I received a letter from one of our regular readers last week, in which she said in part, “I look forward daily to reading your Commentary in the Doppler. I can always count on it being an entertaining, interesting, annoying, and informative (as well as well-informed) opinion – those are the basics of a decent commentary!”
I appreciate that, especially the annoying part. It is true that we do try to stir things up now and then because it fosters good debate, resulting in attention to important issues that affect us, especially in this day and age when Canada is facing so many critical challenges.
I may fall more into the “annoying” category today because I have some positive thoughts about our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and about the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States. (I have no positive comments about Trump himself)
In my view, after close to 10 years on the job, Justin Trudeau has never appeared as Prime Ministerial as he has in the last week or so, knowing full well that his time in that office is almost up.
On the eve of what was believed to be the imposition of staggering tariffs by the United States, Trudeau gave an address to the nation that was befitting of a national leader. It was bold and specific about how Canada would respond to economic warfare from the United States. It was a strong plea for Canadian unity and a direct message to the President of the United States that Canada’s sovereignty was not to be messed with.
Later, the Prime Minister, in a telephone discussion with President Trump, even though disliked by Trump, managed to get a reprieve of 30 days from the imposition of tariffs, a small win perhaps, but one that gives Canada some breathing space to develop further strategies aimed at ducking the tariffs that Trump has threatened.
Also, Justin Trudeau has put the lie to those who believe that Donald Trump’s threat to annex Canada was just a joke or a negotiating tactic, telling a group of businesspeople, fresh off his call with Trump, that the President’s desire to make Canada the 51st State is a genuine threat as he eyes Canada’s plentiful natural resources.
Today, the Prime Minister is in Europe, strengthening Canada’s relationship with The United Kingdom, France, Germany, and other EU leaders, discussing both trade and security. A bit late, perhaps, but still the right thing to do.
There is no question that Justin Trudeau is well past his best-before date. Nevertheless, his actions in standing up for Canada on his way out the door deserve respect and credit.
As for the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, I have come to realize that if we believe in democracy, we must accept the reality that he was elected by most voters in the United States. This is likely because Americans were fed up with both illegal immigration and massive government waste, each a key issue in Donald Trump’s campaign platform.
Many Americans, in my view, voted for Trump because they felt he was listening to their concerns and was moving the country from the far left. To achieve this, they were willing to overlook his very checkered past. Whether they are worried about the pace and legality of what is taking place in that country right now, only the people who voted for Donald Trump can answer that. It is really none of our business.
What is very much our business, however, are Donald Trump’s threats against Canada’s economy and sovereignty. They must be taken seriously.
With barely three weeks in office, Trump has not only threatened Canada, but he has also cast covetous eyes on Greenland, the Panama Canal, the Arctic, and most lately, the Gaza Strip. None of this was on Donald Trump’s public agenda prior to the election, and he has no electoral mandate to pursue his territorial objectives.
But that doesn’t matter. In his short time in office, Trump has already shown that he is prepared to circumvent the rule of law, the Constitution, and Congress. He has not condemned the territorial ambitions of either China or Russia, and he has clearly not ruled them out for himself.
Therefore, the time has come for Canadians to take Trump’s territorial threat very seriously. In terms of his stated ambitions, we are likely at the top of the list not only because we are next door but also because it is the easiest way for America to become “much bigger” (Trump’s words), and it provides unfettered access to Canada’s water, oil, gas and other natural resources without having to pay for them.
Very disturbing is Donald Trump’s referral to a 1908 Agreement between England and the United States that set the borders between Canada and the United States. Trump told Justin Trudeau that he had read it, and it was “very interesting.”
I haven’t read that agreement yet, but it seems clear that Trump has found in it something he can use in a quest against Canada. That is a common tactic of despots throughout the ages to find some past agreement or treaty or perceived threat as an excuse to expand their territory. It happened in 1939. It happened in Ukraine much more recently, and it can happen again.
In many ways, what is happening between Canada and the United States is a tragedy, no matter how it finally turns out. It is hard to imagine that we will ever have as close a relationship with them again. As a country, we have not only lost our best friend, but that friend has also turned against us. I simply find it impossible to believe that most American citizens are okay with that.
As that reality sinks in, however, there is much that Canada needs to do. We need to rely less on the United States. As Canadians, we need to buy made-in-Canada goods wherever possible and avoid, when we can, purchasing American products. We need to do away with inter-provincial trade barriers. We need to have Canadian ships in the Arctic Ocean NOW and be completely unified in our defence of Canada’s sovereignty.
Our federal government, both now and after the election, needs to urgently find new markets for our products and enter into new trade agreements. We need to strengthen our relationship with allies and make sure they are with us if our sovereignty is threatened. And as controversial as it may be, we also need a West/East pipeline in Canada for oil as well as a Canadian refinery.
We need to also listen to some of the concerns that Donald Trump has raised. We must tighten our borders, stop making it easy for illegal immigrants, and, very importantly for our national security, do whatever needs to be done to bring our commitment to NATO to the required level of 2% of our GDP.
This is all real stuff that is developing now, not something we just talk about or shove aside as conspiracy talk or put off for another time. Canada must develop new relationships now and stand on its own two feet in dealing with the United States. We put our heads in the sand at our peril.
Canada is strong and proud. We have proven it many times over more than one century, and we can prove it again.
We are at the point, however, that we must make it abundantly clear to President Trump and his MAGA followers that Canada is not for the taking.
Hugh Mackenzie
Hugh Mackenzie has held elected office as a trustee on the Muskoka Board of Education, a Huntsville councillor, a District councillor, and mayor of Huntsville. He has also served as chairman of the District of Muskoka and as chief of staff to former premier of Ontario, Frank Miller.
Hugh has also served on a number of provincial, federal and local boards, including chair of the Ontario Health Disciplines Board, vice-chair of the Ontario Family Health Network, vice-chair of the Ontario Election Finance Commission, and board member of Roy Thomson Hall, the National Theatre School of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada. Locally, he has served as president of the Huntsville Rotary Club, chair of Huntsville District Memorial Hospital, chair of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, president of Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and board member of Community Living Huntsville.
In business, Hugh Mackenzie has a background in radio and newspaper publishing. He was also a founding partner and CEO of Enterprise Canada, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm established in 1986.
Currently, Hugh is president of C3 Digital Media Inc., the parent company of Doppler Online, and he enjoys writing commentary for Huntsville Doppler.
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I don’t think the bafoom remembers or cares what Canada did after 9/11.
I lived near Trenton and was able to attend every re patriation. A while back he stated that if a Nato member wasn’t meeting their 2% target and attacked, they were on their own.
To be honest, I don’t think he is aware or doesn’t give a rats ass that we lost many young Canadians fighting their battle. Some one needs to remind him of that.
Trump is a hopeless, poorly educated and bigoted bully. How he got to be President will make a good book some day about the “failure of democracy”.
Looking for a silver lining, maybe Canada can finally work more “together” on projects to tie us together economically and extend our trade options to other parts of the world. Greatly reduced dependence on the USA would be a good thing. As Trump says “we don’t need Canada”. Well he may find that after a few years Canada does not need the USA either.
He has singly and highhandedly, in less than a month, removed the USA from my most favorite place to visit and do business with to a pariah that I’ll do almost anything I can do to avoid either visiting or purchasing from.
This is quite an achievement considering our mutual cooperation for well over 100 years.
I do not believe anything he says and expect the worst possible scenario to play out with anything he is involved with. I would not trust him with the keys for my wheelbarrow.
We need to get our MP’s back to Ottawa and we need them to show a united front. All the parties need to stand together and not force an election at this time. The liberal party needs to suspend their leadership race as it is distracting from our real and urgent problem. The conservatives need to back off on taking down the government for the time being. Once we get our “ducks in a row” we can go back to our normal complaining about everything the other political parties do wrong. WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!
Well, electing this felon shows us that all Americans must be related ! Remember duling banjoes ?
Mr. Hogg, we appreciate your kind remarks, and we too have many longtime friends in the US. The problem is divisive US election campaign contribution laws that enable the wealthy to buy their politicians, have created extreme income inequality in the US. According to various reports including USA Today (Oct 24, 2024) 42 million people in the US or large numbers of people in 21 of 50 states (equivalent to the entire population of Canada) live below the poverty line defined as $26,500 per family (mostly Social Security payments) before taxes and most of the 42 million are without US employer-paid health insurance because it costs employers $23,968 per family per year.
The true US trade deficit on imports from Canada is about $40 billion, not the $200 billion exaggerated by Trump, and that is entirely caused by the US addiction to oil that Trump will exacerbate. But the 813 US billionaires and Trump have painted themselves into a corner. The only way Trump “might” keep his reckless promises (that got him elected by 1.5%) to both the top 10% that control 70% of US wealth and the bottom half that hold only 3% of US wealth is to use his long-practiced ART OF THE DEAL tactics plus Hitler’s *blitz and confusion tactics to essentially cut all international cooperation and rob from other countries. And he perceives Denmark (Greenland), Canada and Mexico to be easy targets. He has already lost the trust and respect of most other democratic countries (*See “Trump is speaking like Hitler and Mussolini” in The Atlantic, Oct 18, 2024)
Thank you so much for your commentary Mr. Mackenzie. Very informative and I agree
with all your details. The most important way to deal with President Trump, is to listen carefully to every word he says. Yes, a lot of it is word salad and bluster, but what he says
can be very significant. This man is not to be trifled with.
Thanks again for just a great commentary.
Bravo Hugh! Excellent commentary.
Alaska the 11th province for Canada
I would urge everyone to read “On Tyranny” by Timothy Snyder. In it using examples you can see how a leader can get people to support and do horrible things that happened in the 20’s, 30’s etc. President Trump only won by a a 1.4% margin. The problem for Canada is our neighbours know very little about us or the history of our shared efforts to make the world a better place.
All very good comments. And exactly what Canada needs to do.
But, as far as the last election in the US is concerned, US voters were not ready to elect a woman, and especially a black woman, as President of their country. They live in the past, where real men rule. As a result, Trump and his gang of cronies. The continued analysis of why Kamala Harris lost is all nonsense. It is, unfortunately, because she is a woman. The US is still a man’s world.
They will now pay the price. And, Canada will get dragged along with them.
Well said Hugh !!!
Mr. MacKenzie is right! We are under very real threat from our former friends in the United States. They are now our frenemies. We need to buy everything we can that is Canadian to support our producers. Skip your favourite made in USA product, and find a Canadian alternative, It is there, you just have to look a little harder. For instance, my husband requires a food supplement. I always used Ensure (made in the USA), but it turns out that we have a made in Canada brand called Equate that not only has more protein but is less expensive by $5.00 for the same size package.
We DO need a refinery and a West/East pipeline. We do need to have ships patrolling the Arctic NOW and we absolutely need bring our 2% Nato requirements up to date immediately. Trump will use the lack of this funding to Nato to bring us down.
We have seen how easy it is to declare war on the Ukraine, well we could be the next Ukraine. It was mentioned in a news clip last night by one of Trumps minions that they were not going to INVADE Canada. But once mentioned, it means that they have been thinking about it. We have a huge unmanned border. Just think how easy this would be to cross into Canada.
Then just last night Trump announced that he was putting an immediate 25% tariff on Steel and Aluminum. So much for the months grace.
He and Elon Musk are going to try and run over us with a bulldozer.
If any of you have noticed, last time Trump was all Boom and Bluster, not knowing up from down. This time he is very calm and calculated. This time he is going to do his best to be the Mega Tyrant he is and we are right in the path of this storm.
We need to do everything in our power to create new trading partners, to buy Canadian, become self sufficient to the best of our ability and not be steam rolled by the United States.
It is said that we need to work together BUT, this includes all political parties. They must work as one unit not as an individual party. We elected them to work for us as a whole and they work for their own agenda. We need them to work for all of us. NOW ! They need to lead by example, and the example we have seen so far has been the opposite.
Please people, this is very real. We need to act and act NOW,
A fair & balanced article. As an American, I love my Canadian friends & look to Canada as the social conscious of North America. Most Americans believe that that 51st state comment is only a negotiation ploy. The main items to focus on are immigration, drugs and your interest rate. Comments that only a small percent of illegal drugs are confiscated at the border ONLY makes me believe that there is a large amount coming across undetected…..please prove me wrong or find a large amount & we all win. As for your interest rates, they are way too low, causing the CND dollar to decrease in value. Though that encourages large increases in exports, it leads to inflation. Then there is over spending by both governments, causing inflation. While painful & questionable the way the US is going about it, its efforts in reducing government spending may be a lesson for all countries. I will always feel it is an honor to be a guest in the great country of Canada. Richard Hogg
Thank you for the well-deserved (in my opinion) praise for Mr. Trudeau; I know that you aren’t a fan so it speaks to your open-mindedness to commend him when you think it is due and criticize him when you think it isn’t. I am a Trudeau supporter, so I was puffed up with pride hearing him address the nation in a manner that was so in contrast to the blustering buffoonery of 45-47.
The situation we are in is cause for great concern but it’s also a wake-up call. We need to implement all of the measures you’ve referenced in your article so I won’t repeat them. But…
One of the issues that may be necessary but remains very difficult, is interprovincial free trade. It’s both a complicated challenge and a longer-term goal; it will not be done in a month as Ms. Annand has suggested.
Provinces are protective about regulatory authority. Otherwise, it would have been done decades ago. I’m not sure if the feds could just ‘do it’ or not? Or if they should.
Even if domestic free trade were achieved it doesn’t equal the losses doesn’t come close to cancelling out the losses threatened by the new tariffs. But it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do it.
But we can implement the rest of the plan quite easily if we stand resolute.
I know one thing for sure: Trump’s trade war turned me into a flag-waving nationalist. I’ve always waxed unenthusiastic about nationalism, fearing that
it would lead to conflict, infringe on the rights of others and create xenophobia—the fear that someone will take us over. But, like ‘they’ say, “Is it paranoid when they really are out to get you?”