SpankyMcFarland

Relatively speaking, the export of fentanyl to the US from Canada is a small part of their problem compared to Mexico. Our producers simply can’t compete on price. Surely, that is obvious? Of course, the real drivers of this malign industry are the users. How about talking up the importance of personal responsibility instead of blaming our country here? And what does the flabby orange balloon have to say about the drugs and guns flowing north? Has anybody told him about them?

That was the analogy used by Professor Ian Lee. South Africans would call him a hensopper which I presume needs no translation.

There is no real fentanyl crisis on our border. That’s a straight lie. To discuss that seriously is to humour a delusion. Fact: we’re not going to completely eliminate fentanyl from our country and therefore we can’t guarantee that a tiny percentage of that won’t leak across the border.

Just saw that American orange balloon on the TV saying, “they owe us a lot of money”. Does Dominion owe me money because I bought stuff there?

This outrageous move by Trump will generate lasting ill-will and distrust in Canada. Any sensible American leader would be factoring the effect of that into their security calculations as well.

If a neighbouring friendly country has a problem with our policies, the normal, civilized way for rule of law democracies to start addressing the issues would be to engage in negotiations over them through the usual channels. That’s what the US has been preaching to other countries since 1945. Giving into a bully is appeasement. The US under Trump is hostile to our economic interests. He wants to damage our economy in the short-term through tariffs and long-term by forcing companies to leave here. He has a primitive, mercantilist view of economics.

Yes, a tiny amount of fentanyl flows south but to go along with the Trump lie is outrageous for any Canadian politician at this time. The drugs trade is an ubiquitous global problem caused by demand. Anyone who says they can stop it, especially in a large rule of law country, is ignorant, dishonest or both.

I can see the economic argument for Canada not responding with tariffs ourselves: https://financialpost.com/news/economy/better-ways-canada-fight-back-trade-war But I don’t agree with it. This isn’t a standard trade issue because the person we are negotiating with is neither rational nor well informed and I’m afraid some pain must be inflicted by us on red states in particular if the other side is going to see reason.

The UK is still less than 10% Asian. One sees a lot of news about majority Asian constituencies but there are not that many of them.

There were other, fairly legitimate, reasons for putting tariffs on China already. This round of tariffs was explicitly linked to fentanyl.

Trump’s intentions couldn’t be clearer. The old world order, based on rule of law, is on its way out:

The fentanyl problem has its origin in China, America’s new competitor across every domain, and yet Trump only puts a 10% tariff on them.

So appeasement is your answer?

No Canadian should visit the US unless they absolutely have to until this is sorted out.

Trump’s tariffs on businesses and ordinary people will be spent on tax giveaways to the ultra-rich and the deportation industry.

That’s just the usual rhetoric pols come out with. Modi is still a pal of Putin as well. Neither he nor Trump even want close allies. India led the non-aligned movement and remains deeply suspicious of the US.

India is never going to be a close friend of the US and doesn’t want to be either. It sees China and America as two adversaries it must balance. On Ukraine, India is neutral, really pro-Russian, and has done very well from the cheap Russian oil resulting. The only country America seems anxious to please these days is Israel which doesn’t have a choice in allies and whose policies divide the West.

I would question whether Trump actually knows that.

Ukraine wins by surviving and continuing the struggle to regain lost territory. The disparity in motivation between the two sides is stark. The Russians will have to go home in the end.

Less than 1% of US fentanyl seizures occur at the Canadian border. Our criminals simply can’t compete with their Mexican colleagues on price. Trump and Lutnick don’t seem to be aware of this.

Kim Campbell’s record won’t be broken. The rest depends mainly on Trump.

From the Daily Mail, no friend of Sanders:

Get ready for the future, folks: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/28/chinese-ai-chatbot-deepseek-censors-itself-in-realtime-users-report

Trump is trying to make it into a simple choice like that but we shouldn’t. I don’t think we should just surrender unconditionally to the demands of a foreign government without examining carefully whether they are reasonable first. Let’s have some respect for our country and our sovereignty here.

I don’t like the way he debates with other people and the confidence with which he makes predictions. I’ve never seen him go back over all those predictions and assess how accurate he has been. Some years ago he was in a panel with a female economist on CBC and he just talked over her constantly. There is a great deal political about him from my point of view.