Timing is everything, and this Tariff War is precisely what the Federal Government needed to distract Canadians from their abysmal economic record. From Capital Flight, Falling Investment, and my personal favourite, a collapse in Productivity Growth. The data speaks for itself.
There is an even steeper trajectory for morality.
If Canada doesn’t fix its problems, it deserves to be punished by America.
Case in point: Pierre Poilievre has attacked Trump. That makes him a RINO and a traitor to MAGA.
Since at least the days of MacKenzie King a sufficient portion of the Canadian electorate has supported posturing cowardice often enough that it has become a hallmark of Canadian political leadership.
Pierre Poilievre needs to apologize to Trump for criticizing him.
Pierre Poilievre does not have a hope in hell if he stands with Trump, the TDS has been to ingrained in so many Canadians by our legacy media they will not vote for anyone pro Trump
Relax…..it’s called “realpolitik”….if he aligned with Trump, the media would come down on him. Your strategy is idiotic.
In Mordecai Richler’s novel “Joshua Then and Now”, the adult protagonist Joshua Shapiro and his boyhood pals gather for their annual catch-up fête called the William Lyon Mackenzie King Memorial Dinner, named after the Canadian prime minister of their boyhood. The dinner is an elaborate ritual with props and the like, and serves as a mock-celebration of the sort of prissy, Methodist-y, mid-century Anglo-Canadian humbug that they, as aspirational Montreal Jewish boys, found so insufferable.
As a gag, the fellows proclaim that professional hockey needs a new trophy and that they will henceforth award one – the William Lyon Mackenzie King Memorial Trophy – to the NHL player who most exemplifies, in their words, “the undying spirit of Mackensie King.”
Shapiro’s dinner testimonial setting out the criteria by which the new trophy will be awarded – which can be found at pp. 167-8 of the McClelland and Stewart hardcover – is – to quote one critic – “a bitter attack on Canadian institutional identity” which Shapiro & co. see as being exemplified by Canada’s longest-serving PM. I will go one further, however, and insist that it is THE MOST BLISTERING – AND FUNNIEST – ATTACK ON THE CANADIAN NATIONAL CHARACTER EVER WRITTEN.
Watching, in these recent days, my countrymen’s reactions to the Trump tariffs et al, caused me to revisit Richler’s 1980 novel as I attempted to make sense and to put into perspective what I’d been witnessing, much of it coming from people I thought should know better.
I will let Richler/Shapiro take it from here:
“Obviously, the player we have in mind would not be a high scorer, a natural star, but rather a plodder who overcomes with effort and cunning a conspicuous lack of talent, intelligence, or grace. In the nature of things, he would have to be a player who has been in the league for at least ten years, unnoticed, unheralded, but persevering. The fellow we have in mind spears when the referee has his back turned, trips an opposing player if he can get away with it, but unfailingly backs down from a fight. Preferably, he would be a man who respects his mother even more than the coach, and has a firm faith in the world-to-come. If he is on the ice when a goal is scored for his side, he argues for an assist on the play. If he is on the ice when a goal is scored by the opposition, he promptly disowns responsibility. Above all, he is a vengeful winner and sore loser. He has no close relationships with any of his teammates. Loyalty is unknown to him. Forced into a quick decision on ice, in the heat of play, he neither opts for the possibly inspired but risky choice nor stands tall and resolute on the blue line. He avoids making any decision whatsoever, heading for the safety of the bench. All the same, when many a more talented player has retired, legs gone, or has been removed from the fray in his prime through injury, our MacKenzie King Memorial Trophy winner will still be out there skating. Skating away from trouble. Persevering.”
great analogy…and the root word is anal
i think Canadian character could be summarized in a book . One shade of grey .
It’s the not the gayness, – oops, a typo that I will leave in (Freudian slip?) – it’s not the grayness that gets Strauss (the world is full of dullards), it’s the NEAR CONSTANT preeningly obnoxious moral exhibitionism, the ressentiment-addled self-righteousness, and the smug, pedantic moral auditing of every single American shortcoming (and they only seem to be be obsessed with American shortcomings) that a great many Canadians – especially now in this season of Forced Canadiana – insist in indulging in.
What a ridiculous little people. A ridiculous inconsequential little people.
Oh! We have awards like that here in America! And we start awarding them as early as age 4 … they’re called Participant trophies. Congrats Canada … you’re all Participants! Here’s your goody bag of cheap toys and Rice Krispie treats … glued together with marshmallow goo.
Excellent! We live in a country of Ron MacLeans.
I’ve played competitive sports including hockey and would suggest a player with a lack of character like Richler describes wouldn’t play 10 games in a beer league let alone 10 years as a professional. I’ve seen guys on the same team drop their gloves and start throwing ’em – both on the bench and on ice.
I’m a big Mordecai Richler fan. He wrote some great fiction.
PP needs to keep his eye on the ball and stop getting sucked into this blatant Liberal Party anti-American, anti-Trump psyop that so any Canadians – a ridiculous little people – seem to be buying into hook, line and sinker
He should literally take the (depressing) economic data slides in this post and just keep showing them EVERYWHERE over and over and over again. The Liberals have written the Conservative’s own attack ad with their economic and “misery-index” track record. The question is: are the Conservatives intelligent enough to use it?
PP’s handlers and “political consultants” – who obviously lack my strategic insight and brilliance – should insist he stick to what I am suggesting here and not take the Liberal bait.
Are the Conservatives dumb enough to take the Liberal bait?
It’s as if Harper’s gang of short pants dweebs are back making stupid decisions.
The problem with Conservatives using such graphs and numbers is that liberal voters don’t understand math. I’ve seen it over and over again. Just try telling them that Canada’s contribution to worldwide anthropogenic CO2 is only 1.6% of the total, and that ALL the world’s anthropogenic CO2 is only 3% of the total released; most of it from completely natural sources. It’s completely meaningless to liberals because they can’t understand math, or even basic arithmetic. They have been lifelong suckers, letting the lying television think for them. It tells them that the world is burning up because of manmade CO2 and that Liberal governments are competent and honest, and they believe it.
The key is to not let this become the wedge issue. So you don’t step in the trap.
Exactly, Art. EXACTLY. Are the Conservatives esp. their Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal based pollsters and political consultants – i.e., the “gang of short pants dweebs making stupid decisions” – dumb enough to step into the Liberal trap?
It’s the KEY question/issue here
As I noted in an open letter to the Conservatives in this SDA comment section sometime earlier:
CONVENTIONAL WISDOM IS FOR IDIOTS – You are way too deferential to established authority and opinion. The types who produce those hand-wringing/pearl-clutching editorials in say, the Globe and Mail are never going to dig you so why debase yourselves by even trying? Find a way to get your message to the country over the heads of the mainstream media (it’s dying, so how hard can this be?). You are also way too in the thrall of political consultants, ‘wise men’, pollsters, pundits, elder statesmen, party hacks, assorted mouth-breathers and other nervous-nellies peddling shopworn conventional wisdom. These people know virtually nothing.
Jenni Byrne really should hire me.
Orange Man Bad…mommy and daddy government good
Liberal clowns in the MSM explain why elections are bad:
“Thanks to @DonaldTrump’s tariffs, Canada is at war.
It’s not time to tear ourselves apart in an election.
Our leaders to put country before party and form a national unity government.”
She’s too dumb to understand that we’re ‘at war’ because of this government and we need to change it.
Or too dishonest.
https://x.com/TashaKheiriddin/status/1896986910947708995
Pierre Poilievre needs to apologize to Trump for criticizing him.
PP is a RINO who has betrayed MAGA.
On whose side are Canadian conservatives on?
No apology is necessary. It’s “realpolitik” and not giving Liberals a leg up on a wedge issue. It’s the back channel that is important. Wise up.
Children of government in this place have their heads stuffed so far up their ‘you know what’ that this doesn’t matter to them, they are completely irrational. Here we’re already at only two thirds the income of an average American and falling fast, but these losers, your neighbours, lose their minds only when you point that out, it’s maddening.
they have have been brainwashed by our public education system which promotes the liberal party and preaches against the conservative party. Unfortunately they will be taking their warped ideas going forward to the detriment of Canada
– “Timing is everything, and this Tariff War is precisely what the Federal Government needed to distract Canadians from their abysmal economic record.”
The tariff war and timing thereof is controlled by Trump, so if we accept the notion that this is all part of the art of the 5D chess deal then we must conclude that Trump wants the Libs to succeed in their distraction and stay in power. I suppose this could make sense from his perspective as Canada will become weaker and poorer, and more vulnerable to his manipulations.
Oh no, it sure is gonna suck to be a Canadian. Anyway . . .
Already sucks to be a Canadian, just going suck more…..
From Trump’s POV, a Chines puppet run by the LPC is no different than a Chinese puppet run by the CPC.
Pierre Poilievre deserves to lose the election for criticizing Trump.
PP has betrayed MAGA!
Kate – can you give this clown bootstrap a time out for posting the same useless post over and over on this thread.
Bootstrap obviously has nothing intelligent to say and should be shown the door.
Oh shut up. Take a Midol.
Look, I’ve figured this out. If I just shriek “HATE TRUMP”, the dispenser issues this scrumptious pellet. So, I’m shrieking! I’m shrieking! Now, pelletize me, bro!
Same old play.
Just like clockwork.
First steal power.
Then bankrupt the nation.
Debase the currency.
Steal every little residue of wealth.
Defraud foreign investors.
See the peasants get angry.
Declare “War” on the investors you owe.
Watched Pretty Boy’s speech.
If we did not already know him for an empty vessel and purveyor of lies,you might have thought it an impressive speech.
Almost as “impressive” as the “It did not have to be this way..” Progressive idiocy.
Who reacts well to being lectured and hectored by a lifetime loser?
Every American Citizen ,who hears that smarmy twit lecturing them about “Their President” is going to ask..WTF?
Who is this idiot?
Who the hell is this twit to challenge our ,the voters choice.?
Cause Dear Leader was ,once again calling all Trump supporters ignorant fools…
Guess his speech writers just can’t help themselves.
The politics of envy are so institutionalized in Ontario,Quebec that they are insane.
Envy.
The USA citizen is wealthy, compared to Canadians..
Canadians are willing to incur massive debt,longterm financial burdens onto future tax payers, to pretend to be as rich as some Americans.
Envy.
But the living paycheck to paycheck to maintain an illusion gets old real fast
Dear Leader is an incredible fool,one determined to make us ungrateful Canadians pay for rejecting his “wisdom”..
Once again..If the Liberals were actually seeking to destroy Canada …What would they have done differently?
John … you left out … “”Billionaires” and “Oligarchs”
As in … “Trump only wants tax cuts to reward his Billionaire and Oligarch buddies”
PP will be doa if he doesn’t “ Stand up to Trump “ . The Trudope whore media will see to that ..
Welcome to the Liberal Party of Canada playbook: PP is backed into a corner by a majority of Canadian voters who will not believe Ottawa (China) is the larger threat. It’s they who must be persuaded by the arguments presented here.
The self sabotage is hilarious. Even Pierre can’t help himself! You guys are going to be miserable forever.
Self sabotage would be falling into the trap. By Pierre doing what he is doing, he is not giving the Liberals the wedge issue they so badly want. I guess you don’t play chess.
That’s the MOST SUCCESSFUL de-industrialization graph I’ve ever seen! Congrats Canada.
PS … good luck in the upcoming Trade War. Good Luck.
The trade war has never been the biggest threat. The terrible business environment the Liberals have created in Canada under Trudeau is. And the velocity of this movement of capital will accelerate.
Isn’t that the beauty of the Trump tariffs!? Your former/current/resigned/lame PM can cover up all his own deliberate incompetence by blaming Trump and booing the US Nat. anthem.
PS … You can always take solace in knowing that while all those evil, capitalist, ewwwww “Nations” were killing the planet … Canada chose Net Zero and did their very best to SAVE THE PLANET.
Maurice Strong is dancing in his grave.
He will have to join the Grave Dancers Union. He will have to file. I am reliably informed on this.
Outflows of foreign investment started in earnest in 2015. Something about that date …