Trump administration 2024-2028

[Brad Sallows]

Meh…your woulda, coulda, shoulda serves no purpose. Besides nobody in their right mind could have foreseen before last Christmas that Trump would attempt to destroy the worlds trading and economic system a few months later.

It's good to debate, but not to inject junk. Trump was promising tariffs prior to election day 2024, which was prior to Christmas 2024. Add to that all the times he talked about tariffs during the preceding years, and the tariff-related policies he promised and executed leading up to the 2016 election and during his first term. So, years of that shit. Any marginally-informed person knew the risk; everyone in positions of authority could have started mitigation sooner and executed faster.

"They" knew and moved slowly, if at all. That's a marker of people with few ideas except "hope" that a threat doesn't materialize, followed by "hope" that it goes away by itself. That's fairly typical for politicians, and many have repeatedly demonstrated that there's no crisis too desperate that it should stop them from placing political interest ahead of everything else (up to and including COVID).

 

[Halifax Tar]

Maple MAGA.

For the record, I think the USA is a geopolitical enemy of Canada. More so than China.

I hope to god you aren't, and never will be, near any geopolitical decision making for Canada.

But you are just as entitled to your opinion as me.

It looks like a lot of people are trying to explain the ad in ways that support whatever their own beliefs are.

Bias confirmation !?! On Army.ca !?!

 

[Colin Parkinson]

And now also a geopolitical enemy of Canada, more so than even China!

Yes, Carney is busy "Changing the relationship with China" Same old Liberal party.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Yes, Carney is busy "Changing the relationship with China" Same old Liberal party.

Hush now, don't disparage our dear leader.

 

[Altair]

I wouldn’t call them a enemy, however they are the greatest potential threat.

Mind you without nukes we couldn’t do anything to that threat so unless we decided to get serious on defence as a country we are basically at their mercy.

Canada could spend 10 percent of GDP and double the size of the Canadian Armed Forces and it wouldn't change the fact that militarily we are at their mercy.

But I don't see America as a military threat, I see them as a economic and societal threat.

If separatist groups started popping up and sowing discourse in Canada, who would you say was behind it? Previously? Russia. Now? Even bets it's washington.

If a country wanted to damage and hurt our economy, who would you think it was? Before? China. Now? It's the USA.

People can bemoan China all they want, I cannot remember the last time XI called us the 24th province or slapped tariffs on us because of "national security"

 

[Altair]

I hope to god you aren't, and never will be, near any geopolitical decision making for Canada.

But you are just as entitled to your opinion as me.

Me? Probably not. But I don't need to be.

1 in 4 Canadians view the USA as a enemy, and 1 in 3 liberal supporters. You can act like i'm an outlier all you want, but the mood in Canada is shifting and shifting fast.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Me? Probably not. But I don't need to be.

1 in 4 Canadians view the USA as a enemy, and 1 in 3 liberal supporters. You can act like i'm an outlier all you want, but the mood in Canada is shifting and shifting fast.

You are quite right. Much of the Canadian populace is becoming unhinged.

 

[Brad Sallows]

The USA is a "friend and ally" of Canada as much as any country can be to another.

Our beef with the USA is with a small minority which controls the WH, and a larger minority willing to reflexively support the first one. The sum is not a majority. Status quo is severely time-limited due to the frequency and fixed nature of US elections.

"The US is an enemy" is divisive rhetoric serving other interests, such as China. The people bleating it are, long-term, harming Canada more than Trump's Canadian supporters. Trump will soon be gone; China won't. Trump and his followers chart a haphazard course with pretty much no strategic guiding themes or focus; China does not. To borrow Noam Chomsky's version of "no true Scotsman", "no serious person" should lose sight of the long game.

 

[Altair]

You are quite right. Much of the Canadian populace is becoming unhinged.

Now now. I think conservatives need to open their eyes and understand the message the Americans are clearly trying to deliver, but I wouldn't say they are unhinged.

 

[Jarnhamar]

I say that 75$ million was a bargain for over 1 billion world wide views.

Baby Shark has over 15 billion views on YouTube and cost around $30,000 to make.

Maybe we can sell some t-shirts and other merchandise to offset any additional tariff losses

 

[Halifax Tar]

Now now. I think conservatives need to open their eyes and understand the message the Americans are clearly trying to deliver, but I wouldn't say they are unhinged.

Yes, you have more diabolical plans for your political opposites is what I would expect.

 

[Jarnhamar]

In this atmosphere?

Talks of annexation, tariffs wars, calling our PM a governor, these are the acts of friends?

Is every American who voted republican "MAGA"?

 

[Czech_pivo]

Baby Shark has over 15 billion views on YouTube and cost around $30,000 to make.

Maybe we can sell some t-shirts and other merchandise to offset any additional tariff losses

If there's money to be made, someone will find a way

 

[Altair]

Is every American who voted republican "MAGA"?

No, there are many factions within the Republican party in the USA.

establishment/traditional

libertarians

faith based

Tea party

And now MAGA.

Its an open question of how much of the republican party is what faction, and how much they overlap, but at the end of the day, the leadership, executive and congress are either openly hostile or not opposing those who are openly hostile.

And if they are openly hostile, they are not friends, and can definitely be classified as enemies. Did every Russian vote for Putin? Does every Chinese support Xi Jinping? Is every North Korean supportive of Kim Jong Un?

Clearly not, but due to the actions and stances of the leadership of those countries, we view them as adversaries. The USA is no different.

 

[Altair]

Yes, you have more diabolical plans for your political opposites is what I would expect.

Yes, I hope they bring back O'Toole or PP learns to be a moderate, the horror...

 

[Brad Sallows]

Is every American who voted republican "MAGA"?

To take a rhetorical question seriously, "No". It is not given to any person to decide "why" another person cast a vote, and the set of reasons is large.

Most fundamentally, US elections are almost always binary choices, in which the failed candidate's shortcomings are a sub-set of "reasons". It wasn't Trump v Reagan; it was Trump v Harris.

 

[brihard]

I admire your faith in the SCOTUS to vote on principle and not partisans lines.

I did not say faith; I said hope.

 

[Jarnhamar]

No, there are many factions within the Republican party in the USA.

But any Canadian who considers "the US" a fiend is MAGA. That's an interesting position to take.

 

[Altair]

But any Canadian who considers "the US" a fiend is MAGA. That's an interesting position to take.

It certainly would be. I wonder who made that claim? Can you point me to them?

 

[Brad Sallows]

Clearly not, but due to the actions and stances of the leadership of those countries, we view them as adversaries. The USA is no different.

The USA is very different in a critical way - time. It is absurd to project a trend onto a few months and compare it to behaviours established over decades. You can bang your Chinese apologia drum as much as you want; I will continue to bang a different one.