

I think her tone and decisions are demonstrating cooler heads addressing pragmatic concerns rather than satisfying a desire for catharsis.
The Teslas were a bad deal for which we overpaid. But they are functioning EVs with low operating costs. If we sold them, we’d be flooding the used market with a product already experiencing suppressed demand because of the brand association. So we’d take a bath on the price and still need to buy something to replace them.
The problem with government contracts is that a lot of them with U.S. suppliers have no cost-competitive alternatives. We’d end up paying exorbitantly more and as such a small province just don’t have the capacity to absorb that along with supporting our own tariff-impacted workforce.
And the problem with extorting the NB Power customers in Maine is that they are poor communities that currently contribute to our struggling utility’s bottom line. Threatening their energy security only sours relations with a friendly blue neighbor that would be forced to mobilize support and ultimately get them on Maine’s own power grid. Long term we’d only be shrinking NB Power’s consumer base and discouraging cooperation at a sub-national level. That kind of decoupling brings us closer to a position that can be branded as hostile with the sort of propaganda that manufactures consent for traditional warfare.
I’m hopeful that she’ll find some ways to exert pressure that involve less self-harm, but happy to have supporting our own be the priority. Our national response and provincial cooperation on those pressure points does the most to weaken the U.S. administration specifically, and pivoting to new trade partners and building up our own value-added industries are the real path to success. Even nationally, showing up to the trade war is more a matter of showing strength, undermining the current U.S. administration, and leading other nations by example.
I don’t think anyone (other than Conservatives) think “friendly, collaborative” politics are going to get anywhere with Dumpster’s administration. I have my doubts that anyone actually expects to make a deal, or would think it worth the paper on which it’s written if we did. But we need to constantly message that we hold the high ground - that we only ever operated in good faith. As long as Dumpster is unambiguously the only bad guy, this conflict will be limited to trade, foster international support for Canada, and establish the long-term partnerships that secure us against all manner of American interference.
Likewise thanks. And you do raise a good point with this:
I do think that’s something too few Canadians are considering. With all the patriotic rage brewing, there are a lot of calls for our various levels of leadership to lash out in any direction they can. People are getting mad at them for instead mostly sticking to a wiser path, focused on pressure rather than catharsis. You’ll see our politicians in public speeches constantly reiterating how Canada and the U.S. are and should still be friends working to mutual benefit. I don’t think anyone believes that, nor that we’d ever accept a return to status quo. That messaging is for the international community and American public, making clear that we are not the aggressors and will not rise to become such.
I see paths where the U.S. administration provokes an overreaction which weakens our footing on the high ground and creates a window for actions of a less purely economic nature. I’ve always expected the U.S. to eventually come after our resources wielding guns, not dollars, but this is way ahead of schedule even with the pressures of climate change. Dumpster is skipping long crucial steps propagandizing away the friendship to manufacture consent for war. That isn’t going to work, but our actions here and now could jump-start that process of branding us hostiles.
As it stands, the trade war is a blessing for Canada’s long-term outlook. It is validating the painful pace at which we’ve been recently growing our population, steeling our resolve to weather more pain for a nationally shared goal, and giving us the unity needed to dodge our own rightward descent, decouple from the U.S., diversify supply lines for critical assets (especially of military tech), and ultimately demonstrate that we are not a soft target even for the U.S. I only hope he stays the course and we hold our red lines. No deal is the best deal anyway.
And - assuming the CIA is really gutted and not being converted into a shadow organization - I like Canada’s odds. At some point you might start thinking of your family in Canada as your in with a nation that still has a bright long-term economic outlook. 😉