I agree. At the same time, our response should be based on fostering our own economic strengths and we need to take a new look at Macdonald’s National Policy. Starting with getting rid of barriers to interprovincial trade. I’m sure there’s no one on the national scene with the skill or interest to do that.
Canadian politicians are self-serving, parochial imbeciles. Don't expect any movement on interprovincial trade even though it is clearly in our own best interests. Cultivating a protected voter base is more important. That's why we are a country of cartels: banking cartels, transportation cartels, education and health-care cartels, labour cartels, telecom cartels, dairy and poultry cartels, grocery-retailing cartels... Dan is right that any talk about justice, or freedom, or fairness - let alone efficiency and productivity - is pointless in a conversation with Canadian politicians. It is ALL about getting votes.
It’s been said before but it’s worth noting one reason why Trump is solidly wedded to a zero sum outlook. The sector he operated in, commercial New York City real estate, is pretty much a zero-sum game. New supply is slow to come by and the markets are tight. The only arbitrage is from strong arming others at the negotiating table.
To be sure it’s just one factor in combination with his personality and mindset. Another hypothetical leader could have expanded their understanding of economic systems. Or could have noticed that one of his own closest allies built new companies and new wealth in untapped markets.
But Trump’s not that leader by a long shot. Like you wrote, there’s nothing to be gained hoping he’ll somehow smack his forehead and realize the mutual benefits of trade.
"Russia’s political leaders tend to treat foreign policy as a zero-sum game, where one state can only make gains if others lose." Yep, sounds familiar.
Same. I’ve read too many pathetic appeasement points of view from people who think trump is a normal businessman who will approach Canada on an equal footing. He disdains our country.
I reply mostly with what you say. However, I have one disagreement in that it is in our own national interest to address.
When Trump talks about it, smart people he trusts probably tell him the problem with drugs, money laundering and organized crime in Canada, but because he's an idiot, he can't articulate it any better than "drugs and criminals are flowing across our border".
As articulated in the CBC and the Globe and Mail recently, Trump allies in the law enforcement and national security sphere have been warning about deep issues in Canada with money laundering, organized crime and immigration that are causing problems south of the border. But they shouldn't be equated with the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants at the US/Mexican border. Everyone in this country is wrapped around the axle about increasing border patrols, drones and helicopters but our issues are more systemic. Here are a couple of articles published recently that articulate this better.
- re-establish the Ports Police to clamp down on the fentanyl pre-cursors coming into the country
- properly resource the police, Crown prosecution service, and the courts to deal with complex organized crime and money laundering cases.
- Introduce anti-racketeering legislation like "RICO" statutes to effectively go after organized crime
-fix our intelligence-to-evidence problem we have in this country.
-reform our court system to deal with the disclosure requirements and extremely short time limits police the Crown have to bring cases to trial.
- paying more attention to who is getting into our country. According to a whistleblower with CBSA, about 300,000 blank passports were stolen and the senior management of CBSA chose to cover it up instead of report it.
In short, it is in our interest to address "the border". Just not in the way Trump and our politicians are bloviating about.
Otherwise, I agree. Even though Canada's sole national interest is to maintain good relations with our American neighbours, we have to make them bleed if they want to bring these tarrifs in.
This is all fine. My reference to the southern border was simply to give a sense of proportion. I didn't want to get sidetracked into details. In any event, it's all beside the point: Canadian and American officials talk about exactly these sorts of issues, and how to better cooperate for effect, constantly. If one party is unhappy with what the other is doing, they can escalate and get politicians to speak and urge change. Which almost invariably is enough. And if that doesn't work, it can be escalated higher -- with a call from one head of government to the other being the highest level. This is how we've cooperated for the better part of a century and it works just fine. There's simply zero need to skip all this and go straight to "do what we want (unspecified) or we'll launch nukes," which is what Trump effectively did.
Dan, you completely miss the simple point: Trump is trying to force Canada to do what is in our own interest, anyway. Why be ODD about it?
Same as when Trump tried to convince Europe (in particular Germany) when he was the 45th president not to become dependent on Russian oil. And he was ignored because "everybody knows" that whatever Trump says, do the opposite.
I'm not ignoring, I'm responding. Canadian politicians have refused to do what is in Canada's own interests for decades. For decades we have failed to meet out NATO commitments; for decades we have sheltered protected sectors with tariffs and trade barriers. For decades we have allowed our border and security agencies to atrophy. It has resulted in a crisis, within Canada, that threatens to spill over even more into America. We are a bad neighour, so Trump wants to build strong fences...
Picking up the phone and asking Canada to clean up our act hasn't worked, Dan. Trump rightly understands that it will take strong measures to make Trudeau pay attention. Now you stop ignoring my points and respond with facts and logic instead of dismissive sniping - if you want to be taken seriously.
No, you're repeating what you've already said and ignoring Dan's response. It's obvious to everyone.
Can you conceive of any other ways Trump could have handled both situations? Perhaps you can reflect on how Biden shored up NATO when he knew Russia was going to invade. He began the diplomatic process a year in advance. I bet you didn't even know that. It was quiet and highly effective.
In reviewing earlier writings over Christmas I came upon this piece I obviously missed earlier. It falls into the “the only thing Trump and his ilk understand is strength” camp and I agree. We are not as weak as Melos and are in little danger of being slaughtered and enslaved; however, it would put us on a virtual “war” footing as citizens would have to be prepared to forego some of their entitlements. Right now most of the opposition to PP is “he will cut our benefits”, some am not sure the citizenry would fall easily into line. Giving him what he wants now will just bring more demands which would in fact enslave us to his future whims and fantasies. He needs to be shown we matter to the well being of the US of A. There was a time at an Army base in Canada that the soldiers were being treated as third class citizens by the locals. On one payday the base paid all soldiers in $2 bills. The economy of the town was not damaged as it could have been by making it off limits, but the town soon realized just how much it depended on the base. That is what we need to do to Trump. As Dan states, Americans and a Canadians cooperate across the border every day to an extent most Canadians and certainly Trump are unaware of. The organizations involved just need to be given the resources, clear direction and support and many of the problems will diminish (they will never disappear).
I don't disagree with any of that, all of which has been neglected for decades. It all comes back to the simple fact that all it takes is a congenial phone call, rather than threats and a show of force.
The government has already made many congenial phone calls. The prime minister even made a congenial visit to Trump's estate. Trump responded with public to all these congeniality with public ridicule and humiliation.
Here's a question I don't know the answer to be have a hunch: Of the countless individuals and organizations Donald Trump screwed over in his long career, how many made "congenial phone calls" which Trump responded to by ratcheting up his ruthless behaviour? My guess is all of them.
Incidentally, I very much hope to be proven wrong about all this.
of all I have read about and observed of Trump there are no redeeming aspects related to his behaviour and mindset. Contempt is not enough; I reserve it for his supporters. What really hurts the most is his contempt for any decent humanity and his admiration of despots. The misuse of cooperating lawyers in order to have people around him grovel for snacks while he is withholding dinner is only a tiny spark in his ‘despicability’.
I agree. But Canada has to convince Francois Legault to agree. Cut off power to the New England states and the US will understand that Canada is not impotent.
Instant subscribe. This will be my #1 priority in the next election. Any chance one of the major parties would take this approach? Do the Canadian people have the courage to stand together against a bully?
That is the major question. I don’t see a lot of sense of duty in our society, but I think it could be awakened. If a critical mass of people come around to the fact that appeasement doesn’t work with people like this, then we have no choice but to be strong and look after each other through the hard times.
Unfortunately D. Smith held out today after the Premiers meeting. Not a good sign or look. It's new acknowledging Ford has the best measure of the issue, but I'll take it. Hopefully the front is united enough.
Some American journalists suspect Trump’s tariffs will ultimately be very selective. In other words, commodities like oil and gas will be exempt. So it might be moot for Danielle anyway.
Agreed, but nice that she was flushed out and her true colours flown. She was looking for a nice comfy berth for herself, damn the citizens and Canada.
Thanks for articulating this. I have little hope that we will have a national response from our present leadership. I have little faith that the guy salivating in the wings has the ability to build a national response as it might actually require more than a 3 syllable slogan.
Touche. Grant, my complaint is I see no policy from the federal Conservatives. However I am open to hearing and discussing it. My experience in Alberta with the UCP is that much of the legislation being passed was not made public so I am disinclined to be trusting.
NEVER trust a politician, Gail. You will surely be disappointed.
In our Westminster parliamentary system, the Loyal Opposition does not propose policy; it opposes the government's policies in typical adversarial style. This is supposed to improve legislation in the same way that an adversarial legal system is supposed to improve justice.
Wait until the election campaign kicks off. That's when you have a right to know what the CPC has in its plans. Disguising full intentions has become standard in Canadian politics, though. Trudeau never campaigned on ramping up the carbon tax four-fold, either. Notley didn't campaign on unionizing family farms...
"That's when you have a right to know what the CPC has in its plans."
How odd that you'd say we don't have a right to know now. Trudeau was quite clear about implementing a carbon tax, BTW, so stop lying. He even gave premiers a way out of paying it but CONs declined the offer, and now they're whining about it. And making up lies like saying its responsible for inflation.
Lyle, you confess that you don't know how politics works without admitting it. A criminal defense attorney does not have to present a case until after the prosecutor closes his case. The adversarial parliamentary system works the same way.
Trudeau refused to say what his plans were for the carbon tax beyond the 2021 election. His previous environment minister said there were no plans to increase it. It is quite clear that they were hiding this from the voters.
The Federal Carbon Tax is part of the Government of Canada’s multi-year carbon pricing system.
As a registered distributor, TransGas collects the required amount each month and remits the charges to the federal government. The carbon charge on natural gas is set by the Government of Canada at the following rates and effective dates:
April 1, 2019: $39.10 per 10³m³ (approximately $1.00/GJ)
April 1, 2020: $58.70 per 10³m³ (approximately $1.50/GJ)
April 1, 2021: $78.30 per 10³m³ (approximately $2.00/GJ)
April 1, 2022: $97.90 per 10³m³ (approximately $2.50/GJ)
April 1, 2023: $123.90 per 10³m³ (approximately $3.25/GJ)
April 1, 2024: $152.50 per 10³m³ (approximately $4.00/GJ)
April 1, 2025: $181.10 per 10³m³ (approximately $4.75/GJ)
April 1, 2026: $209.70 per 10³m³ (approximately $5.50/GJ)
April 1, 2027: $238.30 per 10³m³ (approximately $6.25/GJ)
April 1, 2028: $266.90 per 10³m³ (approximately $7.25/GJ)
April 1, 2029: $295.40 per 10³m³ (approximately $8.00/GJ)…”
“ The Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (GGPPA) was formally passed into law in the fall of 2018, setting a baseline carbon price at $20 per tonne of CO2e in 2019, rising $10 per year to $50 per tonne of CO2e in 2022.”
Anyway, glad to see you admit Pee Pee gas no intention of telling Canadians what he plans to do.
Thanks for the history lesson and sound analysis. Your conclusions are bang on. First we threaten and then we hit hard if necessary. Hard enough for Republicans to lose the House of Representatives in the 2926 elections. Short term pain for us will lead to long term gain.
Absolutely. In addition, Trump's big enemy is Father Time. He is not immortal, and few around him want to deal with the cost of alienating allies and trading partners. We absolutely need to inflict maximum pain while drawing out the dialogue as long as possible. Play for time, and "make the game not worth the candle". And present a united face. No quislings.
Excellent analysis! I agree that we cannot acquiesce. That would be suicide. We have to fight back HARD. 2025 is going to be a tough year.
I have another big concern that goes beyond our problems across the 49th parallel. Putin, Xi and other leaders with expansionist aspirations are watching Trump’s next moves very closely. He’s ranting about taking over Canada with “economic force”, using military force to take the Panama Canal and maybe Greenland. Right now it’s just Trump talking, but it might become US foreign policy later.
What if Russian decides to continue its expansion into Belarus? Or China invades Taiwan? The US is setting very dangerous precedents that is upsetting the world order into chaos.
No truer words were ever spoken. I hope you make America bleed even though I am an American. I believe that those who voted for Trump will get what they deserve and hopefully learn a lesson about bullies.
Piffle. We are a strong and free democracy with plenty of might and resources. I think you will find Ms. Smith on the outs with the entire country for her obvious attempt to sell her province in exchange for personal preferment under Trump. No appeasement. We hit back hard and play for time.
How do you figure. We have a PM who’s resigned, but hasn’t, and a Government/Parliament that hasn’t functioned in months.
The citizens are being held hostage by a minority coalition of Politicians, many of whom are separatists, when 77% of recently polled voters said they want an election now.
Oh yeah, then there were the previous Charter violations as confirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada.
I agree. At the same time, our response should be based on fostering our own economic strengths and we need to take a new look at Macdonald’s National Policy. Starting with getting rid of barriers to interprovincial trade. I’m sure there’s no one on the national scene with the skill or interest to do that.
Absolutely right. On both points.
I appreciate that, coming from one of the smartest people in the country.
Canadian politicians are self-serving, parochial imbeciles. Don't expect any movement on interprovincial trade even though it is clearly in our own best interests. Cultivating a protected voter base is more important. That's why we are a country of cartels: banking cartels, transportation cartels, education and health-care cartels, labour cartels, telecom cartels, dairy and poultry cartels, grocery-retailing cartels... Dan is right that any talk about justice, or freedom, or fairness - let alone efficiency and productivity - is pointless in a conversation with Canadian politicians. It is ALL about getting votes.
Pretty much nailed it, except Dan made the point that it's pointless to talk to Trump about justice, or freedom, or fairness.
(Yeah, I was being ironic.)
You would think a hockey loving country would understand the need for the tough guy
We don’t need Gretzky
We need Tie Domi
Trump is like Gary Suter and his cheap shot against Gretzky
It was open season on Suter after that
That’s who we are - make the fucker bleed
It’s been said before but it’s worth noting one reason why Trump is solidly wedded to a zero sum outlook. The sector he operated in, commercial New York City real estate, is pretty much a zero-sum game. New supply is slow to come by and the markets are tight. The only arbitrage is from strong arming others at the negotiating table.
To be sure it’s just one factor in combination with his personality and mindset. Another hypothetical leader could have expanded their understanding of economic systems. Or could have noticed that one of his own closest allies built new companies and new wealth in untapped markets.
But Trump’s not that leader by a long shot. Like you wrote, there’s nothing to be gained hoping he’ll somehow smack his forehead and realize the mutual benefits of trade.
Very true, and an important point. (An aside: I’m delighted to see you here! Welcome!)
That zero-sum worldview sounds awfully familiar.
https://theconversation.com/vladimir-putin-how-to-understand-the-russian-presidents-view-of-the-world-93212
"Russia’s political leaders tend to treat foreign policy as a zero-sum game, where one state can only make gains if others lose." Yep, sounds familiar.
Well put. This just might be the best take on Trump I've read.
Same. I’ve read too many pathetic appeasement points of view from people who think trump is a normal businessman who will approach Canada on an equal footing. He disdains our country.
I reply mostly with what you say. However, I have one disagreement in that it is in our own national interest to address.
When Trump talks about it, smart people he trusts probably tell him the problem with drugs, money laundering and organized crime in Canada, but because he's an idiot, he can't articulate it any better than "drugs and criminals are flowing across our border".
As articulated in the CBC and the Globe and Mail recently, Trump allies in the law enforcement and national security sphere have been warning about deep issues in Canada with money laundering, organized crime and immigration that are causing problems south of the border. But they shouldn't be equated with the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants at the US/Mexican border. Everyone in this country is wrapped around the axle about increasing border patrols, drones and helicopters but our issues are more systemic. Here are a couple of articles published recently that articulate this better.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-canada-border-trump-drug-crime/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-canada-fentanyl-organized-crime-1.7404130
Basically, we need to:
- re-establish the Ports Police to clamp down on the fentanyl pre-cursors coming into the country
- properly resource the police, Crown prosecution service, and the courts to deal with complex organized crime and money laundering cases.
- Introduce anti-racketeering legislation like "RICO" statutes to effectively go after organized crime
-fix our intelligence-to-evidence problem we have in this country.
-reform our court system to deal with the disclosure requirements and extremely short time limits police the Crown have to bring cases to trial.
- paying more attention to who is getting into our country. According to a whistleblower with CBSA, about 300,000 blank passports were stolen and the senior management of CBSA chose to cover it up instead of report it.
https://www.thebureau.news/p/whistleblower-alleges-systemic-cbsa
In short, it is in our interest to address "the border". Just not in the way Trump and our politicians are bloviating about.
Otherwise, I agree. Even though Canada's sole national interest is to maintain good relations with our American neighbours, we have to make them bleed if they want to bring these tarrifs in.
This is all fine. My reference to the southern border was simply to give a sense of proportion. I didn't want to get sidetracked into details. In any event, it's all beside the point: Canadian and American officials talk about exactly these sorts of issues, and how to better cooperate for effect, constantly. If one party is unhappy with what the other is doing, they can escalate and get politicians to speak and urge change. Which almost invariably is enough. And if that doesn't work, it can be escalated higher -- with a call from one head of government to the other being the highest level. This is how we've cooperated for the better part of a century and it works just fine. There's simply zero need to skip all this and go straight to "do what we want (unspecified) or we'll launch nukes," which is what Trump effectively did.
Dan, you completely miss the simple point: Trump is trying to force Canada to do what is in our own interest, anyway. Why be ODD about it?
Same as when Trump tried to convince Europe (in particular Germany) when he was the 45th president not to become dependent on Russian oil. And he was ignored because "everybody knows" that whatever Trump says, do the opposite.
TDS is a dangerous disease.
If you’re going to simply ignore what I write, I’ll reciprocate.
I'm not ignoring, I'm responding. Canadian politicians have refused to do what is in Canada's own interests for decades. For decades we have failed to meet out NATO commitments; for decades we have sheltered protected sectors with tariffs and trade barriers. For decades we have allowed our border and security agencies to atrophy. It has resulted in a crisis, within Canada, that threatens to spill over even more into America. We are a bad neighour, so Trump wants to build strong fences...
Picking up the phone and asking Canada to clean up our act hasn't worked, Dan. Trump rightly understands that it will take strong measures to make Trudeau pay attention. Now you stop ignoring my points and respond with facts and logic instead of dismissive sniping - if you want to be taken seriously.
No, you're repeating what you've already said and ignoring Dan's response. It's obvious to everyone.
Can you conceive of any other ways Trump could have handled both situations? Perhaps you can reflect on how Biden shored up NATO when he knew Russia was going to invade. He began the diplomatic process a year in advance. I bet you didn't even know that. It was quiet and highly effective.
Lyle, you are an NPC.
In reviewing earlier writings over Christmas I came upon this piece I obviously missed earlier. It falls into the “the only thing Trump and his ilk understand is strength” camp and I agree. We are not as weak as Melos and are in little danger of being slaughtered and enslaved; however, it would put us on a virtual “war” footing as citizens would have to be prepared to forego some of their entitlements. Right now most of the opposition to PP is “he will cut our benefits”, some am not sure the citizenry would fall easily into line. Giving him what he wants now will just bring more demands which would in fact enslave us to his future whims and fantasies. He needs to be shown we matter to the well being of the US of A. There was a time at an Army base in Canada that the soldiers were being treated as third class citizens by the locals. On one payday the base paid all soldiers in $2 bills. The economy of the town was not damaged as it could have been by making it off limits, but the town soon realized just how much it depended on the base. That is what we need to do to Trump. As Dan states, Americans and a Canadians cooperate across the border every day to an extent most Canadians and certainly Trump are unaware of. The organizations involved just need to be given the resources, clear direction and support and many of the problems will diminish (they will never disappear).
I don't disagree with any of that, all of which has been neglected for decades. It all comes back to the simple fact that all it takes is a congenial phone call, rather than threats and a show of force.
The government has already made many congenial phone calls. The prime minister even made a congenial visit to Trump's estate. Trump responded with public to all these congeniality with public ridicule and humiliation.
Here's a question I don't know the answer to be have a hunch: Of the countless individuals and organizations Donald Trump screwed over in his long career, how many made "congenial phone calls" which Trump responded to by ratcheting up his ruthless behaviour? My guess is all of them.
Incidentally, I very much hope to be proven wrong about all this.
Our governments have, and yes, true to character, Trump reciprocated with more bullying.
Is a disgusting that so many Canadians side with that.
And that Canadians can deal with him as if he’s a respectful businessman who wishes to reach a mutually beneficial solution. How very naive.
of all I have read about and observed of Trump there are no redeeming aspects related to his behaviour and mindset. Contempt is not enough; I reserve it for his supporters. What really hurts the most is his contempt for any decent humanity and his admiration of despots. The misuse of cooperating lawyers in order to have people around him grovel for snacks while he is withholding dinner is only a tiny spark in his ‘despicability’.
I agree. But Canada has to convince Francois Legault to agree. Cut off power to the New England states and the US will understand that Canada is not impotent.
We have more leverage than we think, right?
I am a citizen of the US and could not agree more. “Canada is not Melos”. Stay strong and tough Canada!!
Instant subscribe. This will be my #1 priority in the next election. Any chance one of the major parties would take this approach? Do the Canadian people have the courage to stand together against a bully?
And do we have enough Canadian solidarity to stand together as a nation to endure some suffering?
That is the major question. I don’t see a lot of sense of duty in our society, but I think it could be awakened. If a critical mass of people come around to the fact that appeasement doesn’t work with people like this, then we have no choice but to be strong and look after each other through the hard times.
Sometimes it takes adversity to bring people together.
Unfortunately D. Smith held out today after the Premiers meeting. Not a good sign or look. It's new acknowledging Ford has the best measure of the issue, but I'll take it. Hopefully the front is united enough.
Some American journalists suspect Trump’s tariffs will ultimately be very selective. In other words, commodities like oil and gas will be exempt. So it might be moot for Danielle anyway.
Agreed, but nice that she was flushed out and her true colours flown. She was looking for a nice comfy berth for herself, damn the citizens and Canada.
Thanks for articulating this. I have little hope that we will have a national response from our present leadership. I have little faith that the guy salivating in the wings has the ability to build a national response as it might actually require more than a 3 syllable slogan.
You mean like these three-word slogans, Gail?
Because it's 2015
Budgets balance themselves
Build back better
Transparency by default
Conservatives are fascists
Conservatives are misogynistic
Conservatives are homophobic
Conservatives are Islamophobic
Slogans like that, Gail?
Touche. Grant, my complaint is I see no policy from the federal Conservatives. However I am open to hearing and discussing it. My experience in Alberta with the UCP is that much of the legislation being passed was not made public so I am disinclined to be trusting.
You will have your say when the campaign starts “officially”.
Hopefully you will be surprised. 🙏
NEVER trust a politician, Gail. You will surely be disappointed.
In our Westminster parliamentary system, the Loyal Opposition does not propose policy; it opposes the government's policies in typical adversarial style. This is supposed to improve legislation in the same way that an adversarial legal system is supposed to improve justice.
Wait until the election campaign kicks off. That's when you have a right to know what the CPC has in its plans. Disguising full intentions has become standard in Canadian politics, though. Trudeau never campaigned on ramping up the carbon tax four-fold, either. Notley didn't campaign on unionizing family farms...
"That's when you have a right to know what the CPC has in its plans."
How odd that you'd say we don't have a right to know now. Trudeau was quite clear about implementing a carbon tax, BTW, so stop lying. He even gave premiers a way out of paying it but CONs declined the offer, and now they're whining about it. And making up lies like saying its responsible for inflation.
Lyle, you confess that you don't know how politics works without admitting it. A criminal defense attorney does not have to present a case until after the prosecutor closes his case. The adversarial parliamentary system works the same way.
Trudeau refused to say what his plans were for the carbon tax beyond the 2021 election. His previous environment minister said there were no plans to increase it. It is quite clear that they were hiding this from the voters.
“Federal Carbon Tax
The Federal Carbon Tax is part of the Government of Canada’s multi-year carbon pricing system.
As a registered distributor, TransGas collects the required amount each month and remits the charges to the federal government. The carbon charge on natural gas is set by the Government of Canada at the following rates and effective dates:
April 1, 2019: $39.10 per 10³m³ (approximately $1.00/GJ)
April 1, 2020: $58.70 per 10³m³ (approximately $1.50/GJ)
April 1, 2021: $78.30 per 10³m³ (approximately $2.00/GJ)
April 1, 2022: $97.90 per 10³m³ (approximately $2.50/GJ)
April 1, 2023: $123.90 per 10³m³ (approximately $3.25/GJ)
April 1, 2024: $152.50 per 10³m³ (approximately $4.00/GJ)
April 1, 2025: $181.10 per 10³m³ (approximately $4.75/GJ)
April 1, 2026: $209.70 per 10³m³ (approximately $5.50/GJ)
April 1, 2027: $238.30 per 10³m³ (approximately $6.25/GJ)
April 1, 2028: $266.90 per 10³m³ (approximately $7.25/GJ)
April 1, 2029: $295.40 per 10³m³ (approximately $8.00/GJ)…”
“ The Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (GGPPA) was formally passed into law in the fall of 2018, setting a baseline carbon price at $20 per tonne of CO2e in 2019, rising $10 per year to $50 per tonne of CO2e in 2022.”
Anyway, glad to see you admit Pee Pee gas no intention of telling Canadians what he plans to do.
No, she means "axe the ax", "build the homes" "fix the budget", etc, whjile he rolls over and plays dead in front of Trump.
Thanks for the history lesson and sound analysis. Your conclusions are bang on. First we threaten and then we hit hard if necessary. Hard enough for Republicans to lose the House of Representatives in the 2926 elections. Short term pain for us will lead to long term gain.
Absolutely. In addition, Trump's big enemy is Father Time. He is not immortal, and few around him want to deal with the cost of alienating allies and trading partners. We absolutely need to inflict maximum pain while drawing out the dialogue as long as possible. Play for time, and "make the game not worth the candle". And present a united face. No quislings.
Excellent analysis! I agree that we cannot acquiesce. That would be suicide. We have to fight back HARD. 2025 is going to be a tough year.
I have another big concern that goes beyond our problems across the 49th parallel. Putin, Xi and other leaders with expansionist aspirations are watching Trump’s next moves very closely. He’s ranting about taking over Canada with “economic force”, using military force to take the Panama Canal and maybe Greenland. Right now it’s just Trump talking, but it might become US foreign policy later.
What if Russian decides to continue its expansion into Belarus? Or China invades Taiwan? The US is setting very dangerous precedents that is upsetting the world order into chaos.
Precisely. It’s utterly foolish.
Good approach. Perhaps we can discover our will again.
No truer words were ever spoken. I hope you make America bleed even though I am an American. I believe that those who voted for Trump will get what they deserve and hopefully learn a lesson about bullies.
Thank you for writing and publishing this piece. I agree with every single word in it.
Face it Canada is screwed. It is resembling a failed State more and more each day.
Alberta: we going to secure our border and work towards strengthening our relationship and economic conditions with the US.
Ontario and the Federal Government: We going to start a trade war and not worry about being a crime infested drug hub with open borders.
British Columbia: we are on vacation.
Piffle. We are a strong and free democracy with plenty of might and resources. I think you will find Ms. Smith on the outs with the entire country for her obvious attempt to sell her province in exchange for personal preferment under Trump. No appeasement. We hit back hard and play for time.
How do you figure. We have a PM who’s resigned, but hasn’t, and a Government/Parliament that hasn’t functioned in months.
The citizens are being held hostage by a minority coalition of Politicians, many of whom are separatists, when 77% of recently polled voters said they want an election now.
Oh yeah, then there were the previous Charter violations as confirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada.