You nailed it Lisa. Smith is as transactional as Trump is. Smith has been shilling so long for the oil and gas cronies that she often forgets that Alberta is more than oil and gas. This is what happens when governments become captive to private interests.
A new federal government will not appease Smith and her base. It doesn't matter who is in power. Smith is going rogue from her cabinet and Albertans. She doesn't give a fig about Albertans, she is courting America and the transnational corporate agenda.. Horner said "Let's sell our water to Montana " on cbc.
No conditions Smith. I hope the feds will use its' emergency powers to override you and put you in jail until 2027. Treason..
IM Citizen: What else will Danielle Smith give to the United States, at our detriment? We need all the water we can get, because our farmers will suffer.
As for your desire for the feds to assert "paramountcy" I infer that you are suggesting that the feds should assert the POGG, Peace Order and Good Government clause of the Constitution. If so, I again, disagree with you. Again, as is my democratic right.
The federal government's role is to make and enforce decisions and programs that are good for all Canadians, with special consideration for First Nations and Quebec, not to deify Alberta just because we have a few extra resources that are in vogue right now or to bow down to a bully just because she's in a skirt. Alberta has no more or less Charter rights than PEI.
The truth is an item that seldom escapes Trumps repulsive lips........but I would suggest some of us listen to a little of Richard Wolff.....if we want a bigger picture of what America is actually facing.
Wolff is a Marxist economist.....graduate of Harvard, where he sparred with one of his professors, the evil Henry Kissinger in fact, about the Cuban revolution. Anyone who paid any attention at all to the Kissinger years should know what a war criminal that man was....and the price politically engaged people in Latin America paid for thinking they had a right to run their own countries...
So an undergraduate kid from the working class who stood up to the bully in Harvard classes likely knows a thing or two by the time he's in his 80's.
Wolff says the American Empire is in decline, perhaps precipitous decline....and China is rising. China out produces them by a factor of three to one. Yes. American entre proners moved to China, took advantage of Chinese workers and gave us a few decades of cheap stuff. But now.........China owns a good deal of America's ballooning debt.......and perhaps a war with them will be necessary in order to renege on those loans......loans that made it possible for American consumers to get more 'cheap stuff'.
Have we noticed Trump is also threatening BRICS??? Do any of us advantaged Albertans know what BRICS is...nevermind how fast it has been growing as the genocide in Gaza proceeds and everyone but western elites get what that ethnic cleansing says about America's role in international peace keeping????
the BRICS countries want to get off the American dollar, create their own currency, and build trade relationships free of American bullying. Canadians should pay attention, because the original five...Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.........have been joined by quite a few more countries...but sure:
America could tariff them all. I'm sure that would shut them down in their tracks...NOT. It would likely speed up the movement to what we likely all need. A multipolar world.
Listen to a few Richard Wolff podcasts on the coming new global order........and consider: Canada might have more than two courses of action, one of them wrong.......in a new world of growing multiplicity....a New Global World Order.
Isn't that what free trade began by promising us???
I've just encountered his thinking on line......but the way he cuts through the rhetoric to the real meat of America's current dilemma is refreshing.....I've long wondered how an economy as indebted as theirs could possible have a currency worth more than our well managed Canadian dollar.
Nyet nyet. I have NO affinity to Russia. Gaza terrible but Ukraine ok?? NOT. The BRICS states are autocratic war mongering fascist states. Not Marxist. Why would I ally myself with Putin and Modi? The biggest disinformant states in the world. The Commonwealth even NATO without Russia, Scandinavia, Finland. Social democracues. Why would the left go right?
You're spouting the wests jingoism IM.....none of us in the privileged west know half as much as we need to know about the third world....but the need for an enemy keeps the oligarchs happy. Brazil actually has a social democrat in power now...after he managed to get out of the prison sentence a right wing, western supported Bolsonaro drummed up to keep him out of office.
He's doing what he can to protect the Amazon...but I'm sure right wing forces will secure their right to burn it. As to South Africa....it has lots of reasons to want another partner to apartheid prone America. India??? A more complex democracy than I can get my head around........and Russia??
We don't even remember who set up the Russian oligarchs and made Putin's rise to power inevitable......but one of those do gooders was Jeffrey Sachs.
Having enemies is easy...and perhaps fun. It won't solve the complex problems the entire world is facing.........cooperation/collaboration/trust are going to be necessary for that to happen. And of course, if it doesn't......the climate emergency will make all our affinities/ hatreds moot.
I'm saying that once war is declared, truth is often the first casualty. Language suffers also...and black versus white accusatory language begins to predominate.
What I believe, from my reading and knowledge of recent history, is that America worked very hard around the world to defeat a lot of liberation movements......because of her crazy fear of 'communism'. America was active in the pro western movements in Ukraine prior to the outbreak of this current war...........and given the cold war mentality that many in the west have been encouraged to maintain.....it seems obvious that no Russian leader would tolerate NATO armaments on their border. Yet for the last 30 years, NATO has pushed east.
I don't support war. I'm a sixties anti-Viet Nam protester...I was studying in Mass during that tragedy..........and America from what I know, had no business over there. Ho Chi Minh won in the end.......but let's remember...
America used AGENT ORANGE...on the Vietnamese people.
I'm not racist....at all. We're all human or none of us are. Other countries have the same rights we have to create governments that work for them. Most often, we need to mind our own business...not engage in 'foreign interference'
For me.....and for many years for the NDP....American imperialism was something we didn't participate in.
Today we have trade wars with fascists down there.......AND AT THE SAME TIME........full support for weakening Russia by continuing the devastation of one of the world's remaining food baskets. And let's not leave out our complicity with the ethnic cleansing of Gaza....we should have had thousands in the streets.........all the time we walked with the Palestinians there were at most 2-300.
Sorry for the long explanation..........but double standards are a sign of racism. Thinking American invasions all over the world have to be supported....or ignored....but we all have to sanction whoever America chooses to starve...
Make endless War inevitable.
I'm against War. Both sides have failed when war breaks out.....imagining one side is evil and the other justified is bullshit propaganda.
I try to read, research, and think against propaganda. Putin is no angel. He is the current leader of Russia...read a little John Pilger on Ukraine in 2014 and things become much more nuanced.
Ingamarie, I have NO natural or structural affinity to any of the named states in BRICS acronym except possibly Brazil and S Africa.
What Putin is doing is wrong. Zelensky is progressive. He has rw groups in Ukraine he was fighting, didn't need Putin.
But somehow Gaza is more tragic. It isn't. It's as bad.
I have plenty of natural affinity to social democracies in Scandanavia and Finland and colonised states such as Canada and members of the Commonwealth. We need to throw off the Crown of colonialism, free Canada from the monarchy who has done Zip or said Zip to support us thru this trump crisis and build trade blocks with these natural allies.
Allying with Brazil Russia, India, China? No thanks! Canada would get subsumed faster than the elephant to the south can roll over on us.
Need to strengthen our already natural alliances, the Commonwealth. Hello Britain, where are you besides hiding behind the elephant's ar se?
Step up! Canada has been your hand maiden forever, what you doing to protect t us?
And build trade with Scandanavia and Finland, countries that honour the public good, countries that will raise the floor not take us on a downward spiral.
Our position on alliances other than the one America expects everyone to have with her should be a position of open mindedness. If you follow international crises around the world you know that American dominance has led to tragedy for many of the earth's people.
It seems to me they have the same right as any of us to form alliances that benefit them. The point, which Richard Wolff recently made clear to me, is this: A PLANET DOMINATED BY AMERICAN MILITARY AND FINANCIAL MIGHT IS A PRECARIOUS PLANET. We see with the election of Trump, the ease with which Amerika can bully other nations......Canada is experiencing it now.
Trump thinks he's a king, and just maybe a God. The Pax Americana has been no peace at all.......for people in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. A multipolar world would decrease American hegemony and perhaps make for more equal and respectful international relations.
The genocide in Gaza has opened a lot of eyes to what Americans are willing to support and fund with military ordinance. I for one am hopeful that other nations say with some power, that they are not going to silent about that...........or complicit.
Canadians should consider being that 'honest broker' we think we are, and acknowledge all nation's right to do what's best for them....because just now....BRICS is suggesting there's actions other than cringing appeasement that can be taken against American bullying.
With regard to Trump's threats to take Canada, Greenland and the former Canal Zone, note Trump's early order restoring the Mt. McKinley name in Alaska. William McKinley in the early part of his presidency strongly supported protectionist tariffs, though later he realized freer trade would better enable the export of surplus American manufactures. But he was also an expansionist, annexing Hawaii and, through the Spanish-American war, adding Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to form a new American empire. I think McKinley is a model for Trump's presidential ambitions. You might wonder, how does Trump even know about McKinley's "achievements", since he does not read and is wilfully ignorant of history? Well, Karl Rove wrote an admiring biography of McKinley. Trump's ideas come from people he's listened to recently, so maybe Rove spoke a one-minute summary to him and he liked what he heard. Rove probably left out the bit about McKinley being assassinated, but may have told him that McKinley's successor, Teddy Roosevelt, acquired the Panama Canal Zone.
So just like Premiers using the Notwithstanding Clause, Trump is using his tools. Tools that previously nobody had never been considered that someone would abuse.
By declaring a national emergency Trump is probably making a case for a future military intervention without congressional approval. This is very clear in the case of Mexico, where Trump has declared drug cartels to be terrorist organizations, which allows him to send troops directly into Mexico without the need for Congress to approve. And in fact Trump has already deployed troops to the Mexico border.
Does Trump really intend to send troops into Canada? Crazy as it may seem, it can't be ruled out. He has said repeatedly that he would like to annex Canada to the United States. It would be foolhardy to ignore this. And by declaring a national emergency he is keeping his options open. We need to prepare for all possible scenarios.
The other thing to consider is that the US has a long tradition of weaponizing trade.
Great overview Lisa. This Trump term has begun with a whole wack of fire works specifically designed to disturb, disorientate and confuse and otherwise capture attention. A narcissist in action. It's taken many by surprise except perhaps other narcissists like Smith that seem to think 'watch me too'. Democracy - autocracy - whatever!! I'm in charge don't you know? The price of greed and attention could be very dear to Canada and the world. BRICS is watching.
An interesting read. Being skeptical that Trudeau government will follow through on increased border security is easy given the neglect & underfunding of that same entity for years. Canada is becoming a fentanyl production hub & money laundering continues unabated. Military has been absolutely neglected even more by Trudeau’s Lib/NDP govt than under Harper. A little less conversation & a little more action on security & defense would be helpful. Years of rhetoric then neglect, are working to undo the Canada project.
For pities sake George. The defunding of border security began under Harper....how quickly we tend to forget the penny pinching of the party we think has all the answers. Truth is....no amount of military spending will slow the growing climate catastrophe....and as to the border...we're responsible for keeping American guns and other contraband out........its on the Donald and his border spending to keep contraband from coming into America.
Revisit the last time you went across the border into America. Who was it again charged with checking you out before you crossed into that great fascistic republic???? Not a Canadian man or woman.
Does the Face Painter not get any blame because he failed for almost ten years to do or not do something? It matters not what Harper did or did not do; he is long gone. By contrast, in discussing policy TODAY it does matter what the Face Painter did or did not do, as the Face Painter is still (kinda) in power and, particularly, as it helps inform what the next PM is likely to do or not do.
I'm turned off and a bit ashamed of how often name calling substitutes for political analysis.......and for the attack we're facing from a right wing President with simple solutions to complex social problems........I don't think partisan gamesmanship is going to help us.
The border issue was just an excuse, and we should all know that by now. Besides......we're only responsible for our side of the border. What get's into the United States is a comment on how badly they are doing their job.
Donald Trump may convince some right wing convoy types in Alberta that fentanyl is flooding into the states from Canada...most informed Canadians know the real problem at our southern border is illicit American guns. I'll be happy if we step up confiscation of those illegal weapons.........but as for drugs entering the States.
It's the job of the American border police to curtail that. Name calling conservative politics is not only beside the point.......it's adoloscent.
Well, IM, I am not at all happy at DJT's antics but I absolutely think that we Canadians have consistently misunderstood him. Too many Canadians, particularly our worsers (definitely not our betters) in the political class have seen him as a talentless bozo of limited intelligence, a failed businessman because of the bankruptcies of some of his businesses. What they have missed is that he is a New York real estate developer who has adopted a persona to "deal with" his opponents, someone who uses the law, very much including bankruptcy law, to gain advantage over (cheat?) his creditors and someone who has no concern with how his antics affect others. I am uncertain whether he is a psychopath but I am certain that he is a sociopath. All of that must be understood in considering how be behaves; all is theater in order to achieve his goals, whatever they may be.
The border issue is real, I contend, but not in the way that he has stated (theater, remember); the drug issue is real but not in the way that he contends. I absolutely believe that there are people entering the US from Canada, bad people, but the quantity? Less than he contends. The same for drugs.
Of course, as you point out, we have a vast problem with guns crossing our border. Oh! That is OUR PROBLEM! We have an insecure border. If we had a secure border on this side - guns, remember - then that would as a by-product create a secure border on the US side. Yes, it is the job of the US to secure their border but why is it that we refuse to secure OUR border? So, yes, it is adolescent - to blame DJT, stupid fellow that he is in some ways - when we refuse to deal with our own problems and instead yell at the US to stop guns from coming in to Canada. Guns which are quite legal in the US - weird, that! - but Canada will not recognize that the guns are legal and step up our own border protection.
Sorry Ken...but there's a bit of slippage in your analysis.
1. Canada's job is to keep American contraband out of our country......and we should step up our ability to do so. But....
2. That has 0 to do with America's need to keep illicit drugs and people out of their country.........that is their job, not ours.
When Donald Trump claims we are letting illegal drugs and people into the USA........that is pure bullshit. If illegal material is entering their country from Canada...THAT IS ON THEM.
Understanding the border...........and that both countries are responsible for securing their country from infringements from the other side.......would have made the whole dispute simple.
AMERICA....IF YOU DON'T WANT ILLEGAL STUFF ENTERING YOUR GREAT COUNTRY...PATROL YOUR BORDER.
Same fort us, on our side. We've likely wasted over a billion dollars trying to appease an American president not even smart enough.....or perhaps honest enough.........to know how border policing works.
And shame on the Canadian media. They haven't clarified things either.
That bully president old white man is just manufacturing excuses for his desire to play the blame game, the theft game, the right wing fasicst game..............
He's trying to figure out how to finance the American Empire while giving his oligarchs a tax free holiday. And a lot of ethically challenged Canadian conservatives are helping him do it. For shame.
I guess sir that history is your long suit. Remember, HARPER IS GOME!!! Well,, those of us that actually follow current events know a few things:
1) Harper has taken on a number of international business and leadership roles, founding a global consulting firm, appearing in US and British media, and being elected leader of the International Democracy Union. You know that group that is made up of billions of capitalist oligarchs.
2) Harper has taken on the role of headmaster of AIMCo, that Alberta Corporation that oversees our public service pensions. The guy that silenced his own public servants is now in charge of public service savings.
30 Harper is still seen as the CPCs Trump. He has more influence in that party, as evidenced by conservatives never mentioning his foibles as PM.
4) The tariffs have been delayed for 30 days, not because of Denial Smith, nor p. Poilievre, but by a move Trudeau made before these tariffs became a reality. The border reinforcement was in the works, under the Biden administration. Do you think we could get two or any Blackhawk helicopters from the Republicans? Where did Denial Smith get the money for those helicopters she claims are patrolling the border by Coutts? Ah, yes must have been the tooth fairy.
Ingamarie: Regardless, the issue of border security is a meaningless matter, because Donald Trump has his (old) mind made up, and it's tariffs, tariffs and more tariffs. If the border was ultra secure, he'd still invoke tariffs.
I agree with you completely........which is why I'm asking Canadians to get their heads straight about what a border is and how it works. Nothing leaves Canada for the USA unless American border patrols have missed catching it.
Trumps use of the border reveals his utter ignorance of the border...he likely thinks its a wall...lol..........
I can forgive a stupid person for making mistakes that are in his interest......but Canadians falling for his ruse???
I was a darn good teacher..........and I'd suggest that a lot of us need to do a bit of homework.
Saw the same thing with Danielle and her jaunt south: Do we not all know she has no jurisdiction over international trade??? She can bully, whine, do phot ops all she wants......International Trade is a Federal Issue.
I think more Albertans than we may realize, haven't done much real homework in decades.....some convoy types even believed we had a First Amendment...thought Trudeau supporting Vaccine mandates qualified as Treason.
I disagree19 kilos of fentanyl compared to US of 9000. is not comparable the problem lies on the other side of the border. What's the real reason. Using tariffs from countries and over taking their lands and sovereignty.
Elsie.lammers@gmail.com: Fentanyl is extremely harmful, which is true. It ruins lives. However, what Danielle Smith and Donald Trump do not see is that it's a synthetic drug, and is easily produced domestically. They both are off the deep end, in so many ways.
You're on the wrong side at a time when it's never been clearer which is which.
In a nutshell, that's because only one side, to the never ending astonishment of the rest of us, no longer accepts SCIENCE. Seriously. In 2025. That includes medical science and the science of climate change.
And who knew that we really CAN get used to anything, including how many will swallow ANY lie if it just gets repeated enough times, (turns out it doesn't even matter by WHOM) because social media has converted millions of formerly-politically-disengaged relative illiterates into would-be "influencers" by giving them a platform to sort of "publish" on, and to the whole world!
And only one side are bona fide bad faith actors, ironically since joining forces with believers decades ago. "Project 2025" is the appalling result, a lurking reality (and horror) in Trump's "administration."
Bad faith actors because they've trafficked shamelessly in not just what we now call misinformation/disinformation/alternate facts, but what could be more accurately called "malinformation," making deliberate lying as endemic as social media itself has become.
Since the absolute success of Trump's first "big lie," delivered by his new allies, big tech, he's found the motherlode that he continues to run with, including with this last attack on Canada, among others.
(Hard not to think the super-religious Americans aren't even more susceptible to "big lies" though, speaking of platforms btw.)
The upside here might be the clarity that results from ONE important truth surfacing, i.e. which political party is destroying civilization as we have known it, most of us for all of our lives.
Tris Pargeter: As far as acting goes, Danielle Smith is exactly that. She is incapable of being a premier. Very good at misleading people, instead of being an actual leader. Not a team player.
Never joining Putin's army. I have never heard you criticise what Putin is doing to Ukraine. Ever.
Canada already has natural allies we can work with. Last I heard Finland hadn't invaded it's neighbour, nor Scandanavia nor the Commonwealth colonies, not England. Nor many of the nato allies. Why would we ally ourselves with fascists like Putin, Midi, Xi. These guys aren't Marxist IM, they're not our friends. Is your left really right?
I think you might be missing the point. This is about trying to live next to the USA. I know you Conservatives hate to hear such things, but there are two quotes from the left leaning leaders that you are so afraid of. J.F.K about Canada, "Kennedy famously describes the Canada-US relationship: "Geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies." and your nemisis, P.E.T. "Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt," So, it matters not whether we like their failed system of governance or not. They are our neighbour and both those former leaders (left leaning both) were correct. What people fail to recognize is the similarities between 1930s Europe's rise of Fascism and what the Republican Party in the USA has become. I agree we must broaden our trading sphere but when we have people in Canada making interprovincial cooperation impossible; one wonders, how this can be done.
Lisa: A very good Substack post. If she had the ability to hand over Alberta to the United States, Danielle Smith would do that in a flash. Her allegiance isn't to Canada, and she does not have our best interests in mind. A very dangerous person, and people were duped by her. For the betterment of this province, and this country, Danielle Smith and the UCP have to go.
You nailed it Lisa. Smith is as transactional as Trump is. Smith has been shilling so long for the oil and gas cronies that she often forgets that Alberta is more than oil and gas. This is what happens when governments become captive to private interests.
A new federal government will not appease Smith and her base. It doesn't matter who is in power. Smith is going rogue from her cabinet and Albertans. She doesn't give a fig about Albertans, she is courting America and the transnational corporate agenda.. Horner said "Let's sell our water to Montana " on cbc.
No conditions Smith. I hope the feds will use its' emergency powers to override you and put you in jail until 2027. Treason..
IM Citizen: What else will Danielle Smith give to the United States, at our detriment? We need all the water we can get, because our farmers will suffer.
I agree. These threats are a threat to our farms, ranches, gardens and domestic supply.
Nope. Disagree entirely. Which is, you will recall, my democratic right.
As is mine. As is my right to expect the federal government to make her comply through paramountcy.
IM, it is certainly your right to disagree.
As for your desire for the feds to assert "paramountcy" I infer that you are suggesting that the feds should assert the POGG, Peace Order and Good Government clause of the Constitution. If so, I again, disagree with you. Again, as is my democratic right.
The federal government's role is to make and enforce decisions and programs that are good for all Canadians, with special consideration for First Nations and Quebec, not to deify Alberta just because we have a few extra resources that are in vogue right now or to bow down to a bully just because she's in a skirt. Alberta has no more or less Charter rights than PEI.
And it follows then that Quebec or Ontario have no more rights than Alberta, right?
Quebec is almost a sovereign nation within Ca n ada.Ontario is just that. I won't be led into this age old Smithian trap.
The truth is an item that seldom escapes Trumps repulsive lips........but I would suggest some of us listen to a little of Richard Wolff.....if we want a bigger picture of what America is actually facing.
Wolff is a Marxist economist.....graduate of Harvard, where he sparred with one of his professors, the evil Henry Kissinger in fact, about the Cuban revolution. Anyone who paid any attention at all to the Kissinger years should know what a war criminal that man was....and the price politically engaged people in Latin America paid for thinking they had a right to run their own countries...
So an undergraduate kid from the working class who stood up to the bully in Harvard classes likely knows a thing or two by the time he's in his 80's.
Wolff says the American Empire is in decline, perhaps precipitous decline....and China is rising. China out produces them by a factor of three to one. Yes. American entre proners moved to China, took advantage of Chinese workers and gave us a few decades of cheap stuff. But now.........China owns a good deal of America's ballooning debt.......and perhaps a war with them will be necessary in order to renege on those loans......loans that made it possible for American consumers to get more 'cheap stuff'.
Have we noticed Trump is also threatening BRICS??? Do any of us advantaged Albertans know what BRICS is...nevermind how fast it has been growing as the genocide in Gaza proceeds and everyone but western elites get what that ethnic cleansing says about America's role in international peace keeping????
the BRICS countries want to get off the American dollar, create their own currency, and build trade relationships free of American bullying. Canadians should pay attention, because the original five...Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.........have been joined by quite a few more countries...but sure:
America could tariff them all. I'm sure that would shut them down in their tracks...NOT. It would likely speed up the movement to what we likely all need. A multipolar world.
Listen to a few Richard Wolff podcasts on the coming new global order........and consider: Canada might have more than two courses of action, one of them wrong.......in a new world of growing multiplicity....a New Global World Order.
Isn't that what free trade began by promising us???
I agree. Richard Wolff is worth reading.
I've just encountered his thinking on line......but the way he cuts through the rhetoric to the real meat of America's current dilemma is refreshing.....I've long wondered how an economy as indebted as theirs could possible have a currency worth more than our well managed Canadian dollar.
BRICS seems to be asking similar questions.
Nyet nyet. I have NO affinity to Russia. Gaza terrible but Ukraine ok?? NOT. The BRICS states are autocratic war mongering fascist states. Not Marxist. Why would I ally myself with Putin and Modi? The biggest disinformant states in the world. The Commonwealth even NATO without Russia, Scandinavia, Finland. Social democracues. Why would the left go right?
You're spouting the wests jingoism IM.....none of us in the privileged west know half as much as we need to know about the third world....but the need for an enemy keeps the oligarchs happy. Brazil actually has a social democrat in power now...after he managed to get out of the prison sentence a right wing, western supported Bolsonaro drummed up to keep him out of office.
He's doing what he can to protect the Amazon...but I'm sure right wing forces will secure their right to burn it. As to South Africa....it has lots of reasons to want another partner to apartheid prone America. India??? A more complex democracy than I can get my head around........and Russia??
We don't even remember who set up the Russian oligarchs and made Putin's rise to power inevitable......but one of those do gooders was Jeffrey Sachs.
Having enemies is easy...and perhaps fun. It won't solve the complex problems the entire world is facing.........cooperation/collaboration/trust are going to be necessary for that to happen. And of course, if it doesn't......the climate emergency will make all our affinities/ hatreds moot.
I am not supporting Putin. He invaded Ukraine. Are you saying I should?
I'm saying that once war is declared, truth is often the first casualty. Language suffers also...and black versus white accusatory language begins to predominate.
What I believe, from my reading and knowledge of recent history, is that America worked very hard around the world to defeat a lot of liberation movements......because of her crazy fear of 'communism'. America was active in the pro western movements in Ukraine prior to the outbreak of this current war...........and given the cold war mentality that many in the west have been encouraged to maintain.....it seems obvious that no Russian leader would tolerate NATO armaments on their border. Yet for the last 30 years, NATO has pushed east.
I don't support war. I'm a sixties anti-Viet Nam protester...I was studying in Mass during that tragedy..........and America from what I know, had no business over there. Ho Chi Minh won in the end.......but let's remember...
America used AGENT ORANGE...on the Vietnamese people.
I'm not racist....at all. We're all human or none of us are. Other countries have the same rights we have to create governments that work for them. Most often, we need to mind our own business...not engage in 'foreign interference'
For me.....and for many years for the NDP....American imperialism was something we didn't participate in.
Today we have trade wars with fascists down there.......AND AT THE SAME TIME........full support for weakening Russia by continuing the devastation of one of the world's remaining food baskets. And let's not leave out our complicity with the ethnic cleansing of Gaza....we should have had thousands in the streets.........all the time we walked with the Palestinians there were at most 2-300.
Sorry for the long explanation..........but double standards are a sign of racism. Thinking American invasions all over the world have to be supported....or ignored....but we all have to sanction whoever America chooses to starve...
Make endless War inevitable.
I'm against War. Both sides have failed when war breaks out.....imagining one side is evil and the other justified is bullshit propaganda.
I try to read, research, and think against propaganda. Putin is no angel. He is the current leader of Russia...read a little John Pilger on Ukraine in 2014 and things become much more nuanced.
Ingamarie, I have NO natural or structural affinity to any of the named states in BRICS acronym except possibly Brazil and S Africa.
What Putin is doing is wrong. Zelensky is progressive. He has rw groups in Ukraine he was fighting, didn't need Putin.
But somehow Gaza is more tragic. It isn't. It's as bad.
I have plenty of natural affinity to social democracies in Scandanavia and Finland and colonised states such as Canada and members of the Commonwealth. We need to throw off the Crown of colonialism, free Canada from the monarchy who has done Zip or said Zip to support us thru this trump crisis and build trade blocks with these natural allies.
Allying with Brazil Russia, India, China? No thanks! Canada would get subsumed faster than the elephant to the south can roll over on us.
Need to strengthen our already natural alliances, the Commonwealth. Hello Britain, where are you besides hiding behind the elephant's ar se?
Step up! Canada has been your hand maiden forever, what you doing to protect t us?
And build trade with Scandanavia and Finland, countries that honour the public good, countries that will raise the floor not take us on a downward spiral.
Our position on alliances other than the one America expects everyone to have with her should be a position of open mindedness. If you follow international crises around the world you know that American dominance has led to tragedy for many of the earth's people.
It seems to me they have the same right as any of us to form alliances that benefit them. The point, which Richard Wolff recently made clear to me, is this: A PLANET DOMINATED BY AMERICAN MILITARY AND FINANCIAL MIGHT IS A PRECARIOUS PLANET. We see with the election of Trump, the ease with which Amerika can bully other nations......Canada is experiencing it now.
Trump thinks he's a king, and just maybe a God. The Pax Americana has been no peace at all.......for people in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. A multipolar world would decrease American hegemony and perhaps make for more equal and respectful international relations.
The genocide in Gaza has opened a lot of eyes to what Americans are willing to support and fund with military ordinance. I for one am hopeful that other nations say with some power, that they are not going to silent about that...........or complicit.
Canadians should consider being that 'honest broker' we think we are, and acknowledge all nation's right to do what's best for them....because just now....BRICS is suggesting there's actions other than cringing appeasement that can be taken against American bullying.
I don't support trump.
With regard to Trump's threats to take Canada, Greenland and the former Canal Zone, note Trump's early order restoring the Mt. McKinley name in Alaska. William McKinley in the early part of his presidency strongly supported protectionist tariffs, though later he realized freer trade would better enable the export of surplus American manufactures. But he was also an expansionist, annexing Hawaii and, through the Spanish-American war, adding Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to form a new American empire. I think McKinley is a model for Trump's presidential ambitions. You might wonder, how does Trump even know about McKinley's "achievements", since he does not read and is wilfully ignorant of history? Well, Karl Rove wrote an admiring biography of McKinley. Trump's ideas come from people he's listened to recently, so maybe Rove spoke a one-minute summary to him and he liked what he heard. Rove probably left out the bit about McKinley being assassinated, but may have told him that McKinley's successor, Teddy Roosevelt, acquired the Panama Canal Zone.
So just like Premiers using the Notwithstanding Clause, Trump is using his tools. Tools that previously nobody had never been considered that someone would abuse.
I apologize for the massacre of the English language and poor grammar.
By declaring a national emergency Trump is probably making a case for a future military intervention without congressional approval. This is very clear in the case of Mexico, where Trump has declared drug cartels to be terrorist organizations, which allows him to send troops directly into Mexico without the need for Congress to approve. And in fact Trump has already deployed troops to the Mexico border.
Does Trump really intend to send troops into Canada? Crazy as it may seem, it can't be ruled out. He has said repeatedly that he would like to annex Canada to the United States. It would be foolhardy to ignore this. And by declaring a national emergency he is keeping his options open. We need to prepare for all possible scenarios.
The other thing to consider is that the US has a long tradition of weaponizing trade.
Great overview Lisa. This Trump term has begun with a whole wack of fire works specifically designed to disturb, disorientate and confuse and otherwise capture attention. A narcissist in action. It's taken many by surprise except perhaps other narcissists like Smith that seem to think 'watch me too'. Democracy - autocracy - whatever!! I'm in charge don't you know? The price of greed and attention could be very dear to Canada and the world. BRICS is watching.
An interesting read. Being skeptical that Trudeau government will follow through on increased border security is easy given the neglect & underfunding of that same entity for years. Canada is becoming a fentanyl production hub & money laundering continues unabated. Military has been absolutely neglected even more by Trudeau’s Lib/NDP govt than under Harper. A little less conversation & a little more action on security & defense would be helpful. Years of rhetoric then neglect, are working to undo the Canada project.
For pities sake George. The defunding of border security began under Harper....how quickly we tend to forget the penny pinching of the party we think has all the answers. Truth is....no amount of military spending will slow the growing climate catastrophe....and as to the border...we're responsible for keeping American guns and other contraband out........its on the Donald and his border spending to keep contraband from coming into America.
Revisit the last time you went across the border into America. Who was it again charged with checking you out before you crossed into that great fascistic republic???? Not a Canadian man or woman.
Harper, Harper, Harper!
Enough!
Does the Face Painter not get any blame because he failed for almost ten years to do or not do something? It matters not what Harper did or did not do; he is long gone. By contrast, in discussing policy TODAY it does matter what the Face Painter did or did not do, as the Face Painter is still (kinda) in power and, particularly, as it helps inform what the next PM is likely to do or not do.
I'm turned off and a bit ashamed of how often name calling substitutes for political analysis.......and for the attack we're facing from a right wing President with simple solutions to complex social problems........I don't think partisan gamesmanship is going to help us.
The border issue was just an excuse, and we should all know that by now. Besides......we're only responsible for our side of the border. What get's into the United States is a comment on how badly they are doing their job.
Donald Trump may convince some right wing convoy types in Alberta that fentanyl is flooding into the states from Canada...most informed Canadians know the real problem at our southern border is illicit American guns. I'll be happy if we step up confiscation of those illegal weapons.........but as for drugs entering the States.
It's the job of the American border police to curtail that. Name calling conservative politics is not only beside the point.......it's adoloscent.
Well, IM, I am not at all happy at DJT's antics but I absolutely think that we Canadians have consistently misunderstood him. Too many Canadians, particularly our worsers (definitely not our betters) in the political class have seen him as a talentless bozo of limited intelligence, a failed businessman because of the bankruptcies of some of his businesses. What they have missed is that he is a New York real estate developer who has adopted a persona to "deal with" his opponents, someone who uses the law, very much including bankruptcy law, to gain advantage over (cheat?) his creditors and someone who has no concern with how his antics affect others. I am uncertain whether he is a psychopath but I am certain that he is a sociopath. All of that must be understood in considering how be behaves; all is theater in order to achieve his goals, whatever they may be.
The border issue is real, I contend, but not in the way that he has stated (theater, remember); the drug issue is real but not in the way that he contends. I absolutely believe that there are people entering the US from Canada, bad people, but the quantity? Less than he contends. The same for drugs.
Of course, as you point out, we have a vast problem with guns crossing our border. Oh! That is OUR PROBLEM! We have an insecure border. If we had a secure border on this side - guns, remember - then that would as a by-product create a secure border on the US side. Yes, it is the job of the US to secure their border but why is it that we refuse to secure OUR border? So, yes, it is adolescent - to blame DJT, stupid fellow that he is in some ways - when we refuse to deal with our own problems and instead yell at the US to stop guns from coming in to Canada. Guns which are quite legal in the US - weird, that! - but Canada will not recognize that the guns are legal and step up our own border protection.
Sorry Ken...but there's a bit of slippage in your analysis.
1. Canada's job is to keep American contraband out of our country......and we should step up our ability to do so. But....
2. That has 0 to do with America's need to keep illicit drugs and people out of their country.........that is their job, not ours.
When Donald Trump claims we are letting illegal drugs and people into the USA........that is pure bullshit. If illegal material is entering their country from Canada...THAT IS ON THEM.
Understanding the border...........and that both countries are responsible for securing their country from infringements from the other side.......would have made the whole dispute simple.
AMERICA....IF YOU DON'T WANT ILLEGAL STUFF ENTERING YOUR GREAT COUNTRY...PATROL YOUR BORDER.
Same fort us, on our side. We've likely wasted over a billion dollars trying to appease an American president not even smart enough.....or perhaps honest enough.........to know how border policing works.
And shame on the Canadian media. They haven't clarified things either.
That bully president old white man is just manufacturing excuses for his desire to play the blame game, the theft game, the right wing fasicst game..............
He's trying to figure out how to finance the American Empire while giving his oligarchs a tax free holiday. And a lot of ethically challenged Canadian conservatives are helping him do it. For shame.
It gets tougher and tougher to be a conservative apologist does it not?
I guess sir that history is your long suit. Remember, HARPER IS GOME!!! Well,, those of us that actually follow current events know a few things:
1) Harper has taken on a number of international business and leadership roles, founding a global consulting firm, appearing in US and British media, and being elected leader of the International Democracy Union. You know that group that is made up of billions of capitalist oligarchs.
2) Harper has taken on the role of headmaster of AIMCo, that Alberta Corporation that oversees our public service pensions. The guy that silenced his own public servants is now in charge of public service savings.
30 Harper is still seen as the CPCs Trump. He has more influence in that party, as evidenced by conservatives never mentioning his foibles as PM.
4) The tariffs have been delayed for 30 days, not because of Denial Smith, nor p. Poilievre, but by a move Trudeau made before these tariffs became a reality. The border reinforcement was in the works, under the Biden administration. Do you think we could get two or any Blackhawk helicopters from the Republicans? Where did Denial Smith get the money for those helicopters she claims are patrolling the border by Coutts? Ah, yes must have been the tooth fairy.
Ingamarie: Regardless, the issue of border security is a meaningless matter, because Donald Trump has his (old) mind made up, and it's tariffs, tariffs and more tariffs. If the border was ultra secure, he'd still invoke tariffs.
I agree with you completely........which is why I'm asking Canadians to get their heads straight about what a border is and how it works. Nothing leaves Canada for the USA unless American border patrols have missed catching it.
Trumps use of the border reveals his utter ignorance of the border...he likely thinks its a wall...lol..........
I can forgive a stupid person for making mistakes that are in his interest......but Canadians falling for his ruse???
I was a darn good teacher..........and I'd suggest that a lot of us need to do a bit of homework.
Saw the same thing with Danielle and her jaunt south: Do we not all know she has no jurisdiction over international trade??? She can bully, whine, do phot ops all she wants......International Trade is a Federal Issue.
I think more Albertans than we may realize, haven't done much real homework in decades.....some convoy types even believed we had a First Amendment...thought Trudeau supporting Vaccine mandates qualified as Treason.
It's embarrassing.
I'm from planet Earth. Where are you from, "George"?
I disagree19 kilos of fentanyl compared to US of 9000. is not comparable the problem lies on the other side of the border. What's the real reason. Using tariffs from countries and over taking their lands and sovereignty.
Elsie.lammers@gmail.com: Fentanyl is extremely harmful, which is true. It ruins lives. However, what Danielle Smith and Donald Trump do not see is that it's a synthetic drug, and is easily produced domestically. They both are off the deep end, in so many ways.
You're on the wrong side at a time when it's never been clearer which is which.
In a nutshell, that's because only one side, to the never ending astonishment of the rest of us, no longer accepts SCIENCE. Seriously. In 2025. That includes medical science and the science of climate change.
And who knew that we really CAN get used to anything, including how many will swallow ANY lie if it just gets repeated enough times, (turns out it doesn't even matter by WHOM) because social media has converted millions of formerly-politically-disengaged relative illiterates into would-be "influencers" by giving them a platform to sort of "publish" on, and to the whole world!
And only one side are bona fide bad faith actors, ironically since joining forces with believers decades ago. "Project 2025" is the appalling result, a lurking reality (and horror) in Trump's "administration."
Bad faith actors because they've trafficked shamelessly in not just what we now call misinformation/disinformation/alternate facts, but what could be more accurately called "malinformation," making deliberate lying as endemic as social media itself has become.
Since the absolute success of Trump's first "big lie," delivered by his new allies, big tech, he's found the motherlode that he continues to run with, including with this last attack on Canada, among others.
(Hard not to think the super-religious Americans aren't even more susceptible to "big lies" though, speaking of platforms btw.)
The upside here might be the clarity that results from ONE important truth surfacing, i.e. which political party is destroying civilization as we have known it, most of us for all of our lives.
Tris Pargeter: As far as acting goes, Danielle Smith is exactly that. She is incapable of being a premier. Very good at misleading people, instead of being an actual leader. Not a team player.
You talking to me?? Conservative? What? Think this was meant for someone else.
Go back to school.
Never joining Putin's army. I have never heard you criticise what Putin is doing to Ukraine. Ever.
Canada already has natural allies we can work with. Last I heard Finland hadn't invaded it's neighbour, nor Scandanavia nor the Commonwealth colonies, not England. Nor many of the nato allies. Why would we ally ourselves with fascists like Putin, Midi, Xi. These guys aren't Marxist IM, they're not our friends. Is your left really right?
I think you might be missing the point. This is about trying to live next to the USA. I know you Conservatives hate to hear such things, but there are two quotes from the left leaning leaders that you are so afraid of. J.F.K about Canada, "Kennedy famously describes the Canada-US relationship: "Geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies." and your nemisis, P.E.T. "Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt," So, it matters not whether we like their failed system of governance or not. They are our neighbour and both those former leaders (left leaning both) were correct. What people fail to recognize is the similarities between 1930s Europe's rise of Fascism and what the Republican Party in the USA has become. I agree we must broaden our trading sphere but when we have people in Canada making interprovincial cooperation impossible; one wonders, how this can be done.
Lisa: A very good Substack post. If she had the ability to hand over Alberta to the United States, Danielle Smith would do that in a flash. Her allegiance isn't to Canada, and she does not have our best interests in mind. A very dangerous person, and people were duped by her. For the betterment of this province, and this country, Danielle Smith and the UCP have to go.
Lisa this sums it up,” Our government, I believe, must step off the tightrope and join Team Canada, unconditionally.”
Well said!
I noticed that very recent trend regarding the usage of the word tariff as a verb. It annoyed me. Thank you.