The U.S. paid little attention to Canada until President Donald Trump came along, writes Henry Srebrnik. Photo by Dan Janisse /Windsor StarArticle contentI’m not going to wade into the weeds of the current trade war between Canada and U.S. President Donald Trump, because hundreds of articles from across virtually every newspaper in Canada (and some in the United States) have already dealt with it. My interest is in the political implications.THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY.Subscribe now to access this story and more:Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsSUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES.Subscribe or sign in to your account to continue your reading experience.Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsRegister to unlock more articles.Create an account or sign in to continue your reading experience.Access additional stories every monthShare your thoughts and join the conversation in our commenting communityGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorArticle contentTo quote the title of a famous book about South Africa: Cry the Beloved Country, Canada is in a huge mess; everyone now sees that. When I grew up in the 1950s and ’60s, that was not the case. The old “Dominion of Canada” had a fairly solid national identity. It was, for all its faults, a serious country.Article contentArticle contentArticle contentNot anymore. Over the following half-century it has become, under a left-liberal political hegemony, a “protection racket,” that benefits its academic, cultural, economic and intellectual elites, who dominate the CBC, universities, film production and so on, who could not competitively and economically survive otherwise. It has been able to indulge in these activities precisely because it borders the United States – a country that, until Trump came along, paid it little attention.Article contentBut the empire that America built following the Second World War has now been unravelling. Trump is the result, not the cause. It can’t afford political and economic free riders anymore. And who blew the whistle on this? Why, none other than the prime minister who hastened our decline over the past decade!Article contentAfter Trump won the 2024 election, Justin Trudeau flew down to Mar-a-Lago and suggested that Canada could not survive economically without the United States. What Trudeau likely didn’t expect was Trump’s observation that in that case, “maybe it should just become our 51st state.” He’s also stated that “without us, there’s no way they can survive.” He’s in effect seen us as a “parasite” country.Article contentArticle contentDon’t forget that Trudeau had himself said that “there is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada.” We do not even pass the most rudimentary test of a nation as those that are united by common descent, history, culture, or language.Article contentAt this point it’s best to quote an article by Carson Jerema, Mark Carney’s path from here is surprisingly obvious, published online in the National Post Aug. 22:Article content“Living next to the most powerful and richest nation in history, which was somehow uniquely benign, and, until now, largely friendly, allowed successive politicians the luxury to delude themselves into thinking Canada was morally superior. The U.S. spends money on the military and is the home of ravenous capitalism, while Canada is a nation of health care, peacekeepers and multiculturalism.Article content“This country’s entire national mythos since the 1960s has only been possible because the Americans had not been a genuine military threat since at least the Civil War, and possibly not since the War of 1812.
COMMENTARY: Canada is in a huge mess
