I’ve been quiet for quite a while – I mean, what can anyone say about the insanity and chaos each new day brings?
Well this week I’ve seen a couple of items I want to share.
First, a video “The Hungry Giant” from the Greenland Defense Fund. You may have to watch it a couple of times because the Greenlander singing has a strong accent in English, but the subtitles help. It sums up how Greenlanders are feeling about trump’s threatened takeover of their island!
Second is a post by William A. Finnegan following Carney’s speech at Davos, yesterday.
For those waiting for the moment in history when someone finally shouts “The British are coming!” — when the signal is unmistakable and the decision obvious — this is as close as it gets.
Not because anyone raised their voice.
But because someone who understands how the system actually works stopped pretending.
Mark Carney’s address at Davos was not a speech in the conventional sense. It was a declaration delivered calmly, to an audience that did not need it explained.
“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.“
I thought the critical comment came near the end of his speech:
“If we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.“
[If you prefer to read Carney’s speech, you can get to it here.]
Today, trump called us (Canadians) ingrates for not accepting US dominance as generosity. What he doesn’t understand is Canadians, for the most part, are prepared to call out bullies and stand up to them. We’re going to be called upon to do that more and more in the coming weeks and months.
That gets me to CUSMA. I haven’t seen a way forward with CUSMA since trump was inaugurated a year ago! There is no way trump will negotiate any deal that is anything other than a total shakedown of our economy!
Call me a pessimist, but it’s economic warfare! It’s blatantly obvious! The cost to each of us in Canada is going to be real, and we’re going to have to support our federal government however this plays out.
At some point, in the not too distant future, we’re going to have to stand and fight! It’ll be costly but what price our identity and our democracy? Eh?
jmn 
I have reread PM Carney’s speech and find I have to focus on the practicalities and the assurances that we will act both with our values but with the practicalities of maintaining relationships with others who do not share our values, but do so with our eyes open. By engaging we ensure the benefits economically with the lessons learned by dealing honestly with the world as it is. We cannot pretend that our way is the only way but we should be open to people needing asylum coming here to live our values. I like that he laid bare the fact that our institutions were not working effectively and yet we stand with them now that we admit there are faults to fix. I want that. I want the UN to fix the Security Council and with enough middle countries together we need to do that. This speech speaks truth. It speaks truth to power. It shows that the emperor has no clothes. It left the leader of the most powerful country on earth backing down from his threats on tariffs to those who won’t hand over Greenland. It made him denounce Europe in racist rhetoric and put his scrambled brain and pathetic character on full display to the world. It is indeed time to stand up for who we are, despite the cost.
“It is indeed time to stand up for who we are, despite the cost.”
trump’s threat’s to Carney, yesterday, made that perfectly clear. That will play out in his outrageous demands when Canada/Mexico are attempting to renegotiate CUSMA/USMCA. From where I sit those negotiations are likely dead in the water! trump will bluster and sneer and make silly pronouncements and talks will go nowhere.
Headway could be made if US business leaders pushed in support of a functioning deal, but I’m not holding my breath that any has the balls to tackle trump out loud and in public. The cost to Canada will be considerable – which was the point of Carney’s Davos speech. He’s looking to diversify as widely as he can as quickly as possible.
The US is still Canada’s major customer. We have to wield our natural resources in as powerful a way as we can – as China did – to push trump into some kind of reasonable accommodation. However, as trump deteriorates both physically and cognitively, Canada / US relations are going to be dicey!
I’m in Australia and I was both gratified and chilled by Carney’s speech. It’s good to see leaders now stating out loud what everyone has been saying quietly for months, but I don’t think there is any way to avert the coming war. Even if Trump dies there are too many evil billionaires backing the current US government for it to change course.
Good luck, keep your elbows up and know that your antipodean cousins are with you every step of the way.