For people that didn't understand, that's why all the trips and MOUs that have resulted. The clock is ticking. There's a few things on Canada's side, such as the Sec. 122 tariffs which could die on July 24th. Also the House is drafting a pro-CUSMA bill which seems to have wide support from both sides of the aisle. Northern state governors have been very actively promoting this bill.
No matter how many trips, it would be a long time before we could replace all U.S. trade and I'm sure that's not the goal. However we do want to be in a position of relative strength when we get to the table. Tick-tock but not trick talk.
“In our neighbourhood, we call the shots.” I take that as a threat! If you don't do things my way, we will treat you like Venezuela & Iran. I hope our PM stays away from Ottawa for awhile, even when he is "home". The lunatic in the whitehouse needs to be dealt with & Americans are sitting on their hands! Why? Why isn't he in jail? There's lots of proof to put him there with 1000's of pages of data & photos to prove their case. Very frustrating.
The U.S. legal system moves slowly and has a lot of constitutional limits around prosecuting a sitting president.
From Canada’s side, the smarter move is focusing on what we can control... strengthening our economy and diversifying trade so we’re less dependent on any single country.
Yes, thanks Fred, much appreciated! Yes, Carney is doing a good job on that. The friendships formed are vital to us being independent from our neighbours to the south. We have to put them in the begging position for once. I love Americans, don't get me wrong, but, their president is ruthless & only cares about himself.
Last year, American comedian/actor John Mulaney compared the Trump presidency to a horse that has broken loose inside a hospital: “It’s never happened before. No one knows what the horse is gonna do next, least of all the horse. He’s never been in a hospital. He’s as confused as you are."
The analogy is very funny, however legitimately worrying. Trump is the very unstable, vengefully angry and self-centered/-serving type willing to take the world for a most brutal spin, perhaps even for the sake of him making it into the historical-'greatness' books.
Trump, himself, may not really know what he's trying to accomplish with attacking Iran. Meanwhile, his lame and immoral idea of creating peace is compelling one side or party that: “You’re not holding any cards.” However, human beings, both individualistically and collectively, want to feel a sense of self dignity, and therefor Trump’s You’re-not-holding-any-cards likely won’t work.
And similar to the source of Iran’s sovereignty predicament, the deadly invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of its leader and his wife by Trump's U.S. was/is about oil, more oil, and even more oil. Greenland’s sovereignty is also threatened. It's blatant U.S. foreign-policy immorality and criminality.
He wades even deeper into ‘the swamp’ filth by siding with big-money military industrial interests and Netanyahu's Israel in un-provokedly bombing Iran last summer and again now.
... Early on Nov.6 of 2024, Donald Trump publicly stated: “Many people have told me that God spared my life [from two assassination attempts] for a reason. And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness.”
The institutional ‘Christians’ who still vocally and politically support Donald Trump tend to see him as literally Godsent. Many also perceive Trump’s presidency as divinely-intended punishment against liberals. If anything, he's evidence of a great evil being unleashed onto a largely powerless world. If Trump's presidency does end up boding well for the world overall, I believe it will have been accidental.
The results of an American public-opinion survey conducted in January 2025 revealed that most of the Americans polled who said they supported President Donald’s then-25%-across-the-board tariffs on imported Canadian products (albeit a minority opinion) suddenly changed their minds if that tariff ends up costing them that much more for those products.
The Not In My Back Yard mindset is depressingly alive and well, even between close neighbors. In Trump’s twisted case, it may be more like: ‘... ESPECIALLY between close neighbors’. And the bully-nation's expectation of his rightful fair share is three-quarters of the pie.
The bully is especially angered by the relative weakling (nation) who in the least stands up to him. Yet, he can also be disgusted by the relative weakling’s (trade war) timidity or ‘elbows down’ response and behave even worse.
In the Trump administration's case at least, the bully also fears appearing impotent by not unilaterally intimidating and/or exploiting via absurdly unjust tariffs against the comparably insubstantial nation (e.g. Canada) that resists his skewed concept of ‘fairness’.
Meanwhile, more national governments around the globe are feeling and expressing a growing yet morally misplaced sense of foreign relations and power-politics entitlement toward militarily and/or economically weaker nations, including Canada — one that we are expected to simply get used to.
And for us Canadians the bully dynamic extends beyond Trump’s America. There's an irritation especially expressed by China's government and seemingly now also India's when Canada — unlike with, say, mighty American assertiveness — dares to anger/embarrass them, even when on reasonable and/or just grounds.
With India’s government, Canada dealt (at least somewhat) firmly after Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Canadian Sikh separatist, was assassinated in Surrey, B.C., on June 18, 2023. Undoubtedly already aware of the diplomatic furor likely to come, even at Canada’s expense, an investigation nonetheless resulted in Canada charging three Indian nationals for the murder.
The Beijing leadership of the People's Republic of China was/is annoyed by the relatively-weak Canada having been the one to detain (on Dec.1, 2018) and hold on (albeit luxurious) house arrest Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei executive and daughter of the tech corporation’s founder.
Considering that a U.S. arrest warrant obligated Canada to detain her, why didn’t Beijing publicly express similar bluster towards Washington and, most notably, the then-first administration of Donald Trump? Because size thus capability definitely matters.
Instead, Beijing took the more bullyish/cowardly path by arbitrarily detaining two Canadian men, commonly referred to by the news-media as “the 2 Michaels”, under bogus espionage charges effectively as human political hostages. Quite unlike Meng Wanzhou’s “house arrest” in a luxurious Vancouver mansion, the 2 Michaels did comparably very hard time in mainland China for a total of 1,020 days.
The PRC could have more appropriately (in a moral/ethical sense) picked a couple of Americans to use as hostages but deliberately stuck with bullying and taking hostages from the relatively militarily- and economically-weak Canada.
No, that would’ve taken courage from the Beijing-based government. ... As it were, the 2 Michaels just happened to be released at the same time as the Trump U.S. dropped its charges against Meng Wanzhou, who was then released, for something political and/or economic in return from China. Indeed, classic foreign-policy-bully cowardice.
For people that didn't understand, that's why all the trips and MOUs that have resulted. The clock is ticking. There's a few things on Canada's side, such as the Sec. 122 tariffs which could die on July 24th. Also the House is drafting a pro-CUSMA bill which seems to have wide support from both sides of the aisle. Northern state governors have been very actively promoting this bill.
No matter how many trips, it would be a long time before we could replace all U.S. trade and I'm sure that's not the goal. However we do want to be in a position of relative strength when we get to the table. Tick-tock but not trick talk.
Good points, Jim.
Canada isn’t trying to replace U.S. trade... that would take decades.
The goal is leverage.
The more partners and contracts we have in place, the stronger our position when CUSMA talks happen.
Diversification isn’t separation. It’s insurance. Tick-tock is right.
Talk is cheap, real cheap from Mr T.
“In our neighbourhood, we call the shots.” I take that as a threat! If you don't do things my way, we will treat you like Venezuela & Iran. I hope our PM stays away from Ottawa for awhile, even when he is "home". The lunatic in the whitehouse needs to be dealt with & Americans are sitting on their hands! Why? Why isn't he in jail? There's lots of proof to put him there with 1000's of pages of data & photos to prove their case. Very frustrating.
I understand the frustration, Patsy.
The U.S. legal system moves slowly and has a lot of constitutional limits around prosecuting a sitting president.
From Canada’s side, the smarter move is focusing on what we can control... strengthening our economy and diversifying trade so we’re less dependent on any single country.
That’s really the point of the article.
Yes, thanks Fred, much appreciated! Yes, Carney is doing a good job on that. The friendships formed are vital to us being independent from our neighbours to the south. We have to put them in the begging position for once. I love Americans, don't get me wrong, but, their president is ruthless & only cares about himself.
Last year, American comedian/actor John Mulaney compared the Trump presidency to a horse that has broken loose inside a hospital: “It’s never happened before. No one knows what the horse is gonna do next, least of all the horse. He’s never been in a hospital. He’s as confused as you are."
The analogy is very funny, however legitimately worrying. Trump is the very unstable, vengefully angry and self-centered/-serving type willing to take the world for a most brutal spin, perhaps even for the sake of him making it into the historical-'greatness' books.
Trump, himself, may not really know what he's trying to accomplish with attacking Iran. Meanwhile, his lame and immoral idea of creating peace is compelling one side or party that: “You’re not holding any cards.” However, human beings, both individualistically and collectively, want to feel a sense of self dignity, and therefor Trump’s You’re-not-holding-any-cards likely won’t work.
And similar to the source of Iran’s sovereignty predicament, the deadly invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of its leader and his wife by Trump's U.S. was/is about oil, more oil, and even more oil. Greenland’s sovereignty is also threatened. It's blatant U.S. foreign-policy immorality and criminality.
He wades even deeper into ‘the swamp’ filth by siding with big-money military industrial interests and Netanyahu's Israel in un-provokedly bombing Iran last summer and again now.
... Early on Nov.6 of 2024, Donald Trump publicly stated: “Many people have told me that God spared my life [from two assassination attempts] for a reason. And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness.”
The institutional ‘Christians’ who still vocally and politically support Donald Trump tend to see him as literally Godsent. Many also perceive Trump’s presidency as divinely-intended punishment against liberals. If anything, he's evidence of a great evil being unleashed onto a largely powerless world. If Trump's presidency does end up boding well for the world overall, I believe it will have been accidental.
That Mulaney line is funny... and it definitely captured a moment in American politics.
The point of this piece, though, is a bit different.
It’s about the contrast we’re seeing right now... Canada focusing on trade deals and economic partnerships...
while the U.S. is leaning much harder into military pressure abroad.
Two very different approaches to influence in the world.
Sure it is 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
The results of an American public-opinion survey conducted in January 2025 revealed that most of the Americans polled who said they supported President Donald’s then-25%-across-the-board tariffs on imported Canadian products (albeit a minority opinion) suddenly changed their minds if that tariff ends up costing them that much more for those products.
The Not In My Back Yard mindset is depressingly alive and well, even between close neighbors. In Trump’s twisted case, it may be more like: ‘... ESPECIALLY between close neighbors’. And the bully-nation's expectation of his rightful fair share is three-quarters of the pie.
The bully is especially angered by the relative weakling (nation) who in the least stands up to him. Yet, he can also be disgusted by the relative weakling’s (trade war) timidity or ‘elbows down’ response and behave even worse.
In the Trump administration's case at least, the bully also fears appearing impotent by not unilaterally intimidating and/or exploiting via absurdly unjust tariffs against the comparably insubstantial nation (e.g. Canada) that resists his skewed concept of ‘fairness’.
Meanwhile, more national governments around the globe are feeling and expressing a growing yet morally misplaced sense of foreign relations and power-politics entitlement toward militarily and/or economically weaker nations, including Canada — one that we are expected to simply get used to.
And for us Canadians the bully dynamic extends beyond Trump’s America. There's an irritation especially expressed by China's government and seemingly now also India's when Canada — unlike with, say, mighty American assertiveness — dares to anger/embarrass them, even when on reasonable and/or just grounds.
With India’s government, Canada dealt (at least somewhat) firmly after Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Canadian Sikh separatist, was assassinated in Surrey, B.C., on June 18, 2023. Undoubtedly already aware of the diplomatic furor likely to come, even at Canada’s expense, an investigation nonetheless resulted in Canada charging three Indian nationals for the murder.
The Beijing leadership of the People's Republic of China was/is annoyed by the relatively-weak Canada having been the one to detain (on Dec.1, 2018) and hold on (albeit luxurious) house arrest Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei executive and daughter of the tech corporation’s founder.
Considering that a U.S. arrest warrant obligated Canada to detain her, why didn’t Beijing publicly express similar bluster towards Washington and, most notably, the then-first administration of Donald Trump? Because size thus capability definitely matters.
Instead, Beijing took the more bullyish/cowardly path by arbitrarily detaining two Canadian men, commonly referred to by the news-media as “the 2 Michaels”, under bogus espionage charges effectively as human political hostages. Quite unlike Meng Wanzhou’s “house arrest” in a luxurious Vancouver mansion, the 2 Michaels did comparably very hard time in mainland China for a total of 1,020 days.
The PRC could have more appropriately (in a moral/ethical sense) picked a couple of Americans to use as hostages but deliberately stuck with bullying and taking hostages from the relatively militarily- and economically-weak Canada.
No, that would’ve taken courage from the Beijing-based government. ... As it were, the 2 Michaels just happened to be released at the same time as the Trump U.S. dropped its charges against Meng Wanzhou, who was then released, for something political and/or economic in return from China. Indeed, classic foreign-policy-bully cowardice.