SpankyMcFarland

Why? In a word, Trump.

Never have started it? What??? How could any Ukrainian trust a balloon who would come out with flat-out falsehoods like that?

Let’s see how tough they are with Putin first. They seem very anxious to browbeat Zelenskyy but coy on what the Russians will have to give up. Trump’s tone about recent stepped up Russian attacks on Ukraine is deeply disturbing. Claiming that anyone would have done it is a flat out lie. For a start, most countries would not invade their neighbours.

Apparently, Canada doesn’t import US farm produce ‘for the most part’ and yet still managed to land up with $28.4 billion of the stuff last year. This is the sort of uninformed nincompoop we have to negotiate with: https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/10/politics/trump-canada-dairy-tariffs-fact-check/index.html Another issue I rarely hear discussed by Trumpsters - the number of undocumented workers in the agricultural sector down there. Both dairy and the rest are utterly dependent on them. Essentially, Trump is insisting we import even more proceeds of crime. Will these workers be getting a visit from Kristi Noem any time soon?

The market is delivering its verdict on Tesla. Here’s a new Kia ad:

I don’t condone violence at all but Musk has chosen to become an extremely controversial political figure and consumers can decide not to buy products associated with him. He has certainly been no friend of Canada.

Go back in time and ask any nation resisting Hitler why it’s being unreasonable and prolonging the slaughter. We live in a topsy-turvy world where those who saw reds under every bed want to sleep with them instead.

I mean patients or companies directly paying somebody to provide care without government in between. I came to this conclusion after having to scramble for a GP for several years.

Any Albertans here? What’s the local reaction to the RCMP getting involved in the health care kerfuffle? https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/ahs-rcmp-investigation-1.7476869

Sweet music to mine ears. At last I can utter the words “Churchill Falls” without risking a stroke. I have bolded the worst and best bits. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-hydroquebec-says-newfoundland-and-labrador-power-deal-is-clean-break/?login=true#comments

I think it’s prudent to assume that Trumpism isn’t going away and will be part of their make-up going forward. Leftist and socialist are losing their meaning as adjectives. The MAGA movement isn’t libertarian, for example. Most of its supporters like the benefits big government provides. If Musk and his oligarch friends actually go ahead with radical cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and social security, for example, they will split Trump’s coalition.

America has to manage its external relations better if it intends to keep willing allies in the world which it will certainly need as China’s critical mass of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs really gets going. If it retreats to a Fortress North America policy we may be doomed but the rest of the world will have more options.

I would suggest there is a middle way between being an enemy and a colony. We still want good relations with them but we are separate countries with different worldviews and interests.

The forces that impelled Trump to the WH and empowered similar populists across the West aren’t going away any time soon. He may not be a blip. It is prudent to start thinking about the possibility of a grim new reality becoming permanent. Yes, military procurement happens on a glacial scale in Canada but there is no harm in starting the discussion about what we should do if the US has changed permanently.

So what are you advocating here? No change at all? I would say that as in everything else we have to diversify over time and move away from complete dependence on one foreign country whose policies have just changed radically.

Everybody has baggage. If Trump keeps his economic war on us going, or even talk of it, I don’t think it will be as important as usual. Carney’s work experience is relevant to the moment at hand. He can’t be dismissed as an out of touch academic like Ignatieff.

Trumpism looks like it will outlast the Trump presidency. There’s no guarantee the US will ever be quite the same again.

Winning may be defined differently for the two sides. Ukraine is achieving something highly significant every day any part of its territory stays free of Russian tyranny, and the survival of any Ukrainian resistance anywhere will ultimately doom Russia to defeat. Ukrainians aren’t going to give up on the idea of an independent nation when they know how awful rule from Moscow is.

We have to start somewhere and we now know we can’t trust them.

The direction of the polls favours Carney at the moment. His party is still behind but heading upwards at a good clip. Why not try to capitalize on that, look prime ministerial for a few months while sparring with an incredibly unpopular foreign adversary and then go?

You live in Canada, right? Saying it’s about not ‘liking’ Trump does not in any way describe the crisis he has caused between our two states and the lack of trust that has resulted. Are you even going to address Trump’s outrageous recent behaviour?

I don’t know much about running central banks but I think there’s a little more to it than that. And it’s Mark, with a k. Crypto is a hallmark of traditional conservative prudence?

I’m trying to say what I think is the case, not what I want to happen. I believe PP is more vulnerable than Carney on the Trump issue because his policies and voters align more closely with Trumpism. The populist, PPC-adjacent wing of the party is quite Trumpy in its views. Carney has never flirted with cryptocurrency, for example. Canada is overdue a political change in management but Trump has disrupted the natural cycle. It’s going to be a much harder slog for Poilievre than it would have been in 2024.

Poilievre is vulnerable on the Trump issue. The Liberals clearly believe that because they’ve started those lines already. More fundamentally, a likeability deficit has dogged him for years - now people question whether he can unite the country. He’s got to look more like a PM in a national crisis and less like a snarky attack dog who appeals to angry losers. A word in defence of Carney. Since when did making it into ‘posh’ circles, ie success, become such a liability on the right?

Our fentanyl ‘exports’ to the US are absolutely negligible as I’m sure Trump’s minions know full well if he doesn't. We couldn’t make them smaller in a democracy. The US simply doesn’t want an EU-style arrangement with a common market for goods, political integration and shared sovereignty. I’d like to see more competition in some areas, eg airlines and telecom, but we don’t need the added risk of US retail banks up here and we shouldn’t allow ours to go down there either. Remember what happened in 2008? Donald Trump could put that risk on steroids. On dairy products, as far as I know doesn’t the US already run a large trade surplus with us? Their industry is heavily subsidized and staffed by the same illegal workers Trump claims he wants to send home. https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/10/politics/trump-canada-dairy-tariffs-fact-check/index.html As for what Trump wants? Being on TV today seems to be the driving need. Beyond that he has some half-digested bonkers notions about economics and resource management he picked up somewhere along the line.