If for any reason you cannot find the paperback version of Playing the Indian Card at your favourite bookstore or online retailer, please ask them to carry it. Protest and picket the store entrance if necessary.
The Trump tariffs on Canada and Mexico—and their counter-tariffs—have been averted for at least a month. But I am sickened now by the endless posts I see on X saying “Trump blinked,” or “Trudeau backed down,” “Trump got nothing,” “Trudeau bent the knee,” and on and on. It seems to me a display of pure human evil. These people want to dominate others.
The proper understanding is that Trump and Trudeau have managed to reach a deal satisfactory to both. Thank God,l for both our countries.
We should not want to fight. We should not be so eager to turn on our friends.
I think Trump is serious about annexing Canada. He’s been harping at it, recently referring to Trudeau as “governor of the great state of Canada.”
Trump is moving the Overton window, He’s forcing the discussion. He’s done this before. Eventually, it becomes the standard wisdom. Remember when building the border wall was a crazy idea? And it was racist to object to illegals?
The annexation makes every kind of sense from the American perspective. It is ultimately the only way to secure the northern border.
Trudeau, predictably, is reacting in the worst way possible, from Canada’s point of view. He always wants a fight; this is how he reacts when challenged. And he does not care what damage he does to Canada; as noted in a recent column, as a narcissist, he probably wants to burn the place down because it is no longer inclined to vote for him.
Trudeau is idiotically threatening to raise tariffs on American products coming into Canada as retaliation; rather than trying to reach accommodation.
In any trade war, Canada is bound to lose. Canada’s economy depends far more on trade with the US than the American economy depends on trade with Canada. The trade war will probably crash the Canadian economy, and soon have Canadians begging to join the US.
As it stands, an online poll has Canadians evenly split on whether they’d rather stay independent or join the US.
Trudeau’s intransigence may be part of Trump’s calculations. He might have expected this reaction. As a skilled negotiator, he probably studies his opponents’ weaknesses. He seems to be deliberately provoking Trudeau to do something stupid.
I can see it happening. This or that individual province votes to join the US. The US then piles forces in, forestalling any action by the federal government. If any province but Nova Scotia, PEI, BC or Newfoundland make this move, they cut Canada in half, making it unviable.
I’d put my money on Alberta going first.
Poilievre might yet right the ship; but I think it is going to happen.
Jagmeet Singh just pulled the plug on the NDP-Liberal pseudo-coalition.
This is as I predicted: he had to cancel it a decent interval before the next scheduled election, in order to give voters any reason to vote NDP instead of Liberal. He will now, to prove his bona fides, need to vote against the Liberals now in any plausible no-confidence motions.
This need not bring down the Liberal government. They could be kept in power by the BQ without the NDP.
But given the current polling, it probably will. The latest seat projections show the BQ becoming the official opposition, and both they and the NDP picking up 16 seats. So everyone but the Liberals has an incentive to force an election now.
Aristotle notes that tyrannies establish themselves when a government suppresses all centres of power or authority in a society other than itself. This allows the ruler to dictate without opposition.
Aside from governments that directly suppress opposition movements, we should, therefore, beware a government that is opposed to private enterprise or the wealthy. We should fear a government that is unfriendly to organized religion. We should beware a government that seems to be deliberately impoverishing its own people, for this gives them less time or resources to form opposition movements. We should fear governments bringing in large groups of foreigners. That reduces democratic controls and controls of social traditions and conventions on their actions. We should indeed fear any government hostile to local cultural traditions and conventions—these are checks on their power. We should suspect any government that begins to tinker with elections. We should beware a federal government that seeks to reduce or the powers of local authorities within a federation. We should beware a government that seems to want to control or suppress independent media.
And there you have the Trudeau Liberal platform; and that of the modern left generally.
It looks as though Justin Trudeau is planning to resign.
Which is only sensible on his part. Dominic LeBlanc is being set up to replace
him; and he is probably the Liberals’ best play.
The Trudeau Liberals’ proposed new Bill C-63, the “Online Harms Reduction Act” is supposed to criminalize child pornography online. But it also provides for preventative detention or possible life imprisonment for “hate crimes.”
Child pornography online is already illegal. And preventative detention on suspicion of perhaps committing a crime in future, and life imprisonment for hate crimes, are unconstitutional. Not to mention an obvious violation of human rights.
What is the government up to?
Perhaps they are counting on the Conservatives to vote against the bill, as the outrageous violation of human rights that it is, and they will then propagandize this as “The Tories support child pornography!” This would be a useful counter to rightists objecting to men in women’s bathrooms, or drag queen story hours. They have used this tactic before; notably on the bill purportedly establishing free trade with Ukraine, which in reality sought to make the carbon tax impossible to rescind, as a matter of treaty obligation.
But the child pornography provisions might instead be cover for actually pushing through the outrageous violations of human rights. Although unconstitutional, it is naïve to expect the Canadian justice system to defend either the Constitution, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, or human rights. They have not done so in the past. After all, the Prime Minister appoints the judges. And the judges can always appeal to the rider that this or that violation of rights is “demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” We are supposed, for example, to have freedom of expression. That ship left the pier long ago, with no passengers on board, when the “hate speech” laws were passed.
“Hate crimes” are inevitably in the eye of the beholder. It will be easy for the government to declare any opinion they dislike “hateful,” and lock up opponents for life.
Nor will even silence protect you. If they suspect you of dissent, they can use preventative detention.
Can we trust Poilievre to rescind this law, and similar laws? For that matter, can we trust the present government to allow another election? I can’t even say another “free and fair” election. We have reason to believe elections have not been truly free and fair in the recent past. There seems to have been, at a minimum, Chinese interference, which the government has been covering up.
Our local MP has complained on Facebook about being told by a local business owner, “we will attack you because you signed up for it.” He decries the lack of civility this represents. “I’m human and hurt too.” “Nobody signs up to be abused.”
I’d feel more sympathy if his own party leader, Justin Trudeau, had not called ordinary Canadians who resisted the Covid vaccinations—and for no other reason-- “fascists,” “Nazi sympathizers,” Russian agents, “homophobes,” “Islamophobes,” “misogynists,” “white supremacists,” “racists,” “transphobes,” holding “unacceptable views,” and pondered publicly on whether they should be allowed to “take up space.” Not to mention forcing them out of their jobs and livelihoods, freezing their bank accounts, and imprisoning many for mere protest. While two wrongs do not make a right, it seems only natural, and natural justice, for a member of the public to be angry, and want to respond in the only way they are still allowed.
If our local rep now finds this sort of hurtful language unacceptable, why did he not condemn it in Trudeau? Aren’t people people too? Did the rest of us sign up for it?
It also leaves a bad taste in the mouth that he is concerned about being attacked verbally when so many Canadians are suffering terrible times, and government seems to be responsible for much of it: the housing and homelessness crisis, people freezing in the streets, while the government keeps letting in a record number of immigrants and imposing onerous environmental regulations on any construction. Inflation and the spiralling cost of food, while the government keeps raising the carbon tax, spending lavishly, had recklessly printed money, and seemingly stuck any sticks they had available in the spokes of farmers and truckers, forcing food costs ever higher. Not to mention supply management and enforced shortages of the most basic foodstuffs. The health care crisis, caused largely or mainly by the government cutting their contributions to health care, but also by firing health care professionals who resisted vaccination, and preventing trained nurses and doctors from pursuing their profession. This looks like a government at war with its people.
And the problem is that the people are complaining?
The kindest explanation is that the ruling cadre is out of touch.
How can they not see the tents? Do they never walk to the supermarket?
But then again, how did all the writers, performers, and crew on Saturday Night Live recently mock Trump for inventing the word “de-bank.” It is not just that they must never have never heard it, when it is a current issue—and keeping track of current issues is an essential part of their job. How could they have been so arrogantly sure of themselves as to not even look it up? This is supposed to be standard practice in any writing shop.
Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with hubris. We are at that point when the madness is obvious to everyone but themselves. They think they are gods.
Why is the government of Canada, the USA, and the Catholic Church now so historically awful?
It is simple. We have the foxes in charge of the henhouse.
Trudeau dislikes Canada; he says there is no Canadian mainstream. It’s all just a romper room to him. Not admirable, like China.
Biden and his backers consider “Make America Great Again” an objectionable sentiment. They’re explicitly not on the side of America.
And would anyone who loves Catholicism and its traditions want to prohibit its central ritual for centuries, the Latin mass? A recent commentator insists that the modernists are well-intentioned, and think they are saving the church. I do not believe it. You do not increase your appeal by denying some option.
Of course these people are going to do what they can to trash the place while they have the chance.
One might ask, would a moral person seek and accept a position running an institution they despise? Isn’t this deceitful?
But we needn’t assume these are moral people. It would still be a good career move.
We can’t do much about Francis, but as voters, it was also unwise to put someone who condemns “populism” in charge of a democracy.
I hope there is still enough love for Canada, for America, and for God Incarnate, among ordinary people, those of the Beatitudes, that we can outlast this, outvote this, and salvage it all.
Do others realize that Pierre Poilievre is a brilliant rhetorician? He’s better than Reagan, “the Great Communicator.”
This is an essential talent for rea leadership and getting things done. Without it, all you are is a careerist who will follow the polls. With it, you can take popular opinion along with you.
People credit Justin Trudeau with being a great campaigner, because he has won three elections in a row. His training in acting no doubt helps; a background in acting helped Reagan, Zelensky, Pope John Paul II, Queen Elizabeth II. However, he is not a very good actor, more of a wannabe, and it tends to show. He is an actor in about the same sense Hitler was a painter.
I say Trudeau did not win those three elections so much as Tom Mulcair, Andrew Scheer, and Erin O’Toole lost them. As Peter MacKay put it, Scheer missed a shot on an empty net. And they all lost for the same reason: they abandoned principle and “moved to the centre.” They were poll-watchers.
This never works in opposition, because it is a simple matter for a government too to watch the polls. But they, unlike the opposition, can take immediate action on them, getting on the right side of every issue as it arises. All the opposition can argue, then, is that they would be more efficient or honest in doing the same thing.
Those who like the government will naturally vote for the government again, not some unknown promising to do the same thing.
Those who do not like the government will not vote for someone else promising to do the same thing.
To defeat a sitting government, you need to do what Poilievre is doing: stick to your principles, and sell them to the public. You can’t win the debate if you don’t debate. You can’t begin by conceding all the premises of the other side.
A brace of recent polls show Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives opening up a seven point lead over the Liberals. It seem insane that it takes so long for Canadians to turn emphatically against this corrupt, incompetent, and totalitarian government. But it is at least at last perhaps happening.
At the same time, Michelle Rempel Garnier reports a rumour that the Liberals may want to call a snap election.
The rumour is likely to be false. But if it is true—why would Trudeau call an election when he is trailing in the polls?
Suppose insiders have a clear expectation of recession hitting soon. If Trudeau waits, he will be blamed for it, and the Liberal Party will lose much worse by 2025.
If he pulls the trigger now, he may make up the ground in a campaign, and get himself cemented into power for another few years—possibly long enough to weather the storm. If, on the other hand, he loses to a Conservative minority—they are liable to get blamed by the general public for the recession when it hits, and the Liberals should have a good shot at getting back into power soon enough.
If Trudeau does indeed call a snap election this summer or fall, it will be a sign of bad economic times to come.
It is an unnerving thought, but it seems increasingly clear that Justin Trudeau here in Canada, and Joe Biden in the States, have for years been in the pay of the Communist Chinese government. And that this has influenced them to go at times against the interests of their own country.
And after all, why wouldn’t this be so? Bribery is the standard way to do business in China. Now that China is the second-largest world economy, their government has vast financial resources. Plenty enough to bribe foreign leaders. Why wouldn’t they apply their business culture abroad?
In past generations, even were this attempted, we could probably count on our leadership, our political elites, to be too committed to the ideals of Canada, or the USA, to their homeland and its people, to take such bribes. But now, in case anyone hasn’t noticed, our elites no longer feel this way: Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden have made it no secret that they do not feel this way. There is, we are told, no Canadian mainstream culture. Biden and Trudeau and those around them have open contempt for Canada, or the US, as patriarchies, “white supremacist,” and “settler colonies.” They pretty much must be torn down. This can surely justify, at least in their own minds, dealing with the enemy. Especially if they is a lot in it for them.
It is telling that much or all the money seems to have gone to close relatives, rather than to the two politicians themselves. To the Chinese way of thinking, the family is an indissoluble unit: money given to any member is money given to “the big guy.” It is also an essential part of Chinese culture that any gift implies a quid pro quo. This is not optional; they will keep accounts and balance sheets.
Which may explain why they were so livid at Canada’s detaining the HuaWei CFO.
Without assuming this Chinese control, it is hard to account for many of the actions of the Trudeau government’s, or indeed Biden’s. They often seem to go against the national interest. Or they resist and stall when action against China seems advisable.
Why is this coming out now, and at the same time in both countries?
It is “whistle blowers” somewhere in the security service.
Why are they leaking now?
Because a few years ago, such payments might have looked corrupt, but not alarming.
Since Xi Jinping has gone totalitarian, and seized Hong Kong, the bribery has begun to look more like a direct threat to national security. Making it seem now necessary to take the risk of blowing the whistle.
If Canada is worth the subverting, we can be sure the CCP is doing the same in many other places. New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, the Philippines, show evidence of this. I wonder about France, the Netherlands, South Korea. That they have bought many African leaders is common knowledge.
Sun Tzu says that the war is won before the first shot is fired. This is what the CCP is doing. They are undermining Canada and the West from within.
Elon Musk has labelled the CBC “government funded media” on Twitter.
Justin Trudeau has publicly protested. He seems enraged. The CBC has threatened to leave Twitter.
Remarkably, everything Justin Trudeau says about the matter is not only a lie, but the opposite of the truth. It is illustrative of narcissistic gaslighting generally. When you are a convinced liar, it is generally not enough in your own mind to lie. You fear the truth, you generally feel safest getting as far away from it as possible.
You can see such fear in Trudeau’s eyes. Granted, it looks like anger—narcissistic rage—but narcissistic rage is a “fight or flight” response. Narcissists are haunted by their own conscience. It makes them dangerous.
To begin with, of course, the CBC is indeed government funded. This is simply the literal truth, and this is what Trudeau is furious about, and calls an “attack.”
Trudeau blames Pierre Poilievre, leader of the official opposition, for the label. Poilievre did indeed write to Musk requesting this; but Twitter is simultaneously so labelling NPR, PBS, the BBC, New Zealand state TV, Al Jazeera, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It would be odd to expect special treatment for the CBC no matter what Poilievre said.
In the same sentence, Trudeau describes the CBC as an “independent media organization.” Which is exactly what it is not. By insisting that it is, and objecting to the factual statement that it is government funded as an “attack,” Trudeau is admitting in a backhanded way, as narcissists do, that he knows he is in the wrong: he knows there is something deeply wrong with the way the Canadian government is funding and trying to control the media.
He stresses that the CBC delivers “local news and local content,” as if it were some small local operation up against a big impersonal business. But the CBC is the big national operation; and Trudeau is doing everything he can, with Bill C-11, to suppress independent local media and content—the YouTubers.
Trudeau then says that in criticizing the CBC Poilievre is attacking Canadian culture. One common criticisms of the CBC is that it does not promote Canadian culture. Instead, it is all in for multiculturalism, which is to say, foreign culture, and full of “woke” criticism of Canadian culture as racist. Trudeau has actually claimed that Canada has no mainstream culture.
He accuses Poilievre of, in his supposed campaign against Canadians, “running to American billionaires; the tech giants.” That would presumably be Elon Musk, one billionaire, the chief actual opposition to the “tech giants.” And Musk is a Canadian citizen.
Nice try at fomenting anti-American hatred, by the way.
Trudeau ends with accusing the Conservatives of “always defending the tech giants.” It has been the left in the US that has been colluding to an almost Fascist degree with the tech giants. In Canada, the Liberals just gave the green light to a hi-tech merger of Rogers and Shaw. They tend to be in corporate pockets generally. SNC Lavelin? Power Corporation? The Tories, by contrast, are mostly the party of small business.
This is not an honest or a decent man. And he holds the Canadian people in contempt.
Some time ago, I noted that, by uncanny coincidence, the Trudeau government is taking just the steps a government would take if it intended to turn Canada into a totalitarian dictatorship. Control of the press. Seizure of guns. Freezing the assets of any opposition. Outlawing peaceful protest. Setting up a controlled opposition—the NDP. Restricting freedom of speech on the Internet: Bill C-11. Restricting freedom of speech in the public square: the “hate laws.” Establishing a need for identity papers—the vaccination passes and the ArriveCan app. Trying to suppress and bring to heel pre-emptively those segments of the population least dependent on government and hardest for government to control: the transient truckers, the self-sufficient farmers.
The coincidence has now grown even more remarkable. Arrested in their attempt to impose an internal passport by the end of the pandemic emergency—although they tried to rush it into being just before the pandemic ended--the Trudeau government seems to be trying to impose one by other means.
The Canadian health care system is in crisis; not just because of the pandemic, but because the federal government, years ago, limited their contributions. The premiers have been begging for help.
Now Trudeau has announced a package with $46.2 billion in new spending. However, “To access the enhanced CHT, provinces must first commit to improving how health data is ‘collected, shared, used and reported to Canadians to promote greater transparency on results, and to help manage public health emergencies.’"
That might sound harmless, but does it address a real problem? Do Canadians care about collecting accurate health data; is that the emergency? Or about getting prompt diagnosis, medicines and surgery? Is data collection where the additional money should go first?
Perhaps the provinces have been squandering their funding? If so, that can be as readily addressed by voters at the provincial as at the federal level. And the Canadian Constitution specifies that be handled at the provincial level.
But it does open the door to the federal government collecting and coordinating health data on all Canadians. It can be used as an excuse to reintroduce an internal passport. Keep tabs on you at all times to maintain your health data, sure; just like the vaccine passport. But also then your whereabouts at all times, your expressed political opinions, your bank and financial transactions, and, given present technology, much else.
Given the actions of the Trudeau government, it is urgent that we vote them out at the first chance. And obviously not in favour of the NDP.
But will we get a chance? They now control the media, and are about to control the Internet, so that opposition parties will have trouble getting their message out.
Ontario, and some other provinces, have begun to use voting machines. We must be vigilant that the federal government does not sneak them in at the federal level. Voting machines prevent citizen oversight and forensic examination. They are a blank cheque to rig any election.
If and when you hear that voting machines are coming in for federal election, you will know the jig is up.
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