Does anyone think for a second that a man [(Trump)] who brags about attacking his own citizens will let Canada off with a gentleman's trade agreement?
The rhetoric from Washington is escalating. FBI director Kash Patel accused us of flooding the United States with terrorists. Homeland Security director Kristi Noem says our border represents a threat to American safety. Now Attorney General Pam Bondi is accusing Canada of creating a crisis in human trafficking.
These are orchestrated outbursts of falsehood to demonize Canada. This is the part of the fascist playbook. The stakes are frighteningly high so I understand the PM's desire to tread carefully. But there are areas where we can't cede ground. If we do, the fascists will take it. That is how they operate.
What keeps me up at night are the words of Louis Fischer, a journalist who documented the Nazi rise to power. He wrote that Hitler's opponents couldn't comprehend the real nature of the Nazi threat. As reasonable and democratic people, they made the mistake of believing that they could negotiate with Hitler. Or they thought that they were wiser than Nazi street thugs. They reassured themselves that Hitler was "just being Hitler."
And so, they willingly ceded ground, believing it was a strategy to bring the Nazis into the democratic fold or outwit them. In ceding ground, they fell into the abyss.
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This is what concerns me about the Roberts' invitation. It signals either naivety or desperation. If Roberts was the one who blew off the meeting, it's because he didn't need to take the measure of the new government. The invitation alone gave him all he needed to know.
In writing this, I feel the need to state that I am rooting for Prime Minister Carney. Everyone knows that I am not a Liberal. I never will be. But he won the election by offering himself as a wartime prime minister.
We need him to be that war time prime minister now.
Has the government not been doing that?
Are you a bot, or literally that obtuse?
I'm that obtuse apparently. As far as I know every Canadian politician has denounced Trumps 51st state rhetoric. Is there something I'm missing?
There's a lot more than just the 51st rhetoric, and not all Canadian politicians have been proving they have a backbone.
See: Danielle Smith, Scott Moe, Pierre Pollievre, and Andrew Scheer, among others.
Should Carney be included in that list? Genuine question. I wouldn't put him in the same league as the others but, from the article and the way people are commenting, it seems like people would disagree.
I think that's basically what this article boils down to. We haven't seen as much of Carney's backbone as we'd like, and for a lot of people he probably is on the list of politicians who have disappointed their constituents. Not as bad as some, yes, but still not holding up his end of the bargain as well as people had hoped. Hence this article, where Charlie Angus is asking that the government resist not accommodate, and keep the elbows up.
You asked in another comment what Carney can do to prove he's a strong PM... There are myriad ways, but what it comes down to is not letting Trump or his minions walk all over him, nor control the narrative. As the article says it's risky to push back, but it's also risky to be too passive. Carney will probably have to find the line and walk it as best he can, as he promised the Canadian people he would.
Anyway, I feel like our discussion has gone full circle at this point, and I'm not sure what else I can add to make anything clearer.
I appreciate your reply! I felt like I was going crazy with everyone insulting me for some reason. I'm not sure what I did wrong. Maybe there was a better way to phrase my questions? Maybe it's just the nature of all political discussion now?
I was just curious about what people actually what Carney to do. People say he needs to do better but they won't say what that entails. Perhaps they can't say because they don't actually know. They just feel like he needs to do better.
I get the sense that people want Carney to be a showman like Trump. That he should ratio Trump on Twitter with some sick comeback and yell into a camera once in a while instead of always being boring and diplomatic. While that might make some Canadians happy, I'm not sure how it would help. I wouldn't say Trump's way of diplomacy has won the US any favours. Their cities are begging for tourists, their companies are begging for customers, and their politicians are begging to not be shot. Do we really want to emulate their leader? Does a strong man need to yell?
I, for one, do not want to see Carney yell, shout, or otherwise match Trump's vibe. I am sick of Trump's performativeness (is that a word?) and think Carney's calm collected demeanor is a breath of fresh air compared to him.
What I do want is to see the results we were promised... Strengthening our economy, and making Canada less dependent on the US for example. And it's very likely that it's happening already, we just haven't seen the results yet. But there are also other "side quests" the government seems to be working on which don't lead to those results, and that's frustrating as well.
I think this is a valid assessment. For myself, I'm not particularly political, so a lot of this is new to me, but I do feel like things need to be better, I just don't specifically know how they should be done.
I think your original comment came across a little trolley, which is why you got the response you did. Sometimes It's hard to tell a genuine question from someone who is just trying to get a reaction.
Now that is a breath of fresh air!
I mean, read the article.