Fresh Old Ideas
Trump, like a naughty kid with a felt pen, is making Canadians mighty uncomfortable. He insults our prime minister by calling him “governor.” He blusters a disrespectful view that Canada should be a 51st state. He rips off in a tirade that Canada would not exist without the USA, which is just baloney.
His posturing has caused a lot of worry and has put mental pressure on many of our wonderful citizens. Some have suffered unnecessary anxiety.
There is a saying that I have long embraced. I am not certain of the actual words but a paraphrase would be: In all adversity lies the seeds for greater opportunity. For Canada this attack might well turn out to be the beginning of our golden moment. The following is a shortlist of opportunities for Canada if this imposed misery never returns to common sense.
Never before in my 87 years have I observed such extraordinary patriotism that is now blanketing across Canada. Paul Henderson’s 1972 goal that allowed Canada to defeat the Russians provided a lot of elation but it doesn’t match the coast-to-coast bonding that is currently evident in our home and native land. There is nothing that binds a society together with such a clamping grip as an external threat. O’ Canada we are a collective and we shall stand on guard for thee.
There is an unusual agreement with our national leaders that Canada will quickly invest in defence such that we will meet sooner, rather than later, our financial commitment to NATO. Our cheap ride has been an embarrassment for too long.
Canada has lagged in defending our northern lands. The majority of Russia’s nuclear weapons are in their high arctic. That is likely because Russia has historically viewed the USA as a threat. Canada is sandwiched between two adversaries. Russia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov has claimed that all resources under the Arctic Ocean belong to Russia. Canada will certainly be having a whole lot to say about that; like Clint Eastwood, “Get off my land.”
There is suddenly a nation-wide desire to defend our North West Passage which clearly is in Canadian waters. The USA, Russia and China pretend the passage is in international waters. Keeping these waters in Canadian control is as important for us as the Panama Canal is to Panama. The Northwest Passage is a shorter shipping route between North America, Asia and the Middle East.
We have for a long time been shipping a lot of our raw materials to the US.
They are our neighbours and long-time friends so it was easy to avoid looking for diversity in export markets. We may have learned a lesson that our economy is in danger when we are mostly dependent on a single market. When that single market goes rogue our whole country is challenged.
Canada was once a great manufacturing country. Massey Harris, Beatty farm equipment, Electrohome, and we invented the radio, the IMax, the pacemaker and many other products. This threat from the US has the possibility to encourage Canadians to become bigger builders.
Perhaps most importantly, we might finally get rid of the barriers to inter-provincial trade. That could add four per cent to our Gross Domestic Product, which would take the bite out of tariffs. Canadian products would have a bigger market within Canada.
We are an educated powerhouse for international trade and we can be a great example of a tolerant society with a democracy that works. We don’t need the US political system or their guns.
