I’ve just provided headings and a link to much more information. We’ve all been hearing about this BBB – but we should know what’s in it. It’s not going to affect us here in Canada directly – but god help us if we should turn into the 51st state! All of this crap would affect us big time!
The Senate is still debating a key part of President Trump’s domestic agenda this morning — what he has called his big, beautiful bill. Senators are racing to pass it before the July 4 deadline.
By now, you have probably heard two things about the proposal. First, it would cut taxes in a way that would largely benefit the wealthiest Americans. Second, to recoup some of that lost revenue, it would cut health care programs, particularly Medicaid, and would leave nearly 12 million more Americans uninsured over 10 years.
Those parts are important, but they are far from the only elements in the sprawling 940-page bill. The legislation also touches on food stamps, clean energy, mass deportations, student loans, military spending and more. Today, I’ll explain some of those less discussed provisions.
The other pieces
Because this bill is foremost about the federal budget, it goes through a special procedure — called reconciliation — that lets the Senate pass it with a simple majority, no filibuster allowed. Republican lawmakers have therefore treated this as a rare opportunity to accomplish a bunch of different priorities.
Food stamp cuts
Clean energy disinvestment
Funding for deportations
Less student loan relief
More military spending
And much more: The proposal would create tax-advantaged savings accounts for newborns, called “Trump accounts,” that would start with $1,000 in government contributions. It would increase money for air traffic control and the Secret Service. And it would help pay for America’s 250th anniversary celebrations next year.
It’s still not clear whether the bill, as it currently stands, will become law. Senators need to vote on their version, and then it will go back to the House for final passage. Republicans control the House by a thinner margin than they do the Senate, and a few defectors could complicate things. Still, Trump has demanded they pass it — and Republicans have not bucked the president much since his return to office.
Day by day this is what is happening in the US. It’s unbearably painful watching this scenario unfold. I’m sitting here in Canada on edge, because once full dictatorship is realized in the US, Canada will be under the gun, if not literally, economically, for certain. trump has repeatedly threatened that.
trump says he holds all the cards – I’m not sure what cards Canada holds, some, for sure. But it’s not hard to imagine Canada as Ukraine in the not distant future! Canadians aren’t ready for what could be ahead for us.
I think Carney is smart enough to see this possible reality ahead of us. I’m just hoping he’s smart enough to outmanoeuvre trump. I’m ambivalent about the rescinding of the digital tax this past weekend. Yes, it reinstated the trade talks but trump is braying that we “caved”.
I feel trump is playing cat and mouse – ya, the trade talks are back on for the moment, but he can call them off on any pretext he wants. Look at him side eye and we’re back to the beginning.
Nothing he says or does is reliable. I’m expecting any trade deal that gets hammered out will not be good for Canada. That will leave us feeling betrayed by our government (although nobody would be able to have “negotiated” anything better).
I’m not sure what that will do to Canadian nationalist feeling and tenuous unity we’re experiencing at the moment.
In some ways, Canadians are more aware of what’s going on in the US than most US citizens. We certainly understand the threat trump represents. I’m just nervous that our solidarity isn’t strong enough for us to stand together when the going gets really rough economically; when the 51st state threats become more insistent (those threats are again being made – I hope we’re all hearing them – I hope our boycott of US travel and products holds).
Canadians, like Americans, are used to a basic level of affluence. Our young people expect instant gratification. They’re not used to doing without – they complain if they have to work hard to achieve some goal – many expect opportunities will be handed them on a platter.
It’s our fault – we older folks who grew up making do with a whole lot less – pampered them, we fulfilled the desires of our children and grandchildren because we could afford to. We didn’t ask them to earn that gratification. Hence, they expect life will be easy for them.
It’s been getting harder, and many are struggling to find a way to carry on. When the going gets a whole lot harder – and I’m expecting it will – will they decide to give in to trump’s demands for the 51st state?
So many Canadians have no idea what it could be like living in a US controlled by this dictator! This current BBB (Big Beautiful Bill) would eliminate health care for many Canadians living in a 51st state; it would increase food insecurity for our children; it would mean loss of any environmental protection; no support to help after the harm wrought by hurricanes, wildfires, flooding; and on an on, Most of what’s in that bill is aimed at destroying the lives of middle class and poor Americans so the wealthy can live as they want. A good proportion of Canadians would fall into that group of disadvantaged.
It looks like we’re between a rock and a hard place.
Kravchuk is laying out for us what’s ahead. He’s letting us know, as clearly as he can, that it’s not a life we want to choose.
It’s obvious that there’s no sitting this one out – everybody is going to have to take participate in the resistance if we’re going to survive with any independence, and our values intact!
“In the early stages of collapse, the warning signs come like alarms: loud, unmistakable, emotionally triggering. You feel compelled to respond. To signal. To warn others.
But we’re not in that phase anymore.
We’re in the part where everything bleeds together. Where Trump’s criminal and idiotic antics, Supreme Court nullification, dollar decoupling, tariff tumult, and cabinet secretariat stupidity all feel like background noise.
We are experiencing the flattening of outrage.
This isn’t a failure of attention. It’s a feature of the system now. And it’s not just cultural. It’s strategic.”
It feels like that here in Canada – we’re in limbo – although I’m sure a lot is going on in preparation for the reconvening of Parliament on May 24 (I think that’s the date), there isn’t a ton of stuff in the news so there isn’t much to react to.
It feels weird!
I feel like I’m holding my breath.
I’ve just reached out to Charlie Angus to see if we can get a “Resistance” event going in NS – but here’s the thing – I haven’t sorted out what we’re resisting at the moment – trump’s 51st State threats have gone quiet right now. Resistance to Poilievre was essential during the election- that’s now over. While still Conservative Party leader, he lost his parliamentary seat so he won’t be there delivering his bombastic nonsense (Andrew Sheer will be acting opposition leader in the House – who knows how he’s going to handle responding to the government’s proposals). Poilievre will continue making pronouncements (likely unchanged from his carping before and during the election) but it won’t have the same force until he’s elected in his “safe” Alberta seat – he won’t be back in Parliament until the fall.
I feel we need to maintain our wariness and opposition to trump and those stupid tariffs. Yes, trump has dropped the “51st state” crap, for now. But it lurks, just the same. He’s moved on from threats against Panama and Greenland to his shiny new jet (how silly is that!), and all the lovely AI deals he’s made in the middle east, and he’s just today more or less given up on his buddy Putin, he says. What does he turn his attention to today?
Here in Canada we’re left waiting for the third or fourth shoe to drop – no clue what it’ll be about. So yes, resistance to this all the idiocy – but at the moment it has no shape. We’re in limbo here.
Another week or so, we may find ourselves with focus – we need to continue working at being informed so we can jump in the moment there’s some real issue that needs our attention and voices!
By the way, if you happen to live in Nova Scotia and still need connection to Resistance, please get in touch. I believe Charlie Angus has a bigger picture shaping his Resistance efforts. I need to know more about that. If you feel you do, too, get in touch. I can’t organize an event on my own – I need colleagues willing to put in some time to make the phone calls and help set up the structures for an event – this isn’t a commitment to a long term project – just the one gathering. I’d love to make it happen – I think it could provide some focus to shape this “slow” period for all of us.
I’m trying to get a feel for how I can best participate in our current political world. I’m an outsider to the US mess. I keep an eye on the war in Ukraine, on the horrific destruction in Gaza, watchful of China’s moves on Taiwan and the suppression of liberty in Hong Kong. There’s chaos everywhere.
It takes me back to a Kingston Trio song from the early 60s:
Details different, situation the same (SNAFU)!
I realized recently I can no longer fight on the palisades; but I’m still good at reading stuff from all over the map and building a bigger picture. That’s what I’m finding myself doing at the moment.
Today, I’ll share a few things I’ve read you might find helpful / interesting, too.
To build a more resilient, less dependent – democratic – Canada, we will need to rebuild our collective toolkit, find a new solidarity across our differences, and rediscover the common good. We will need government strong enough to harness the market and democracy strong enough to harness government.
What We Owe Each Other describes Canada’s equalization policy and how it operates. It’s a good refresher for all of us, including Albertans. There’s also this tidbit that clarifies provincial contribution to the national economy (in case you think Alberta contributes the most – it doesn’t).
Corey Hogan has written a useful piece about three myths underpinning the Alberta separation movement: Three Alberta Separation Myths.
The next several months could be a dangerous time for Alberta. It does not take a majority of Albertans voting to separate to severely damage our home – serious talk alone will be sufficient.
Consider the example of Quebec in the 1970s: companies moved from Montreal to Toronto to escape political uncertainty. This was despite the fact that corporate taxes were lower in Quebec than Ontario at that time.
Putting so much political risk into the equation will more than undo any other Alberta Advantage we create. It’s incumbent on all of us to tread carefully. Now is a time for cool heads and facts.
There are also the Treaties which govern much of the land in Alberta! It could be argued most of the province is controlled by those treaties and the First Nations Peoples will determines what happens there. (Tried tracking down the source, unsuccessful.)
If tomorrow you woke up and your country was being erased, not just by missiles, but by hate. If you saw strangers online spreading that your story no longer mattered, that your pain was inconvenient, that your survival was a political annoyance…
Wouldn’t you want someone to write you back?
Wouldn’t you want someone, somewhere, to care enough to keep your voice alive?
That’s why I’m still here.
And that’s why you, reading this right now, are part of something I’ll never be able to measure.
Gotta step away from my computer and get on with life.
It’s a gorgeous warm, sunny day here in NS. Dandelions everywhere. Magnolias and azaleas in bloom. You can see the leaves growing on a day like this.
I have to head out for a walk – to feel connected to it all.
Ramona Grigg (an elderly American woman – my age) raised some important questions today for people enraged by the trump regime’s clear efforts to install a dictatorship in the US.
I’m not going to end this by attempting to come up with solutions, … other than to stress the ‘keep on fighting’ part. How we fight works on a day-to-day, minute-by-minute judgement call: what does this fresh hell require of me?
This right here is what I’m doing. It’s what I have the energy and the skills for. Praise you for what you’re doing! Whatever it is, it’s better than doing nothing. And maybe together we’re building a force formidable enough to make a difference.
“It’s what I have the energy and the skills for….” that jumped out at me.
It struck home and I felt compelled to message her:
Hey Ramona, keep up the “Shouting”! I realized recently that my days to actively participate in a physical protest at the US consulate in Halifax, or our city hall square, or on our waterfront are over! I no longer have the physical stamina to find a spot to park my car, walk to the protest with my sign, and stand around for even so much as an hour! I just can’t do it. No pretending any more. I think that’s part of what’s been immobilizing me – keeping me from being able to sew anything, to create anything. But, like you, I can still write coherently. Which I’m doing even though my audience is small and shows no signs of growing larger! Oh, well. I do what I can. Keep doing what you can, girl!
I’m frustrated by my declining physical capacity! I have no trouble getting around the grocery store, walking from my car to the change room at the pool three mornings a week, being physically active enough to do all the stuff I do in a day, in a week. What I can’t do any more is any extended walking – my knees and back have become cranky and push back when I overextend myself. I have to accept I’m not going to be able to participate in whatever the next protest is, or even the energy to instigate and organize one.
I wish I had a magic wand that would make my writing / shouting visible. I wish I knew what it would take to get a gazillion subscribers to read and converse with what I’m thinking. I have to accept there’s no reason to be noticed. I’m not some well known TV personality who’s jumped over to Substack and found an instant following. Not a well known academic or writer, or political figure who’s already attracted attention. Just carrying on, putting what I’m thinking out there when I have something to say.
I also know shouting publicly makes it likely I would be stopped at the US border where I to attempt a visit the US. Good thing that’s not on my agenda any time soon.
I watch Rachel Gilmour’s commentary, but I don’t as a rule pass it on. This one is a doozy! She’s calling out the CPC for an email they sent out using serious falsehoods about the three automatic recounts happening from the election (because the results were very close) calling them “rigging” from Liberals!
This looks like how PP’s “cooperation” on a united Canada is going to play out. More stupid lying and confrontation. Too bad.
Please check out what Gilmore has to say – she’s right about how recounts happen in a Canadian election! Nothing to do with the party, directly. All overseen by a judge. Thank goodness there are actual paper ballots to recount!
And this is my today’s contribution to the Resistance conversation!
I know what you were thinking: the election is over, Canada will negotiate a new deal with Trump, and life will return to normal.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that’s not how it’s going to play out.
In a world of gangster leaders like Trump and Putin, Canada’s repudiation of the MAGA march just won’t stand. The authoritarian, anti-democratic “project” has been years in the making. It’s been driven by the likes of Bannon and Hungary’s Victor Orban — and they aren’t going to let Canada stand tall as a model of liberal democracy.
The online platforms are already gearing up with BOT farms disrupting online conversations. It’s all about undermining both Carney and Canada.
He goes on:
On the domestic front, there is no way the Conservatives will give Carney the grace period needed to build trust with the public. The Maple MAGA machine will do everything it can to undermine Carney.
Just watch.
He ends with:
In the MAGA world it is unacceptable that Canada is seen as a symbol of the resilience of liberal democracy.
In the coming months, it will not just be the new Prime Minister who is put to the test. Canada, our shared values and nationhood, will be tested as well.
I know we will rise to the challenge, but only if we can identify the toxic playbook being used by Maple MAGA and the far right.
Here’s my reply when I restacked his message:
Thanks Charlie for sounding the alarm. I think I’d have come to the realization myself eventually, but better I should get here sooner.
I believe we need the resistance you’re building right now more than ever. We Canadians need to keep pushing back against Maple MAGA, trump MAGA, and Russian efforts to bring Canada to heel.
We need to keep those protests going – both to support American efforts to resist trump, but also to make complacent Canadians aware of the bumpy future we also face – not from our Liberal government, so much, as from Poilievre and Conservative efforts.
What Canada needs at the moment is a strong collaboration of politicians and citizens to work through the problems we face. I was hoping PP losing his seat might send a message that Canada needs a different approach from him. I wasn’t hopeful he could actually bring that; I was pretty sure he had but one song. But I was holding my breath allowing him the possibility of actually putting Canada first.
I can see from your piece, my hope is naive. You’re right. The attacks have already started. We need to build our resistance as quickly as possible so we can fight back in support of our independence, our autonomy.
We need to be alert for every opportunity to rally – at the moment it’s quiet out there. But as soon as the distractions and stonewalling start up (I suppose that will come with the opening of parliament), we better be ready with our signs.
One of the things that’s made the protests in the US effective, particularly with regard to the deportations, has been the advance organizing done by community groups who have been in a position to jump into action as soon as someone in the community has been rounded up. People have predetermined what roles they would play, who would call the lawyers, who would bring out the signs, who would make calls, who would sent emails. Within hours, protests have arrived at the right places and they’ve been able to interfere with the disappearing of community members. We need similar advance planning.
I haven’t found that group of friends who will march with me. I know, I just need to start by calling one or two people to plan for what’s coming….
Climate issues disappeared during our election. Building energy independence, self-sufficiency, expansion of pipelines were the “big” ideas. The costs of sustaining our reliance on fossil fuels were nowhere to be found.
OK, so we understood the “enemy” we were fighting was US expansionism, Canadian annexation, trump’s threatening the destruction of our economy. Except for our determined Green Party, the other leaders were focused on the economic realities facing us. We accepted that.
But the election is over. Now what?
We can’t lose sight of the overarching threat that ignoring climate issues presents us. We can’t forget about the economic and social costs of increasingly destructive heat domes, violent storms, wildfires, floods, droughts, migrating disease threats, habitat loss, and on and on. We can’t pretend these threats don’t matter – they impact everything else in our lives.
We need to keep discussion about these serious issues alive; we need to place them at the forefront of all decision-making going forward.
The tough conversation is, of course, what balance can we, must we, strike between sustained use of fossil fuels and changing over to clean energy resources. That conversation threatens Canadian unity!
Both Alberta and Quebec claim they feel exploited/hard done by/undermined/ignored by the rest of the country. Alberta is threatening to vote for separation.
Nevertheless, we’ve got to find a way to talk about these tough issues in a civil manner. We’ve got to drop the bombast and hostility and name calling and threats in order to solve what are existential problems!
I am holding my breath, hoping this election has sent a message to our politicians about how they MUST conduct themselves! We’ve sent them to Ottawa to solve serious problems! They damn well better get to work and stop with the name calling and other stupidity we’ve seen for far too long! Our parliamentary system may be confrontational by design. Right now, I believe, all parties must cooperate to resolve the many grave issues we’re facing.
I suppose, in the global scheme of things, Canada’s contribution to climate change is relatively small, but that’s no reason for not putting climate issues at the centre of all our political decisions. There are a number of tipping points to be concerned about: the mass death of coral reefs, the abrupt thawing of the permafrost, collapse of the Greenland ice sheet, breakup of west Antarctic ice, sudden shift in the West African monsoon, loss of Amazon rainforest, shutdown of Atlantic currents. Any one of these impending scenarios could have catastrophic consequences for all life on earth.
The thawing of the permafrost is of particular concern to Canada since most of our north is frozen and increased thawing is causing major difficulties for northern communities (not to mention the release of astronomical amounts of methane into the atmosphere). But even more than that we are experiencing drought on the prairies, heat domes in the west, more severe storms affecting the Atlantic provinces, wildfires in many parts of the country, unexpected flooding following torrential rainfall everywhere – we’ve experienced all of these disaster events during the past decade. We should all be concerned.
This election was in large part about countering threats from our neighbours to the south — neighbours we once thought we could rely on but who have turned against us in efforts to weaken our economy and come after our resources. Let’s hope our new government is up to the challenge. Part of that will be showing there are better ways.
During the election campaign, the fossil fuel industry and its political supporters used the tensions between the U.S. and Canada to argue for ramping up the industry — to build more pipelines and oil and gas infrastructure. The ostensible justification is that doing so will make Canada more energy independent. It’s a bogus argument, given that pipelines and oil and gas infrastructure don’t get built overnight.
If we truly wanted to become energy independent, we would focus on the most cost-effective and efficient energy: renewable energy from wind, solar, geothermal and energy storage. We need a clean-powered, connected electricity gridthat facilitates interprovincial transmission. That would give us independence not only from the U.S. but from the multinational oil companies that seek only to enrich their owners, executives and shareholders.
I just hung up from a long conversation with a good friend. A day has passed since the Canadian federal election. She wanted to know what my take was on the outcome. I’ve had a couple of days to think about that.
My first takeaway is that the Ottawa riding of Carleton said to Poiliever – no thank you. We saw the real you at the “freedom” convoy in Jan/Feb 2022! We remember; not fooled by your election persona. Poilievre lost his seat in Parliament.
The Conservatives didn’t win the most seats. While they gained 24 they fell short of any kind of win. Enough Canadians didn’t trust Poilievre to take the helm. Enough Canadians wanted nothing to do with his confrontational politics – his constantly blaming everybody else for what he called a failed Canada. Enough Canadians couldn’t imagine this one-song candidate as Prime Minister of the country. Enough Canadians sent a message to Poilievre and his Conservative party – we don’t like how you play this game.
You refuse to acknowledge the global climate crisis. You are blind to our country’s need to find a path toward a fossil-fuel-free future. We need to build energy independence across Canada – using fossil fuels for now perhaps, but simultaneously and collectively we must build a cross country non-carbon energy network. You don’t seem to understand that going forward any consideration of natural resource extraction/development will have to include Indigenous peoples in any decision-making. You seem more than willing to jettison foreign aid as an extravagance, yet foreign aid builds friends and allies; helping less fortunate nations provide medical, agricultural, educational resources for their population benefits us, too. You totally don’t get the important role the CBC plays in our cultural landscape – it can’t be defunded without great cost, particularly to our rural and northern communities. You say nothing about supporting Ukraine – a beacon in the fight for national freedom from which Canada could learn a lot (we could easily be in the same position were trump to make good on his insistence that Canada become the 51st state!). You tout “the biggest crackdown on crime” – but ignore the difficult circumstances that nurture criminal activity. Your view of immigration is blind to the realities that force people to seek refuge from the political violence and climate driven changes where they live.
Fortunately, enough Canadians voted against this Canada.
Enough Canadians supported Carney for the Liberal Party to win the largest number of seats in Parliament – 169 (three short of a majority); but there was skepticism, too. There was enough support for him to become PM, but not enough for the Liberal Party to work unencumbered!
What I think the electorate has said to Parliament is,
“Hey folks! It’s time to collaborate!”
The economic, social and political threats to Canada are great. We can’t afford the luxury of the constant negative harping about what the government is doing wrong now and in the past. We’ve drawn a line and said “Work with one another!”
We all agree on the problems we face – the economic challenges wrought by trump’s tariffs his threat to our sovereignty our housing shortage pathways to a renewable energy future our healthcare chaos income inequalities a balance in immigration sustainable cities a stronger federal/provincial working relationship…
We’ve said: “Work together to solve these and other problems.”
And do it as quickly as you possibly can – the future will be upon us before we realize it!
I wrote this piece on Oct 19/24 – after reading Lozada’s piece. I thought I’d share it today because the excerpt from Obasan is even more relevant than it was in October!
This is my own my native land.
I wonder whether others are feeling the same ambiguity I am about what being Canadian involves, particularly as election day draws closer and we are facing perhaps a life-shaping decision between the divisive, trumpish, anger of PP and the well informed, experienced, financial expert to lead our government. We don’t vote for a Prime Minister, which makes the decision more complicated but ultimately that’s the decision influencing how I will mark my ballot. As things stand, I can’t vote Conservative no matter how capable my local candidate may be.
An immigrant from Peru, Lozada details the conundrums he faces daily regarding his immigrant identity. I was deeply moved by his writing. Moved enough to write a personal note to him at his email address at the NYT. (I don’t expect him to answer.)
His opinion piece evoked a memory of what Joy Kogawa had to say in Obasan, her novel written in 1981. I felt compelled to find those words again and share them with Lozada.
Here is the letter I wrote him:
Carlos,
As I was reading your piece, I can’t tell you how it resonated for me. What’s interesting is I was born here in Canada, my mother was born in Canada, my father was an immigrant as were all my grandparents; I personally feel more “immigrant” these days than at any other time in my life (I’m heading toward 82!). In today’s actively antisemitic world I feel my token “jewishness” separating me from my “christian” friends and neighbours. The conundrums you describe are present in my life in such subtle ways but they are there.
I feel my “immigrantness” weekly when I visit two young Afghan families recently come to Canada. I spend a couple of hours a week with each family chatting in English, reading children’s books in English, to help them learn a language they are working so hard to learn. I visit weekly for these young women to help them overcome the isolation a lack of common language forces upon them. These new permanent residents to Canada have become like grandchildren/great-grandchildren in the almost two years I’ve known them.
I can’t imagine their decision to leave Afghanistan and their families behind. I know the facts of their escapes through Iran, arriving in Turkey as illegals, the unimaginable luck of making contact with a Canadian citizen sponsorship group who helped bring them to Canada. I’m not an official part of that group (my youngest sister is), but through my investment of time these past two years, I have come to feel a small bit of what my grandparents must have experienced, who knew they would never see those they left behind, many of whom a few decades later would have ended in Nazi crematoria. Both sets of grandparents left Lithuania and Poland/Ukraine respectively and arrived in Canada in the early 1900s. I have no names of those left behind but I am absolutely certain many relatives did not survive WWII.
Canada, like the USA, is a nation of immigrants, yet so many people seem disconnected from that reality. In Canada, we’re a bit more aware of our crimes against the First Nations people – our halting attempts at reconciliation keep reminding us that we displaced them, disenfranchised them, demeaned them and that everybody else has immigrant origins from all over the world.
We are experiencing in Canada a growing sentiment that we don’t want more immigrants, we need to keep “these people” out – they’re taking “our” jobs (in spite of the fact that Canadians don’t want to do the jobs they are willing to do), making housing impossible to find (that’s really the fault of those of us who made development decisions fifty years ago), overrunning our healthcare system (who actually made the decisions to cut back spending on medicine, education, dentistry, social work, … forty years ago?). We need these new people for their willingness to work hard, for the cultural diversity they bring to us, for their talents and skills which enrich our community.
Shortly after it was published (1981) I read Joy Kogawa’s novel “Obasan” – there’s a passage in it that has stayed with me these 40+ years – written words of the Aunt (Obasan) who had been born in Canada but sent with her family to a Japanese internment camp during WWII:
—————————————
“The entire manuscript was sixty pages long, I skimmed over the pages till I came across a statement underlined and circled in red: I am Canadian. The circle was drawn so hard the paper was torn. Three lines of a poem were at the top of the page.
Breathes there a man with soul so dead Who never to himself hath said: This is my own, my native land!
The tanned brown edges of the page crumbled like autumn leaves as I straightened out the manuscript.
The exact moment when I first felt the stirrings of identification with this country occurred when I was twelve years old, memorizing a Canto of “The Lay of the Last Minstrel.”
So many times after that I repeated the lines: sadly desperately, and bitterly. But at first I was proud, knowing that I belonged.
This is my own, my native land.
Then as I grew older and joined the Nisei group taking a leading part in the struggle for liberty, I waved those lines around like a banner in the wind:
This is my own, my native land.
When war struck this country, when neither pride nor belligerence nor grief had availed us anything, when we were uprooted, and scattered to the four winds, I clung desperately to those immortal lines:
This is my own, my native land.
Later still, after our former homes had been sold over our vigorous protests, after having been re-registered, fingerprinted, card-indexed, roped and restricted, I cry out the question:
Is this my own, my native land?
The answer cannot be changed. Yes. It is. For better or worse, I am Canadian.”
—————————————
Securely Canadian having been born here myself, I still feel Obasan’s struggle as somehow my own.
Your NYT piece has evoked all those same feelings about country and belonging that I found those many years ago in Kogawa’s writing,
Thanks for such a passionate piece.
Judith Newman
I finally made it back to my sewing machine. This week I finished a housecoat (no photo since I’m wearing it!) Today I made an iPhone case for a friend – she asked me to make her a new one since her new phone is too large for the old one. I just finished it:
Over the last couple of months I’ve been sucked into that giant whirlpool called Substack. It began when trump first announced impending tariffs on Canada, ridiculing our Prime Minister (“governor”), and declaring Canada would become the 51st state. I couldn’t tear myself away from the train wreck happening in real time.
I found it impossible not to become glued to the “news’ and since the US media (both TV and print) have largely stopped covering and analyzing the “real” news (those institutions have fallen on their faces to accommodate trump) I turned to Substack – the independent writing platform that has drawn many wonderful, serious political writers. Many good Canadian writers have found a home on Substack, as well. I can’t pull myself away from their analyses of what’s going on.
I found myself reading and responding several times a day. I even contributed to the raging discourse. I realized my life has slowly been taken over by the pull of what is very good writing and opinions I feel compelled to respond to.
I have done almost no sewing/quilting/making for the past six weeks! (I have continued knitting most evenings.) I suppose you could say my “creative” energy has gone into writing, but I’m not sure there is anything creative in my commentary.
Let me share some writing I think has merit.
At the top of my list is Charlie Angus. I don’t know how he manages it, but every day there’s a new, interesting, piece about the reality Canada is facing.
His (trump’s) rhetoric towards Canada and his attacks on our national economy have intensified, and the consequences are very real.
What surprised trump is that Canadians don’t take kindly to being treated as the chump who gets thrown into the turnbuckle. We are fighting back hard, and trump didn’t see it coming
Angus has become a prominent cheerleader for Canadian sovereignty.
Next on my list is Timothy Snyder (currently at Yale University but moving to U of T soon).
1. Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.
Lithgow is a wonderful actor. His reading of Snyder’s text is powerful. These lessons are relevant for Canadians, too!
Then there’s John Pavlovitz – a former southern Baptist preacher who’s left the fold. What drew me to him was his rejection of what Christianity in the US has become for so many people. His “Dear Jesus, Do I really have to love my Enemies? is a wrenching plea to his god to help him understand his Christian responsibilities.
It was a lot easier to aspire to loving my enemies when they didn’t seem so close, so loud, and so prevalent; when I didn’t have so many daily reminders of just how much loving I’m now required to do.
I now have to love my enemy across the table at family gatherings. I have to love my enemy on my dear friend’s social media profiles. I have to love my enemy in my neighbor’s driveway. I have to love my enemy in the carpool line. I have to love my enemy at the gym who interrupts my workout with unsolicited opinions. I have to love my enemy at restaurants who I can overhear in the booth next to me. I have to love my enemy driving in front of me on the highway. I have to love my enemy at my former church. I have to love my enemy at my current church.
Loving my enemies now seems a lot more labor intensive and a lot more complicated than it used to. To be honest, when I see some of the things these people are saying, the hatred they’re perpetuating, and the damage they’re inflicting—I’m not that interested in loving them.
It’s the lists that grab me. As an avowed Jewish atheist I’m an outsider – I’m not party to his Christian angst, but his expression of that angst fascinates me and strengthens my atheist core.
I follow Elizabeth Rybak (A Letter From A Maritimer) – she lives in New Brunswick. I haven’t gone back to her earlier writing, but lately she’s offering an interesting perspective on Canada and the world.
There have always been more kind people than unkind people. There have always been more people who choose to help, who build things, who take care of others, and who work to heal and protect. More people who want to make the world better, safer, and fairer for everyone. And just as meanness and cruelty may spread from one person to another, kindness spreads too. A single act of kindness can set off a ripple that touches so many lives in ways you may never see. And kindness is more powerful than meanness because kindness creates, while cruelty only destroys. Every time you choose kindness, you add something good to the world.
Every single person matters. No matter how small, no matter how quiet, no matter where they come from, every person has something special to offer the world.
Heather Cox Richardson is an historian – her Letters from an American offers a very thoughtful analysis of the latest craziness of the trump regime.
…if we’re going to actually really effect real change in the country, it will require us completely replacing the existing ruling class with another ruling class…. I don’t think there’s sort of a compromise that we’re going to come with the people who currently actually control the country. Unless we overthrow them in some way, we’re going to keep losing.” “We really need to be really ruthless when it comes to the exercise of power,” he said….
Last month, journalist Gil Duran of The Nerd Reich noted that Curtis Yarvin, a thinker popular with the technological elite currently aligned with the religious extremists at Project 2025, laid out a plan in 2022 to gut the U.S. government and replace it with a dictatorship. This would be a “reboot” of the country, Yarvin wrote, and it would require a “full power start,” a reference to restarting a stalled starship by jumping to full power, which risks destroying the ship.
Sure looks like what’s going on!
I’ll end with Postcards From Canada. An idea of Alice Goldbloom – vignettes about Canadians and life in Canada to share with the larger world. Paula Halpern wrote:
I’m not a flag-waving patriot arrogantly declaring Canada to be the best of all countries on Earth. There is no such place. Perhaps it was former Member of Parliament Jack Layton who described this country best, without the hyperbole. In a farewell letter to Canadians just before he died, he wrote simply that “Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world.”
About sums it up.
I encourage you to dip your toes into Substack, but be careful, you can find yourself drowning.
jmn 
