn’t following Canadian fiscal policy.
And I don’t at all buy that submission is the right approach. Trump is stupid and a bully and submission just invites more bullying. There is no evidence submission to him is the best strategy. Who’s won doing that?
No apology necessary, Le_Min. I didn’t take it that way. For the next four years, as in 2017-2021, I know I will have to draw a distinction between my country, which I love, and its President, whom I loathe.
There is no strategy that mollifies a chaos monkey. Submission doesn’t matter when the monkey arbitrarily wants to cause chaos or dominate again.
Nothing matters to the monkey. Nothing is sacred. Controlling an incoherent ape is laughably illusionary. Why play the role of a battered spouse in denial? We can’t change, soften, or control brutes.
The only stable strategy is to fortress (operate with the knowledge that the US isn’t a responsible party anymore) until the US gets better leadership. Hopefully it won’t take decades (this isn’t just a Trump issue).
Or, heaven forbid, we do the right thing and control our borders for the good of Canadians, controlling the fentanyl that is killing our citizens, controlling immigration again, and locking down car thefts and other stuff that is easily moved out of Canada all because we don’t manage it effectively.
Just because it is being forced on us by the giant douchebag’s ravings down south doesn’t mean that our own local douchebag (Turdoh) shouldn’t have done this previously.
Or, heaven forbid, we do the right thing and control our borders for the good of Canadians, controlling the fentanyl that is killing our citizens, controlling immigration again, and locking down car thefts and other stuff that is easily moved out of Canada all because we don’t manage it effectively.
I am unaware that Canada has a problem with any of these issues. Please catch me up with some links quotes.
This is incorrect. If tariffs are imposed, they’re going to have to lower their prices (at least for export) because the American importers will have to add the tariff into their costs. This makes the Canadian export goods less competitive vs American competitors, as well as other foreign competition if there’s anywhere with no/lower tariffs, so, they must lower their prices to remain competitive. Unless you meant they’ll raise their domestic prices in order to cover their lost export profits, which might happen in some cases I guess.
Your general comments regarding corporate welfare are well-taken, except that allowing large chunks of the economy to fail would hurt everyone, not just those businesses. There are cases where the best policy for the general good is to bail out the fatcat businessman, as shitty as that is. Of course, that’s largely irrelevant as both the Liberals and Conservatives are entirely beholden to big business and will act in the interests of said big business, and it’s just happenstance that in some cases such as these that’s also good for the little guy.
I have no faith in Poilievre to stand up to any one or any thing on the right. His response to the Freedumb convoy was to shake their hands - Trump is his kind of people!
Trump likes it when people bow and scrape, but I doubt it really makes him respect them. Of course Canada should take a firm stand if treated unfairly, while compromising on issues that are reasonable or will benefit Canadians, of which there are several. This is what made Trump back off from tariffs in 2018. Trump did not like Freeland because she is tough. So Trudeau’s self-inflicted loss is going to hurt.
The successful strategy remains getting through to the states and senators that do business with Canada. Ignore the fifty-first state crapola. Canada will need a stronger border if the States crack down on immigrants, and could use more military funding. Some industries are coddled. But don’t believe for a minute this is really just about numbers or fentanyl.
Jean Charest tweeted “Every Canadian, regardless of their opinion of the Prime Minister or their political affiliation, should feel deeply offended by President Trump’s remarks. We might one day be grateful for this WAKE-UP CALL. For too long, we have been complacent in our relationships with the United States and the rest of the world. We need to unite and rise to this historic occasion to shape the future of Canada. #cdnpoli”
I wish it were Jean Charest poised to replace Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister…
https://driving.ca/auto-news/driver-info/canada-auto-theft-stolen-cars-down
“Expensive new luxury vehicles remain popular with thieves, in part because they’re an easy illegal sell in international markets. IBC said that in many cases, they’re exported by domestic and international crime organizations, which then often use the proceeds for drug trafficking, terrorism, and arms dealing.”
How do they get out of Canada onto the international markets? Someone drives the car across the Bering sea? No, they are put in containers and shipped. We don’t check the containers.
Really, you don’t know these things? I knew the SD has become an echo chamber, but you can’t be that isolated?
We had a by-election in Lethbridge West today, for our Legislative Assembly seat, which was vacated last July. The voting for my neighbourhood was held, as voting so often is, in the gym of the church around the corner.
It was a cold day (-12C, and quite windy, meaning the wind chill made it feel colder), so I was appropriately dressed: parka, gloves, and toque. Directly I stepped into the church, I removed the toque. It’s a church, you’re a gentleman, you remove your hat when you step into a church. I learned that as a child.
What surprised me were the number of gentlemen who did not remove their hats. Mostly baseball caps, but a few toques too. Not that it mattered; the wearing of a hat could not interfere with the right to vote, in a church or not. But it made me feel old, and I guess I grew up at a different time, when no matter the occasion, you never wore a hat in church.
Just to note, while results are not yet official, it appears that the NDP candidate has won our riding in the Legislative Assembly, though it is close.
Trudeau did a cabinet shuffle today which CBC.ca describes as him “shuffling the deck”:
They left out the “chairs on the Titanic” part but I think that’s what they meant. I haven’t heard every criticism of Justin Trudeau and I’m sure there are many but when people have cussed his name in front of me, they never seem to follow up with “if only he would shuffle his cabinet!”