One’s enemy reveals himself by degrees.
Vladimir Putin’s Russia did not suddenly show itself to be the enemy of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. At dawn on that day, yes, Russia launched air and ground assaults on Ukraine, from the North, South and East. Yes.
But Russia had been amassing troops on its border with Ukraine since 2021. Putin had penned bellicose essays justifying his planned war, promoting “the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” Threats were made, over and over, to Ukrainian leaders.
Russia’s transformation into the enemy of Ukraine did not happen overnight. It had been underway for some time.
So, too, Donald Trump. He has transformed himself into Canada’s enemy, and the word is not overstatement.
The dictionaries define “enemy” as “a person who is actively opposed or hostile to someone or something.” That is effectively what the newly-returned President of the United States is, now: the one who is actively opposed to us, as a people and a nation. The one who has repeatedly shown hostility towards us.
The evidence is not difficult to find – there has been a lot of it, for weeks, both before and after Trump took the oath of office (without, we note, placing his hand on the Bible):
– Trump has said he will use “economic force” against us;
– Trump has repeatedly said he will impose 25% tariffs on us, which will result in hundreds of thousands of Canadians losing their jobs and a recession;
– Trump has said he wants to take over Canada, and make us the “the 51st state;”
– Trump has mocked our duly-elected leaders, from Justin Trudeau to Pierre Poilievre.
And, this week, Trump broadcast his apparent hatred of Canada to the world – to an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos. (And, permit us some amusement about those who used to loudly fulminate about WEF-related conspiracies – and how they have gone deeply silent since their hero showed up there.)
Here are just a few of the things Trump said at the WEF:
“One thing we’re going to be demanding respect from other nations, Canada, we have a tremendous deficit with Canada.”
“If you’re a state, we won’t have a deficit, we won’t have to tariff you. Canada’s been very tough to deal with over the years and it’s not fair that we should have a $200 billion or $250 billion deficit.”
“We don’t need them to make our cars… We don’t need their lumber because we have our own forests. We don’t need their oil and gas. We have more than anybody.”
Those are direct quotes and they are lies. Pointing out the way in which Trump distorts and masticates the truth is always a waste of time, however. Everybody in America knew he was a liar, and 77,284,118 of them voted for him anyway. That never works.
Mincing down to Mar-a-Lago, cap in hand, to suck up to Trump doesn’t work, either. Trudeau and Danielle Smith both did that, each in their own uniquely gutless ways, and both returned home with bags full of nothing.
In Trudeau’s case, he got mocked as “Governor” of the 51st state, while Smith has been told – on a world stage, no less – that America “doesn’t need” Canadian oil and gas. Justin and Danielle have been in a state of denial for weeks, minimizing and denying the reality of what is happening. They’ve got Trump-induced Stockholm Syndrome.
The grim reality is this: Trump is a thug and a bully, and his threats against us are not a joke. He is going to move against us with more than words – and soon.
That is why Doug Ford is going to have an election in which Donald Trump is the ballot question – and in which Ford is going to win a bigger majority than before. That is why Jean Chretien wrote a wildly-popular newspaper column that declared Canadians will never give up the best country in the world to join the U.S.
That is why, in the same week, Stephen Harper spoke to a U.S. podcaster to say he has “a real problem” with Trump’s attacks on Canada – and to say he was “shocked” by Trump’s anti-Canada rhetoric, and “it doesn’t sound to me like the pronouncements of somebody who’s a friend, a partner, and an ally.”
Which brings us back to where we started: What is Donald Trump, to Canadians? What is America, which has been mostly silent about Trump’s threats against us? What is the best way to regard Trump, now, because he clearly is not our friend?
He is the enemy.
And the sooner we accept that, and act accordingly, the better off we’ll be.