Nobody loves to see their name in headlines like Donald Trump does. There isn’t a claim too bizarre, absurd, or devoid of fact or truth for this privileged brat who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
It would be laughable if he wasn’t president of the United States
When a man criminally convicted of sexual abuse and falsifying business records, and now facing racketeering charges for conspiring to overturn US election results in 2020, sits atop the most weaponized country in the world and jokes about annexing Canada and using military force to take Greenland and the Panama Canal, you have to pay attention.
Especially when he has adopted as a sidekick Elon Musk, the world’s richest person who has been using the platform he owns, X, to peddle in conspiracy, cozy up to extremists, and meddle in foreign democracies and elections.
Bromance
Let’s face it, the Musk bromance is on brand for Trump. Neither cares much for democracy in the US, let alone in other countries. That’s why given Trump’s lawless track record, the sabre rattling and dreams of American expansion should be taken for what they are – dangerous.
It’s happened before. Remember that German guy with a moustache who has become the personification of evil? Yeah, that one. After being elected chancellor of Germany in 1933, he destroyed democratic institutions, created a dictatorship, and put the country on a war footing. The rest is ugly history.
At first when Trump referred to now outgoing PM Trudeau as a governor and Canada as the 51st state, it seemed like a cringy, awkward joke. The kind of joke that would be met around the dinner table with equally awkward silence and muffled giggles. But if repeated enough times, a bad joke becomes an intention.
Canadian political leaders, past and present, are being compelled to respond.
Backlash
Commenting on X, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre (Elon Musk’s choice for PM) wrote, “Canada will never be the 51st state. Period. We are a great and independent country.”
Then he added that “we will axe taxes, slash red tape, and rapidly green-light massive resource projects…”
It should be noted that Poilivere’s passionate defense of Canadian sovereignty was strategically paired with some tax-cutting, free-for-all resource extraction language that must be music to Musk’s and Trump’s ears. But to his credit, Poilievre opened with the right tone.
Noise from south of the border is also getting Stephen Harper’s attention. Recently, he took to X to repost a rousing video from when he was Conservative party leader. The video’s voiceover starts with, “Canada is, and always has been, our country. And we want Canada to be a True North that is as strong and as free in every way possible that matters: that best country in the world.”
Harper accompanied the post with the words, “True when I said it, true today.”
No doubt there’s some dated language in the video that overlooks the fact that Canada hasn’t always been “our country.”
Nevertheless, the message is clear: the sovereignty and independence of a modern Canada are non-negotiable.
Trump’s expansionist bluster is, as usual, a goldmine for Fox News and CNN talk show hosts. There are apologists and appeasers – many of them – who say, don’t worry about it, that’s just Trump being Trump.
To them, we say Trump and his spineless enablers have already done irreparable damage to American democracy. Add Elon Musk and his ambitions for global political influence to the mix, and things have become toxic.
The last thing we need is for this toxin to creep across the border.
Strong, confident, and fair leadership is the only answer – there’s nothing Trump likes more than going for the jugular of a weak-kneed adversary.
