1) “Not buying F-35 could threaten the existence of NORAD.” Horse bollocks. While NORAD does provide benefit to Canada, it always has been and always will be primarily aimed at defending the U.S.. Ending NORAD would also end U.S. access to the North Warning System - the series of early warning radars situated across northern Canada and Alaska. Doing that would be like the Americans poking both of their own eyes out - not going to happen;

2) “The U.S. and Canada have to be flying the same plane for NORAD to work.” Nonsense. Canada and the U.S. have never flown the same plane for NORAD missions. Canada went from the CF-100 (Canadian-built) to the CF-101 (U.S.-built but withdrawn from USAF service starting in the late 1960s - it remained Canada’s NORAD fighter until 1984), and finally to the CF-188 which is a modified U.S. Navy fighter that was never used by the USAF and so would have rarely been involved with NORAD operations. All that is necessary to operate with NORAD is that they have a Link 16 datalink system, which all the most recent variants of the Gripen come standard with; and

3) “Canada cannot afford two different fighter jets.” That’s a funny statement from a country that wants Canada to spend more on defence. Either way, from the 1950s through to the 1990s Canada operated as many as three different types of fighters/attack aircraft at the same time. Is the F-35 a lot more expensive than anything we’ve ever operated before? Yes - but if we cancelled F-35 entirely we could afford two different fighter jets and probably have money left over at the end.

To be clear, I think we should still buy the F-35, albeit in much smaller number than originally intended, to equip the forces we have in Europe. For defence of Canada something else is called for - preferably something from a country we can trust not to stab us in the back whenever it suits them.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/u-warns-canada-potential-negative-130028743.html

First of all, he is presenting his wishful thinking - not reality. If Alberta and Saskatchewan didn’t even hold a referendum during the ten years of the hated Justin Trudeau’s tenure, they’re sure as heck not going to do it when the PM is a centrist who grew up in Edmonton.

Second of all, polls consistently show that most Albertans have no interest in independence. The Western Standard, for what that is worth, published a poll recently which indicated that 41% of Albertans might be in favour of independence. Even if true, that still means that 59% are not in favour. And spouting off to a pollster is one thing - walking away from health care and pension and willingly living under President Danielle Smith would be quite another.

Third, despite all the cowboy hats and awful music, Albertans are not a nation or a “people” as defined in international law. As such, they have no right to self-determination. Québec has a much better argument due to the fact that they have a distinct language and culture. The UN recognizes the primacy of territorial integrity, and other countries don’t want to set a precedent for their own disaffected morons to follow, so it’s highly unlikely that any other country would recognize an independent Alberta.

Fourth, and relatedly, Alberta exists solely because of the 1905 Alberta Act - an act of the Federal Parliament. It’s now considered Constitutional, but in Canada you only need 7 provinces with 50% of the population to amend the Constitution. So if enough provinces agree and Parliament repeals that Act, arguably the government of Alberta would cease to exist and its territory would revert to direct Federal control. Extreme perhaps, and definitely it would be challenged in court, but don’t push us, Preston.

Lastly but certainly not least for this rant is the aboriginal factor. Alberta is Treaty 6, 7 and 8 territory, and you can be darn sure that its First Nations will have a lot to say about any project to make Alberta into a giant independent resource extraction site for a bunch of crazy white folks.

So bottom line, shut the F up, Preston. Nobody asked you to open your yap and inject your ridiculousness into a serious election campaign. And shame on the Globe and Mail for even printing it.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-preston-manning-western-secession-1.7501058

I agree with her 100%, which is why I will be voting for the Liberal candidate in my riding on April 28th.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/15wmSugPwT/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Today we have journalists and people on Social Media suspending acceptance of reality and allowing Donald Trump to define his own government as an “administration” - the same as his predecessors. But that is not what we call authoritarian governments in English. Think about Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin and every other dictator in modern times - they all head “regimes.”

So let’s please start calling the US government what it is: the Trump Regime. The sooner it is accepted that he has usurped the US Constitution and American democracy, the sooner Americans may be motivated to do something about it.

When this library was built, Canada and the US literally still had plans for how to wage war against one another (War Plan Red for the US and Defence Scheme No. 1 for Canada) - something that most of us now consider ridiculous and unnecessary. Or something, at least, that we used to consider ridiculous and unnecessary.

From a conventional military perspective we are actually much better prepared today than we were in the 1920s and 1930s, but we also no longer have the entire British Empire backing us up. If America attacks, NATO isn’t coming to our aid. Neither is the Commonwealth, or anyone else - at least not in the way most people hope they would. We’ll be on our own - the same geography that makes the US our only natural enemy also makes them our only natural ally.

So what do we do? We rearm, but rearmament takes time and industrial capacity, so what can Canadians do to help their country in the meantime. In my opinion:

1) We can elect a government which will take the threat to Canada seriously, and which is comprised of people with some experience and expertise in dealing with economic challenges. At this point that can only be a continued Liberal government under Mark Carney;

2) We can continue to support Canadian businesses and Canadian workers. Where there is no Canadian option, buy European or from one of our Commonwealth friends. And where all else fails, buy from those American companies which have taken a stand against Trump and his policies. Yes Costco is American but they treat their employees right, they’ve kept their DEI policies in place and they source many of their products in Canada.

3) We (if you’re still under 55) can go to the local Canadian Forces Recruiting Centre and start the process of joining - either Regular Force or Reserve. It won’t matter how many tanks or airplanes the government buys if the CAF does not have enough people to operate and maintain them; and

4) I hesitate to write this one, but I think we’re at that point now: we can sign up for civilian firearms training and go to our local Canadian Tire to buy a rifle and ammunition. That may still sound alarmist - hell it is alarmist - but the CAF alone is never going to be larger than the US military. If Trump’s mental illness does result in an order to attack Canada, and if the US military actually follows that order, then it will be necessary for every Canadian to participate in our defence.

To be clear, the point of all this is not to threaten America - it is to make it clear that Canadians are prepared to defend Canada, and hopefully through that deter any physical attacks against our sovereignty.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/us-border-canada-quebec-stanstead-library-1.7489528

Hellyer remembered this experience well when he was appointed MND by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson nearly 20 years later, and in 1964 he tabled a White Paper (a formal defence policy document) indicating an intention to both integrate and unify the three Canadian military services into one. Integration was intended to reduce overlap and inefficiency by bringing logistics, personnel and administration into a single structure, while unification was to create a single armed service - all wearing the same uniforms and using the same ranks, regardless of whether a member was an armoured officer, a pilot or a sailor. To say that these plans met with resistance from within the services would be an understatement. Legend has it that the RCN’s entire Atlantic Fleet officer cadre threatened to resign in protest, only to be convinced to stay by their Commander, RAdm William Landymore, who indicated that he would fight on their behalf.

And fight he did - going behind the MND’s back to make his case to the Prime Minister himself. Pearson, then and still Canada’s only Prime Minister with military service (he was a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War and is also the only Canadian to ever be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize), was sympathetic to Landymore’s position, but politics prevailed. Hellyer made it clear that if his unification plan did not go ahead he would resign, creating a scandal that the PM could not accept. So it was RAdm Landymore who resigned, and on 1 February 1968 the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force formally ceased to exist - replaced by the Canadian Armed Forces.

And whilst there was definitely value in integration, unification itself was quickly shown to be an unmitigated disaster. Uniforms and ranks were “Americanized,” equipment was retired without replacement and entire capabilities were simply thrown away. The loss of historical identities and culture destroyed esprit de corps, and Pearson’s successor as Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, was openly hostile to the military and immediately initiated the long period of political apathy and under-funding which persists to this day.

Yet there were moments of positive progress: Maritime Command got its “navy” ranks back in the 1970s, while both Maritime Command and Air Command got distinctive “environmental” uniforms back under Brian Mulroney’s government in the 1980s. The early 2010s under Stephen Harper saw the restoration of the services’ historical names (CA, RCN and RCAF - albeit within a still-unified CAF), as well as the return of distinctive officer rank insignia for Army and Navy members. There was also provision made at this time to return the RCAF’s pre-unification ranks (which can now be done by Order-in-Council), but thus far the RCAF hierarchy has preferred to retain its USAF-style ranks rather returning to the titles still used by its sister Commonwealth services, the RAF, RAAF and RNZAF.

These actions by PM Harper and his government have served, in my view at least, to remind Canada’s soldiers, sailors and aviators of the direct line between themselves and their antecedents - the 4 divisions of Canadians who broke the back of 47 German divisions in the final 96 days of the First World War; who fought history’s longest battle to protect the Atlantic Convoys in the Second World War; and who have fought and won in skies around the world for over 100 years.

Yet here is where I get to the point of this post - because besides the equipment shortages and personnel shortages there is one more thing that needs to be fixed. It is something which irked me throughout my military career, and which still irks me today. It is a small thing, perhaps, but it actually has a great deal of meaning, and it appears to me that it is within the CAF’s own existing authority to do it - but I may be wrong on that. It is the Federal Identity Program.

The FIP was created in 1970 to “provide to the public a consistent and unified image for federal government projects and activities.” Most Canadians likely have no idea what I am talking about at this point, but 100% of Canadians are very aware of the most visible manifestation of the FIP - the Canada wordmark - which to me just drips of bureaucracy.

This wordmark appears everywhere in Canada - government departments use it, Canada Post uses it, the Coast Guard uses it, etc., etc., etc. - and it is also used on aircraft of the Royal Canadian Air Force. And it shouldn’t be. By law, the CAF is not part of the government of Canada (the Department of National Defence is, but the CAF legally are “His Majesty’s Armed Forces raised by Canada.” Members of the CAF are paid by the government, but legally they are not under the command of the government; rather, their oath is to the King and the Commander-in-Chief of Canada is the Governor-General, not the Prime Minister. Of course in practice it is the government which calls the shots, but as the United States is currently finding out politicizing the military is a very, very bad idea. Canada’s military is loyal to the Crown, and (as illogical as it may sound) the King is never going to become an authoritarian dictator. Any PM who tried to order the CAF to become an instrument of oppression against the Canadian people would be refused, and likely immediately dismissed by the G-G. Isn’t constitutional monarchy awesome? (There is a reason that no other country in the world has adopted the US version of democracy, but that’s for another post.)

Regardless, it is for this reason that I really don’t believe that the Canada wordmark should ever be used on RCAF aircraft. The CAF are not part of the government, and they are not civil servants. The Army and RCN don’t use it at all, as far as I can tell, and the CAF is actually exempted from a requirement to use it based upon the 1990 version of the policy. So I don’t know why the RCAF does, but I don’t like it. Never have. They should do away with this vestige of “civilianization” of the Armed Forces and return to the distinctive “CANADA” or “ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE” schemes pictured below (All photos are RCAF/DND).

What do all of you think?

CF-188B with wordmark

CF-188A with “CANADA”

CF-101 with “CANADA” and lightning bolt paint scheme

CF-101 with “ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE” and proper RCAF roundel

Today, in my view, is another such day. Donald Trump and JD Vance made crystal clear that they are men with no honour, cowards who are enemies of democracy and who have brought enduring shame upon themselves and their country.

America’s international reputation was already in tatters barely a month into Trump’s second administration, and now there can be no doubt that it has fully turned its back on the free world. Uncle Sam is nothing more than a gangster looking to shake down others in some kind of crooked international protection racket.

Today is the day America died. And most Americans are sleepwalking through it, not having any idea what Trump and Vance have just done. Yet they voted for it and they are ultimately responsible for it. They and their children will carry this shame to their graves.

Don’t call us, America - and we won’t call you.

https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-updates-zelenskyy-leaves-after-clash-with-trump/live-71778629

I have also just discovered that Canada has essentially three primary steel companies left - Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, which is publicly held; Dofasco (originally Dominion Foundaries and Steel) in Hamilton, Ontario, which is owned by ArcelorMittal of Luxembourg; and Stelco (formerly the Steel Company of Canada), also in Hamilton and recently purchased by Cleveland-Cliffs, the 2nd-largest US steel producer.

It is Stelco, and most specifically the CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs - Lourenco Goncalves - which has motivated me to write this post. As you will see in the linked article, Mr. Goncalves ended his statement about the effect of Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs with the following words:

“And you know what? America first.”

I don’t blame him for saying that - he is an American and it would be unreasonable to expect him feel otherwise or to put Canada first. But that doesn’t change the fact that his company is in control of one of the three major steel plants in Canada. Plants that we will need to produce steel for the very infrastructure that we will use to reduce our reliance on the US market, and for the very weapons that we will build in this country to defend ourselves from, amongst others, the United States of America.

It is, in my view, just common sense that we cannot allow companies domiciled in countries which are hostile to Canada to own our strategic industries. We regularly prevent (or prevented) Chinese and Russian companies from purchasing things in Canada for reasons of national security, and it’s time to apply that to the US as well.

Whoever the next PM is needs to act to expropriate Stelco, along with other strategic Canadian subsidiaries of US corporations like GDLS and GDOTS to name just a few, from their American ownership and put them back in the hands of people whose loyalties lie with Canada.

*GDLS = General Dynamics Land Systems - Canada, which makes LAV-series armoured vehicles; and

*GDOTS = General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems - Canada, which makes artillery and other types of ammunition.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/international/2025/01/24/canada-mexico-steelmakers-refuse-new-us-orders/

That sucks, and of course it’s going to hurt both Canadians and Americans badly, but I wanted to point some things out to my fellow Canucks:

1) The sun will still rise on the 5th of March; you will still get up and go to work and continue doing what is needed to diversify Canada’s economy away from its over-reliance on the US market. If you lose your job, your fellow Canadians will help you;

2) This will hurt Americans first. They get 60% of their imported oil and gas from us, 90% of their imported electricity, 30% of all of their softwood lumber, and 70% of all of the aluminum they use. These are not things that US industry can replace overnight - if at all. They have no choice but to keep buying it from us, and American consumers are going to see increased prices across the board because of course it’s US companies and ultimately the American people who will pay Trump’s tariffs, not us. It’s an “own goal” of epic proportions;

3) This will hurt Americans permanently. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Once we sort out new export markets, Canada must never again agree to give preference to the US or sell to them at a discount. They can compete with other buyers and pay market price, which again is going to hit Americans very badly in their pocket books;

4) The government of Canada seems very much wide awake now to the reality of the situation. The talk coming from the candidates to be the next PM is encouraging - they seem to be getting that we need to lean into our strength, which for better or worse is natural resources, and minimize what we import from America. I looked at a list of things that we import now and I honestly couldn’t see anything that we can’t either make ourselves or get elsewhere. And Japanese cars are better anyway;

5) I’m honestly not sure that Trump will last as President for four full years. Once Americans fully realize what Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE are doing to everyday Americans - regardless of who they voted for - I think there is a good chance that the electorate will be angry enough to convince even the cowardly Republicans in Congress to do something. Of course whether Trump will listen is another question, and the fact that he is replacing career public-servants and military officers with toadies and stooges is not a good sign. But then the American population is also heavily armed, so save me some popcorn; and

6) At all times remember the words of the great Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, who was killed defending his own people but also Canada from invading Americans at the Battle of the Thames in 1813:

“Let us form one body, one heart, and defend to the last warrior our country, our homes, our liberty, and the graves of our fathers.”

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/trump-says-us-on-time-with-tariffs-against-canada-other-countries/

He is clearly setting up to cut Ukraine off at the knees and rescue the Russians from themselves - so that they can rebuild and continue to threaten Europeans and south Asians for another 100 years, while he himself seeks to dominate Canada, Mexico and South America as his personal fiefdom.

Well it isn’t going to happen, because western democracy - however imperfect - is worth saving, and the reality is that Trump is a moron being used by evil men to enrich and empower themselves. Why more people cannot see this when it’s smacking the world in the face is beyond me.

Either way, Trump should be impeached and removed from office immediately, with that idiot JD Vance and Mike Johnson to follow. And Felon Husk needs to be barred from any government office pending an investigation into what exactly his team of pubescent incels have been doing, and why.

It’s up to you, Americans. Because your weak-kneed Republican representatives and senators are more afraid of being primaried with Husk’s money than they are of you. Fill the streets, shut down the economy, burn the fuckers in effigy on the Capitol lawn if you have to - but get the message across that you are the ones in charge, not them.

And as for the rest of the world, we’re going to keep Ukraine going or else. Because just allowing Russia to win simply isn’t an option.

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20250219-zelensky-accuses-trump-falling-for-russian-disinformation

This does not mean that we will find ourselves in a shooting war with America any time soon, but it does mean that such a war is no longer unthinkable to Canadians, and it does mean that we will be preparing for that eventuality.

https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/braid-expand-canadas-military-not-to-please-nato-but-to-defend-against-trump

You see, trying to use rational arguments with American right-wing media is, in 2025, completely pointless. They don’t care about the truth. They don’t care about rational arguments. Going on Fox “News” is - unless you are there to parrot their pre-determined viewpoint - like intentionally going into the monkey habitat at the zoo so that they can throw excrement and bananas at you.

And another thing - I really wish that people would look more into the backgrounds of the “talking heads” that “news” networks employ. Bret Baier, for example, got a BA from a university no one has heard of, and then became a reporter. Not that all reporters are bad, but being a reporter also doesn’t make their opinion magical or special. They’re just doing a job. A job which doesn’t require any special education or experience. Not even a degree. A voice and a telegenic face, and you too can be interviewing the rich and powerful on tv.

And the reporters on Fox are paid to lie, to rage farm, and to push Rupert Murdoch’s endless right-wing poppycock. So just don’t do it - don’t legitimize them. Don’t give them content for their propaganda network. People who lie for a living should be ignored, and we should all reward the truth-tellers with our attention instead.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-bob-rae-angers-us-conservatives-after-criticizing-trumps-tariffs-in/

In that context the results of this poll are not surprising - either you’re a Trump fan or hoping for the best, perhaps. I look forward to seeing how the next poll turns out - assuming of course that Trump hasn’t shut down all the universities for being breeding grounds of “wokeism.” Which is hilarious because education is the actual point of them. Regardless, I am predicting now that the numbers won’t have shifted that much, and now I’ll tell you why.

Republicans are not good people, and they are scared. It’s really that simple. They claim to be godly, yet they act only for themselves, lack compassion and mock the idea of mercy. They are racist - despite professing the idea that god created everything and everyone, regardless of race. They are greedy - idolizing the creating of wealth over working for the betterment of their neighbours. And they are scared in that they are suspicious of everyone and everything that they don’t know. “Freedom for me,” they are saying, “not for thee.”

This last bit I would like to delve into a bit more based upon personal experience. I have been lucky enough to travel quite a bit in my life - and have visited most but not all of the 50 states (I suppose that’s a goal I’ll be letting go of now). I recall an incident in Kansas - a very Republican state, where pasty-white me and my pasty-white wife stopped in a small town for gas and a sandwich. Everyone - and I mean everyone - stared at us for the entire time we were there. The clerk in the store flatly refused to accept my wife’s bank card (despite it having the same symbol displayed on their door) because it was from “a bank she didn’t recognize.” As though a clerk in a sandwich shop in the middle-of-nowhere Kansas would have personal experience of every bank in America, let alone the world. And then, as we took a quick tour of the place’s quaint downtown in our car, we picked up a tail. The local police had obviously spotted our “foreigner” license plates and literally followed us all around town and then all the way to the Kansas border about 20km west. Very welcoming, Kansas.

Another example may have been on the same trip or a different one - I honestly don’t remember. I like Wyoming - fantastic country, and on the road to another of my favorite American cities - Denver. Now the entire state of Wyoming, in case you’ve never been there, has a population less than that of Winnipeg. So not that big. And the people are nice enough, but there is an underlying tension there that I could never place before today. It is, again, fear and suspicion. Fear of losing what they have - or perhaps more correctly fear of someone taking it. Fear also explains the American preoccupation with guns, but that is a topic for a different post.

So what is my point, you ask. Good question. It’s that I’ve never been treated badly or followed or sensed any underlying tension in Blue states. Never - and I’ve spent a lot of time in California, Washington, New York and Hawai’i, among others. So the problem with America is Republicans. They’ve been whipped up by unscrupulous politicians and even more unscrupulous religious leaders, and they will happily turn over their republic to an authoritarian cabal in exchange for “safety” and “owning the libs,” who are doing nothing more than trying to live an authentic life and allow others to do the same.

I honestly don’t know how America is going to fix that, either. How do you deprogram fear and suspicion from Republicans where the media ecosystem is still serving it up to them daily? Perhaps a great national project or an actual legitimate threat to their nationhood? I know the latter seems to be working for Canada - because every time Trump says 51st state Canadians feel more unified. Either way, I’m rooting for America and Americans as a whole. Y’all (see what I did there) deserve better than the leaders and corporations and “influencers” who have put you where you find yourselves today.

https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3918

And in Canada there is one organization that is involved in dealing with and protecting Canadians from all of these things - our Canadian Armed Forces. Spending 2% or more of our GDP on defence actually only provides the desired effect if the military has enough people to train and equip with it.

So whether you’re losing your job due to Trump’s tariffs or just want to contribute in your spare time as a Reservist, please take a look at the below website and see the wide variety of different jobs available in the CAF. They will train you and pay you to do a lot of different things that most people never get to see up close let alone do themselves.

And they’re not just looking for young folks - I’ve seen people as old as their early 50s join and contribute. I myself didn’t think I would end up as a “lifer” in the military when I joined, but I have zero regrets that I did.

https://forces.ca/en/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trump-tariffs-canada-february-1-1.7447829

Once upon a time, you had a political home and leaders who took your views seriously. Your blend of socially-progressive policies with fiscal prudence was a welcome and viable option for Canadians at election time. But today, you know as well as I do that since the merger of the old Progressive Conservative Party and the Reform Party in 2003, it’s been the Reformers driving the bus. There is no “progressive” in Conservative any more. Pierre Poilievre and his core supporters don’t believe in equality or true free speech or the value of a functional social safety net. I won’t go so far as to say they’re as bad as the Republicans in the US. But they are still people who want to take away the freedoms that they disagree with, like a woman’s right to choose, and cozy up to far-right insurrectionists and fascists.

Politics in Canada has never been as partisan as in the US - other than on CPAC I don’t think you’ll ever see a politician’s party affiliation after their name here. Angus Reid did a poll last year (if you believe polls any more) which indicated that 47% of Canadians identify as political centrists, 48% said the CPC has moved further right under Poilievre, and 43% said the LPC had moved further left under Trudeau. 36% of Canadians identified themselves as “political orphans,” with no party representing their views any longer.

Personally I think most of that 36% is us - because for most of my life I’ve identified as a Red Tory too, and I have felt politically homeless for a long time. I know that while some of you held your noses and migrated over to the Liberals, many of you have stayed in the Conservative camp - perhaps hoping that by remaining members you could pull the CPC back towards the middle of the political spectrum.

Well I’m sorry, but that just isn’t going to happen - at least not under its current leadership and not in the current political environment in the world. Felon Tusk and his merry band of far-right American billionaires have now taken notice, and we’re all kidding ourselves if we think they won’t try to pour money - legally or not - into making sure the CPC wins a solid majority in our next election.

What is happening right now, though, is that the Liberals are almost certainly tacking back to the centre. Whether the new leader is Freeland or Carney, both of these individuals are classic centrists. They’re Red Tories. Heck they even both grew up in Alberta.

So what I’m asking you - including any sitting CPC MPs who have Red Tory leanings (and here I’m talking to you Erin O’Toole and Peter Mackay, among others) - is that you consider coming back to the centre with us. Because 47% of Canadians voting for a truly centrist party is 100% majority government territory, and you know it.

Because what we need in Canada more than anything else right now is a government that will look out for the interests of all Canadians - from St. John’s to Montréal to Calgary to Victoria - and not be beholden to a bunch of tech bros, the religious right and insurrectionists who don’t even know that the First and Second Amendments don’t exist in Canada.

Peace, Order and Good Government - those are the constitutional promises that have made Canada great, and we need to get back to them. I already know you agree.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/google-maps-gulf-of-america-mount-denali-1.7444240?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar

For the record, I drive an EV and I’m very happy with it - but I also recognize that oil and gas are not going away any time soon. Building new pipelines east and west to supply our own refineries with Canadian oil and enable its export at fair prices to the world market is just good policy.

If Trump is wrong and the US does still need our oil, then great - he can get in line and pay world prices for it instead of holding us hostage and buying it at a discount. I feel bad for the Americans that are going to experience increased fuel prices (and increased prices generally due to increasing transportation costs for goods), but they had a choice and they chose Trump. Soon comes the “find out” phase.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-oil-pipelines-trump-tariffs-1.7438889

“Manifest Destiny,” the idea amongst some in American society that America’s destiny is to rule all of North America, is not new. In fact, although the term itself dates back only to 1845, Americans have intermittently been trying to conquer Canada and to a lesser extent Mexico since the Revolutionary War. What they forgot in 1777 and again in 1812 was that many Canadians were either the very same “Tories” who had been tarred and feathered by the revolutionaries, or their descendants, or Francophone Canadiens who similarly had no love for Uncle Sam.

So the US Army was kicked back across the border twice while Canada was still a British colony, and Confederation itself was in part motivated by concern that the victorious Union Army would turn northwards at the end of the US Civil War. Prior to the Second World War Canada and the US could barely be described as friends - and certainly not as allies. The Pentagon maintained up-to-date plans to invade Canada up until at least the 1930s, and Canada maintained up-to-date plans to defend itself from such an invasion until roughly the same time.

Real rapprochement with the US was motivated by US President Franklin D Roosevelt in the late 1930s. Roosevelt understood the threat to democracy represented by Nazi Germany and helped Canada and Great Britain, both of which went to war with Germany two full years before America did, as much as he could while still keeping the US officially neutral (although to be clear the US Navy was already fighting German U-boats in the Atlantic in April 1941).

Thus, it has only been about 85 years that Canada and the US have been allies. I say “allies” and not “friends” because while most Americans are friendly, accommodating and generous, their government rarely does anything out of complete altruism. There is always something in it for the US, and honestly I can’t criticize them for prioritizing US interests - that’s just human nature.

Anyway, my point in writing all of this is just to say that we’ve been here before - many times throughout our history - and the result now will be the same as every other time. Canadians almost universally don’t want to be Americans, and Donald J Trump is not the guy who is going to change our collective minds on that. The next four years is going to suck economically, but one silver lining may be greater trading opportunities with the rest of the world. The US under Trump is going to continue losing influence and allies, while we will continue to gain them.

Or maybe the US Congress will show some moral strength and use the 25th Amendment to remove Trump when he tries to invade Greenland. I’m not going to hold my breath on that one, though.