Dougie93

but that's how the Imperialist game works, Old Bean, you construct barriers to create leverage, lowering them only as you get the concessions required

"51st State" is just rhetoric, really what America would offer is Protectorate Status ; Puerto Rico North that doesn't require America to involve itself in Provincial affairs, you get American military protection, unfettered access to the US market, and free movement to & from America, in which you get rich enough to pay for your own Frenchness, that's not America's problem

depends how far down the American imperialist rabbit hole you go, if America shifts to annexing Canada as a long term project, then the method would be to cut special deals with each region in order to pit them against each other, bear in mind that what Quebec receives in transfer payments from Canada that is just walking around money in Washington,

nobody cares about that in Ontario, the auto sector is under existential threat from Donald Trump, the Doug Ford Progressive Conservatives are not Pierre Poillievre Prairie Populists, the GTA is flipping back to the Liberals in the face of the Populist threat from America, and the GTA decides the elections,

exactly, there is no other role for the River Class Destroyer, you don't deploy Destroyers on their own, their entire purpose is to protect capital ships, and Canada doesn't operate any capital ships, and neither does the rest of NATO except the UK & France

but there are reasons why Canada consistently fails to do so, and those are deeply ingrained and structural dating all the way back to 1763, as in order to appease the Quebecois, Canada is designed and constructed as a very weak federation, the EU is not even a state, yet it is far more integrated than Canada is, Canada is the most parochial & provincial state on earth, wherein the Provinces have the power and the federal government is an afterthought

but the only imperative for fighter planes is NORAD, with the Americans become hostiles, that can be put on the back burner, spend the money on the army instead, new artillery & ground based air defence, new IFVs, UAVs, UGVs replace all the soldier equipment, small arms, then raise the pay across the board, build new PMQ's in terms of the air force, prioritize the Griffon replacement before fighter planes, plus buy ammo, from 5.56mm all the way to 155mm, you can't have too much,

Trump has altered the landscape, attacking the CBC has become a bad bet for the CPC, when Ontario is rallying around the colours, Doug Ford's PC internal polling says the Liberals are ahead by 15 points in Ontario, that's game over,

kids today are far more aware of the horrors in the world, exponentially so, the kids who signed up to fight the Second World War were utterly sheltered by today's standards, the First World War was not sold to them as being hell on earth, it was all sanitized, into a glorious & valorous adventure, like a Rudyard Kipling poem

Canada was born of the British Empire, when 25% of the world's population was British, making foreigners into Britons was the whole point, globalized free trade and the free movement of labour therein, was a feature, not a bug

I've been predicting this exact crisis for years now, right here on this forum, but the Greatest Generation did not start off as hardened warriors, I used to sit in the Mess with the Second World War vets from the regiment, asking them all about it, they said they were utterly naive, they joined because there was nothing to do in Toronto during the Great Depression, going to fight in Europe sounded like a great adventure, they had no idea what they were getting themselves into, until it was too late

Canada's peacetime political system is too sclerotic to move fast enough, the only way Canada can react to the rapid onset of this war ; is war measures

nobody thinks Canada caused this, not even MAGA supporters, even MAGA bros are saying " WTF, why are we attacking Canada ? "

I'm already going with Carney, Defence of the British Crown in North America supersedes any quarrels I have with the Liberals, the CPC is compromised, not only MAGA sympathizers, but looking to make a deal with Trump ; which is a trap only the Liberal base fears & loathes MAGA to the threshold of war measures, I have no partisan loyalty but to the House of Windsor, any and all measures necessary therein to defend HM The King : Cuidich 'n Righ

Canada is invoking war for national survival against the United States of America, an enemy vastly more powerful than Nazi Germany & Imperial Japan combined, Canada alone in the face of it, so by rights, Canada should be at outbreak of World War Two levels of mobilization, right now, Order In Council formally declaring the United States to be an Enemy of the Crown, immediate suspension of all military & security cooperation with the United States, State of Emergency : Emergencies Act : conscription of assets, resources and personnel as necessary, Stage 4 mobilization of the armed forces, Primary & Supplementary Reserve, to include all military personnel released within the last five years called back to duty, infrastructure projects placed under state control ; command economy resource exports to the United States suspended, overriding the Provinces by the Emergencies Act national mobilization itself as economic stimulus, America has already crossed your red line, moving at breakneck speed, Canada is on the front line, this is no man's land here now, the population must be psychologically indoctrinated for war measures; now is the time for shock & awe therein, there is no point in trying to negotiate with Trump, that's a fool's errand,

well bear in mind that the American Autoworkers union has come out in support of Trump's auto tariffs, so much for solidarity forever, but the American union is throwing the Canadian union under the bus, then Canada's Prime Minister has just stated definitively; "the military & economic relationship between Canada & America is over" realistically, you're not going to make up the difference exporting to Europe, so Canada really only has one place to go, and that is to Beijing, the 100% tariff on Chinese EV's was for America, it was America who demanded that tariff, so the question is how long are you going to defend the American automakers at this point ?

who is "we" ? the Trumpy CPC party ? who is with you Quislings in Canada ?

Canada is lowly by nature, literally the world's door mat

no, the institutions are still Woke AF, but Canada is beyond saving therein, so that's a wash in Canada, no party is going to confront it

I'm not an economic nationalist, Globalism has been very good to me, I don't vote with the industrial unions, I don't give a fack about the Canadian Auto Workers; give me my Chinese EV tariff free BYD is better than Telsa, BYD has an EV for $70K which is faster than a Lamborghini, Canada is already a culturally Communist country ; so no reason to reject the Chinese anymore, never mind that the Americans are deeply invested in China while forcing Canada to raise tariffs against China therein, stop being patsies already

I'm a Reaganite Neoconservative, so MAGA pays no attention to me, I would actually vote Democrat at this juncture, if they stopped being Woke Progressive lunatics that is when the Democrats realize that DEI, LGBTQ+ & Greta Thunberg is bringing them down, then they might win the elections again, in the meantime, I'll just wait out ; standing by

CPC is Trumpy AF even as a Canadian - American dual citizen, I will vote for the Liberals, not even the MAGA Republican base favours annexing Canada, no bible thumping gun toting pick up driving American wants Commie Canada to join the Union

sure, the Canadian "adults" in the American vassal state resource colony with no identity nor sovereignty of its own, knock yourselves out / shrugs

sure, we'll see, but after decades of inaction, and completely making itself into a American vassal state resource colony, Canada is going to have to prove itself capable of building anything at all, I wouldn't bet on it mind you, quite sure Canada will come crawling back to America to buy the F-35 in the end

nobody cares what Canadians say anymore, since Canada became the land of all talk and no action