Stand around any water cooler, dinner table or bar in Canada right now and the chances are high the prevailing conversation will circle back to the same topic — tariffs.
Donald Trump has now assumed the presidency. He is now commander in chief of the world’s most powerful military and appointed leader of the richest nation on earth.
If he’s to be believed, he will sign into effect an immediate 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods, whether that be timber, cars, oil or seafood. These measures, in part, are meant to perpetuate Trump’s fallacious claims that the United States subsidizes Canada via a trade deficit.
The idea that Canada is subsidized by trade with our southern partner is patently ridiculous. When you go to your local grocery store and buy $300 in groceries that you intend to use, are you subsidizing them with $300, or did you trade $300 for needed goods?
Americans need and want what Canada has. They need our oil and energy to power their economy, they need our timber to build their homes, they want the cars we build in our plants and they want the seafood we harvest from our waters.
These economic powerplays, in turn, serve as a means to a more insidious end — poking at the sovereignty of us as a nation. This isn’t new and Donald Trump and his ilk are not the cause of it, but a symptom of America’s Manifest Destiny philosophy. The idea that all of North America will inevitably wind up in the hands of the United States of America has, for a long time, forged a piece of the Canadian identity — this desire, no matter how similar we are culturally, to strive to be “not American.”
Since the days of the revolutionary war, the United States has encroached upon the land that we now know as Canada four separate times. In 1775, the newly formed American Continental Army annexed Québec in a bid to see the French Canadians join the 13 colonies. In 1812, yet another attempt was made to wrest the fledgling nation of Canada away from the British sphere of influence to no avail. Beyond these two major campaigns, attempts were made during the Patriot War of 1837–1838 and the Fenian Raids between 1866 and 1871. Even during the American Civil War, members of congress were floating the idea of yet another invasion.
Now, after many years of establishing peace and mutual prosperity between our two great nations, in which we enjoy bountiful trade opportunities, the world’s longest shared border and an intermingling of cultures, economy and values, this peace could be nearing its end, if the words of Trump are to be taken at face value.
The situation we find ourselves in draws parallels to Rome and its shift from Republic to Empire. The Republic, already a warlike world power, expanded its footprint greatly under Caesar’s military, taking what we know today as France, Belgium, Switzerland and Spain into its territory. Shortly after, with the backing of his loyal army, Caesar defied the senate, crossed the Rubicon River and took Rome for himself, adopting the title “dictator perpetuo” — dictator for life.
The title Caesar foisted upon himself didn’t come without resistance, and in fact was contrary to the constitution. To Caesar, however, the power grabs he made were for the “greater good.” This is not to say that Trump will, or even could, emulate the path Caesar took to absolute power. However, America seems primed for its own “crossing the Rubicon” moment in this century.
Canadians should not stand for this. To wish to hand the keys to Canada over to a 21st century Caesar in hopes of improving your lot in life is naïve as best and seditious at worst. Canadians enjoy the benefit of vast natural resources, law and good governance, pristine, clean wilderness and air quality and a level of development and peace that is the envy of much of the world.
Every single Canadian, from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic, should take a look around at what we have here and realize why fighting for the sovereignty of Canada is worth the pains of resisting the economic pressures levied by our powerful, warlike neighbour.
