Wolves on the Wing

So there is a lot of pessimism in the Canadian press about the current negotiations between Canada and the US regarding the future of NAFTA, with many commentators opining that NAFTA's days are essentially numbered. Like many Canadians I share this pessimism. Trade deals require several ingredients for success, among them intellectual openess and awareness about your potential trade partners goals and concerns, a willingness to work together for a common goal, and a sense of good faith and trust.

It requires something else, something that if not present makes just walking away completely from such a massive deal a thousand times more palatable, and that is an adult in charge of the other side of the negotiating table.

Full disclosure here. I did vote for Trudeau in the past Canadian election but I don't actually like him. He strikes me as a bit too much style over substance for my taste. HOWEVER, however, if the Trudeau government decided that the alternative to Canada being bullied into a bad deal by Donald Trump and his...court was to just let NAFTA die and absorb the pain then I would commit my vote to his reelection.  Canada's future is too important to allow Trump to have any say over it and more importantly recent polls have shown that a majority of Canadians are leaning towards letting the deal die rather than taking a bad one.*

Now what I'm going to say is going to sound frankly insulting and for that I do apologize. It does have to be said though so I can set up my final point.

First, if America wants to continue to elect fools and idiots to represent them on the world stage then that is always America's perogative. But you cannot expect anyone to take you seriously, or at least "seriously" in a way that will be constructive for the US. Canada looking to give up on your biggest trade agreement should be seen as a wakeup call in that Canadians really, really, really LIKE Americans. We like your culture, your arts and music, your sports, your wilderness and cities, your serious achievements and your light hearted silliness. We have innumerable friends and family who celebrate their country a few days after we celebrate ours, play four down football with smaller balls, and who have figured out that, yes, you can get rid of "U" in a few words and it doesn't actually change anything.

Secondly, many countries don't like America and more importantly don't trust it. Nor do I think they necessarily should. When Trump was elected the thought occurred to me that perhaps Canada should pull out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and build our own nuclear weapons. Not to threaten or bully anyone mind you but merely to ensure that when an unpopular and incompetent president wants to boost his ratings with a war they don't attack us. We do have oil after all.

Now the question that raises is if a self described US LOVING Canadian is entertaining these thoughts then how in the hell is America going to deal with places like North Korea when the Commander in Chief isn't able to control himself on Twitter?

The answer is you can't. You don't have the leadership in place and I don't think you will for a long time. And that is very, very sad. :-(



*Those polls do not indicate that leaving would mean a vote for Trudeau. Once NAFTA is gone Canadian politics would be shaken up and what happens then could be anyone's guess. Feel free to submit scenarios in the comments if you wish. :-)

1. If you told me my team would come within a seventh game, sudden death overtime of eliminating the defending champs and going to the Stanley Cup final I'd have called you unforgivably optimistic. Well done on your season, Senators. Well done. :-) And good on you Craig Anderson on your upcoming Bill Masterson Trophy win. If you don't win then call the cops and report the robbery. :-)

2. Are there ANY members of Donald Trump's administration that aren't being investigated by the FBI or skewered by SNL? If I didn't know better I'd think they weren't very good at running the USA. At the risk of acronym overload this whole situation is a SNAFU of epic proportions that is becoming more FUBAR'd by the minute.

Ah for the good old days when a president giving the Russians classified intel from the Israeli's would cause the entire Republican party and its base to have a collective rage aneurysm. I miss you, Obama! :-)

3. The Ontario election is coming up and I'm voting NDP this time. I voted for Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals last time which wasn't a mistake per se in that it helped keep the Conservatives from power but....well, lets just say I held my nose, was proven correct in my concerns, and will vote for the NDP this time as a result. Assuming of course I don't get robo calls from the Conservatives misdirecting me to the wrong polling station so I don't vote. Such mischevious scamps, Conservatives. :-)

And for anyone who wants to ask "Why not just try the Conservatives" I'll just direct you to this article from Maclean's by Scott Gilmore, a Conservative Party of Canada member entitled "Confessions of a Self-Loathing Tory" http://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/confessions-of-a-self-loathing-tory/ that pretty accurately explains why I have given up on ever voting for the Conservatives, at least in their current configuration. It's a good read and articulates the big problems the Right Wing in North America has that prevent it from being palatable to moderate centrist swing voters like me.

4. I read a story about a postal worker who refused to give a comatose woman CPR and considering their reason was "I believed she had fentanyl on her shirt" I don't blame them one bit. After reading about the horror stories, the stats for abuse in my area, and the lethality of fentanyl if I found someone passed out I honestly wouldn't touch them either. I may be for legalization of drugs with proper regulation but when the substance in question is so lethal it can kill people through incidental skin contact then that's well outside the spirit of that concept.

I wish I had an answer but that is one problem that is going to get much worse before it gets better.

5. I wish I had something interesting about me to say but I never do. That's probably never going to change.