What next?
This much we know: Canadians, who apologize when someone else steps on their foot, are very, very angry. When we boo the American anthem at NBA and NHL games — instead of helping out with the singing, in those occasional microphone-failure moments — well, that’s Canadian-style angry. Second World War take-no-German prisoners angry.
And Trump? “Anger” doesn’t quite capture it. Free advice from a former adviser to a prime minister, Secret Service: don’t bring him to the G7 at Kananaskis in June. Just don’t. You’ll be contending with a lot more than the grizzly bear threat. Believe it.
The stuff I’ve heard from otherwise mild-mannered Canadians about what they’d like to see done to Trump? Stay away, Yanks. It actually isn’t safe.
Meanwhile, Canadians are feeling angry and betrayed by Americans themselves, too — and not just the death-cult MAGA Republicans. When even arch-leftist Senator Bernie Sanders is saying he favours an American takeover of Canada, you know we don’t have friends down there anymore. Even the Canadian comedians we mail south by the truckload are silent when their homeland is under attack.
So, we will never fully trust them again. As one pal said to me this weekend: this isn’t a friendship anymore. It’s an abusive relationship. “And we’d be crazy to go crawling back to our abuser,” said he.
Besides: Trump is a lunatic, and it’s foolhardy to believe he’s now going to abruptly change course. He’s a kamikaze pilot, flying all of us into the side of a cliff. The guy whose businesses have gone bankrupt six times, controlling the world economy: That’s a story that was never going to have a happy ending.
So, again, what do we do? Well, plenty. All of us can do something.
Justin Trudeau’s Sunday night speech was excellent — his finest moment, coming as it did in his last few days as prime minister. Pierre Poilievre’s plan for fighting back is exactly what we need to do as a country — every word. And Doug Ford’s moves — particularly his Monday cancellation of a $100-million contract with fascist-saluting Elon Musk’s Starlink — are going to be remembered by the American thugs for a long time.
Elsewhere, a people-led Buy Canadian campaign is underway, from coast to coast. It’ll have an impact. So, too, the many Canadians who have cancelled travel to the Unhinged States, and who now plan to spend elsewhere. People power works, even with a United States that is becoming less like a democracy every day.
If you are in favour of a segmented approach, like B.C. Premier David Eby, Starbucks overwhelmingly supports the Democrats and gives less to the Republicans than any other national food/beverage chain. Only Chipotle gives more to the Democrats.
Make Trump hurt, make him bleed, with the only thing he understands or appreciates: Money. Going after Trump, the politician, is fun but won’t move the needle. Going after Trump’s decisions — particularly the economic ones — will move the needle. That’s how to defeat him.
Nationally, provincially and municipally, we need to do what Trump could never do: Get people together. We need to assemble every living Canadian prime minister and opposition leader to speak with one voice and rally the country.
And we don’t need an election in the middle of this crisis, folks. Sorry. That’ll just showcase our divisions to the Americans. If anything, we need the opposite: We need an all-party coalition government, ideally led by Poilievre, who has the best plan and a seat in the House of Commons. Because, really, none of our leaders disagree on the fundamentals about what needs to be done. That’ll showcase unity. Do that instead.
For your emotional well-being, don’t occupy yourself with woulda coulda shoulda. It’s a waste of brain matter. As our former ambassador Derek Burney said on AM640 on Friday, agreeing with my contention that Trump’s fentanyl and border claims were fabrications, and flimsy pretexts to get him out of the trade deal he himself signed with us and Mexico: “It’s bogus.” Trump is a liar. Satisfy him on fentanyl or the border, and he’ll just cook up some other excuse to hurt us.
All you need to know about how we got here is this: In the United States, 54% of adults have a literacy below a Grade 6 level, 20% are below Grade 5 level, and 21% are illiterate (Source: The National Literacy Institute). Those Americans are the Trump base, and facts don’t work with them. Waste of breath.
What works instead is blunt, brute force. Let’s apply some, and make it hurt.