, 01.25.2025 01:14 PM

My latest: who is the enemy?

One’s enemy reveals himself by degrees.

Vladimir Putin’s Russia did not suddenly show itself to be the enemy of Ukraine on February 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 massing 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 per cent 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 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 Davis. (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.)

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9 Comments

  1. Warren,

    You don’t EVER give a bully candy. Stupid people, like Smith, don’t get that. Our only way to push back effectively is to announce when we will cut off oil, gas, electricity and hydropower that flows south. There is a 99% certainty that such an announcement would force that asshole to back down. Trump plays hardball. It’s CANADA’S JOB to play double hardball. Otherwise, we get rolled with tariffs that start at 25% and go much much higher across all sectors of our economy. Fight that bastard now!

    • Watching Poilièvre on Peterson: agree with everything he said about oil and gas. I find it somewhat amusing that Pierre has come around to my longstanding position on value-added being done exclusively in Canada. In my first incarnation as a CPC member, Harper took little notice nor offered any encouragement when it came to address value-added being processed in Canada. That makes Pierre a lot smarter than Harper was.

  2. Sean says:

    I am intrigued by how Trump hasn’t fallen in line with Putin over the last week or so. He’s broadcast that he at least understands the Ukraine invasion was wrong at least from a strategic perspective. That’s not what any of us expected. I think we all anticipated demands for an unconditional Ukraine surrender on Inauguration Day. Why didn’t that happen? Its a big question.

    Canada should have followed Ford’s lead from the beginning by publicly musing about the damage Canada intends to inflict on the U.S. economy… That gets American’s attention, then it gets their legislator’s attention and then Trumps attention…. Because impeachment is always on the horizon for this entire second term. That’s the only way.

    Trying to resolve his alleged grievances about Canada was a big mistake from the get go because:

    1. He doesn’t understand / is not knowledgeable about any border issues. If any problems were solved, it would be impossible for Trump to acknowledge it. Facts don’t matter to Trump. Only sentiment.

    2. He doesn’t care about solving any problems. His only concern is about making his rich friends richer. So even if he understood that Canada made any improvements it just doesn’t matter.

    So, Ford’s approach is the only approach. He read the situation perfectly from the get go. Notice Trump hasn’t said anything about / responded Ford’s threats? Why? Because he and his staff takes them seriously and he doesn’t want to be held responsible for completely f%&king up the American auto industry. That will loosen his grip on moderate Republicans who might stray towards supporting impeachment, as his influence diminishes over the next four years.

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