Liberals have been eating from NDP’s plate (Conservatives too, but not as dramatic collapse). Soft Liberal support is running back home here.
To be fair, our conservatives ideologically speaking have traditionally not been that far right. The old Federal Progressive Conservative Party was more closely aligned with the Democratic Party than the Republicans. The new Conservative Party has shifted to the right but I don’t think you will ever see them campaigning on removing public health care as an example.
To add, in our multi-party system a majority of voters chose progressive.
What? Doug Ford has already begun monetizing our health care, in Ontario. Hubs had to pay for a scan, not for access ahead of a line, just for the scan. $90. Last week he had to pay for a prescription, as a pensioner it should/has always been free. Suddenly, not everything is covered. It was a pain med for after a medical procedure! This IS the exact path to ‘For Profit’, medicine.
What scan? And with regards to prescriptions, if it’s not on the Ontario Drug Benefit formulary, it’s not covered. My 87 year old mother has been prescribed uncovered meds before. You can check yourself here:
[I haven’t read any of the thread]
In pretty much every war, soldiers begin using slurs to ‘name’ the enemy. They do that as a way to dehumanize them – to make them seem less than human. And they do THAT so it’s easier to pull the trigger.
Would Americans adopt the same strategy if Canada was declared the “enemy?”
Hard to imagine why not.
It’s also #3 of Lawrence Britt’s 14 characteristics of fascism:
- Identification of Enemies as a Unifying Cause
When the military finds out (ie, is lied to) about just how horrible Canada and Canadians really are … by a demagogue like Trump and the State Media that is his mouthpiece … I see nothing good happening.
I think that was the point @elbows was making.
But none of that is new. The ODB formulary has always been limited.
I’m not denying the enshitification of healthcare by Doug Ford. I didn’t vote for him and never will. But universal pharmacare does not exist in Canada and has never existed in Canada. I can’t blame Doug for that.
My point was that there are NO elected politicians demanding a removal of universal healthcare. If you look at the Overton Window, Canada is undeniably to the left of the US. Their “radical left wing Democrats” like the Squad could sit down with mainstream NDPers. Many mainstream Democratic politicians are in line with an Erin O’Toole as an example.
Hitler didn’t have social media, which dramatically accelerates the ability to manufacture consent.
Look, can we put this to rest?
Take it from someone who DOES have a lot of knowledge in this field, and professional experience; no country on this planet could effectively intervene except with nuclear weapons. The UK and France, and indeed everyone else, has no capability whatsoever to project any meaningful or significant conventional military force to North America in the face of the US Navy and USAF. It cannot be done, full stop. Any attempt would result in their people and material being destroyed. The United States commands the sea and has an air force so ludicrously enormous that any attempt to get past them is pointless suicide. Anyone that did survive the exciting trip across the Atlantic would be crushed anyway. The US Marine Corps by itself is as large as the British Army and French Army combined, and the Marine Corps is vastly smaller than the US Army. There is no comparison. Anyway, they don’t have the sealift ability to get much across a long distance quickly.
To project conventional force across an ocean is quite logistically difficult even if you are unopposed, and they’d be opposed by the mightiest - by a very, very, very wide margin - navy and air force on the planet. Just give this idea up. It is impossible.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not dumping on the skills or professionalism of the Europeans. The French and British Armies are badass organizations of highly motivated individuals, and they are certainly more capable than the smaller and underequipped Canadian Forces. But they cannot get here.
Hitler had a huge propaganda operation from the beginning and was able to shut down freedom of the press fairly soon (though not instantly).
The flip side of social media is that it allows the opposition to get their message out as well.
Further, I think there was much more popular will behind Hitler at this point in his timeline than there is for Trump in his. What a shitshow. He’s losing the messaging war. I get less worried by the day.
I would love to hear someone with the requisite knowledge argue the opposite side (which is not to say I think you’re wrong; I think you’re mostly right on this point). But I can’t argue further because I don’t know enough.
The only counter-argument is “My strength is as the strength of ten Because my heart is pure.” I am no expert, but I don’t think military strategists put much faith in that. And it still leaves Canada and any hypothetical allies short. 'Way short.
More threats again today, and we’re again hearing the “Canada needs protection” story.
Trump needs a distraction from how badly he fucked up his “I’m a big boy” display with Zelenskyy. That’s all there is to it.
D’ya think he considers that a fuckup?
His supporters? Love it.
His master? Loves it.
Republican politicians? His cabinet? Still slurping him off.
They’re not overtly demanding it, but Ford’s actions over the last few years have shown that he wants it. He’s systematically underfunded health care to push people into demanding private options to make up for the failures of the public system
On another message board, predominantly made up of American right-wingers, I’ve seen sentiments like, “Well, when we have Canada, we’ll build naval and air force bases up in the Arctic. To protect the continent. Canadians have not, so we’ll have to.”
Yeah, that’s right. The Yanks will build a San Diego, a Pensacola, an Edwards, a Minot—in the fucking Arctic!
Good luck with that, America. Your ships will be icelocked ten months out of twelve, and your runways will be unusable due to frost heave when the short summer arrives. That’s not protection, that’s just plain dumb.
But they’ll do all that in the summer. So it’ll be fine. /s
It’s all nonsense of course, but many on the right seems to accept that AGW is real, but also that it will be good news for the most part. One common belief is the the arctic land mass will open up as a new temperate frontier to be colonized Wild West style, and meanwhile the Arctic Ocean will become year round easily navigable like a new Panama canal but with functionally infinite capacity.
And of course Russia will be a massive gainer in this scenario. As will Canada. So the US taking Canada away from the Canadians before it gets too valuable is of course the natural Manifest Destiny selfish Reactionary Wacko Traitor thing to want to do.
Bear in mind this isn’t a small number of Americans. It’s a huge portion.
If they want to they absolutely can manufacture the consent needed, probably by summer 2026. And by that time the US economy will probably be in a terrible recession, the world a poorer and more chaotic place. They’ll invade Canada in conditions very different from the ones the naysayers are used to. The world is not going to be the way it was.
So wait until Trump has even less popular support (if he’s even still alive then), then invade?
That assessment depends critically on whether you think the actual forces of propaganda and White Christian Nationalism reaction that are behind trump will outlive their chief mouthpiece.
If WCN / MAGA die with trump, then waiting to 2026+ will save the world from a lot of stupid shit. Including saving Canada.
OTOH, if post-trump WCN / MAGA become full-on Fascism led by non-senile people who can actually plot and plan and lead, not just whine & grift, then 2026 or 2027 is about when they’ve had time to fully suborn US internal discourse & internal politics into the Fascist expansionist / imperialist mold. After which the wars will continue until the USA’s government is somehow defeated militarily. With all the immense loss of life that will necessarily entail.
Of course; starting wars is an ancient tactic for trying to increase support for a regime, and to excuse cracking down on dissenters.