Time To Rip Off The Band-aid

 

I don't know about you, but I am growing tired of seeing an obese bully kicking sand in our collective faces. My national pride demands a real response. To mix the metaphor, it is time to rip off the Band-aid.

The obese bully, of course, is that vulgarian who 'leads' the U.S., Donald Trump, along with all of his enablers, chief among them his ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra. Said 'diplomat' delivers his master's message with relish, his contempt for our country obvious to anyone who can stomach listening to him. In my view, he personifies "the ugly American".

In his latest broadside against Canada, Hoekstra issues a warning that if we don't play nice with his country, there will be no trade deal. And playing nice means not even thinking about buying a competitor's military jets.

... we’re actually waiting to see exactly where the Canadian government is going to come out on this,” he said, pointing directly to the F-35 purchase review, and questioning what it means that Canada is shopping elsewhere for its fighter jets, and seeking to make its defence industrial base less reliant on the U.S.

Clearly, Hoekstra was not pleased to learn that Canada is thinking for itself when it comes to military procurements.

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters the current F-35 contract doesn’t provide adequate jobs or other economic benefits to Canada.

“We believe that we didn’t get enough when it comes to the F-35,” Joly said Tuesday.

“The industrial benefits are not enough. There needs to be more jobs created out of the F-35 contract. That’s clear to me and clear to this government.” She added the government believes it can “use military procurement to get more.”

Joly was speaking as the  Carney government engages in talks to possibly buy Swedish Gripen E fighter jets as part of his quest to wean Canada off its overreliance on the U.S. for economic and national security. 

While we have committed to buying 18 of the F-35s, with an option to buy more, the Grippen offers several advantages to Canada. It was, for example, made for rigorous northern patrol, and it promises an economic boost to our country.

Joly underscored that Sweden-based Saab is promising to create 10,000 jobs. “We’ll see how concrete (that is), and at the same time, we’re looking at (whether) Lockheed Martin can do more,” she added.

Hoekstra pushed back, saying Canadian suppliers have benefited for years from helping to build parts for the F-35, a fifth-generation stealth fighter jet.

His 'solution' to all of this?  Essentially, it is to give up any pretense of sovereignty and align policies with Uncle Sam.

He said Canada and the U.S. should deepen co-operation, and Ottawa should align its trade policies with Trump’s in order to shut out cheaper Chinese-made products, such as steel, that he said are dumped into North American markets.

“You can put in place the same barriers that we have in place. And you know, the primary target is probably China, OK, because they’re dumping steel, but you can put in place the same kind of protections that we have. And part of what we were looking at was harmonizing the barriers to unfair competition on key materials and products so that it would be fortress North America.”

Fortress America may have a nice ring to it for American acolytes of Trump and his thugs. However, I suspect the majority of Canadians would see that not as a protective shield as much as a prison which, once entered, would be hard to escape from. We must never forget while it may be about military procurements today, tomorrow it will be about something else. A bully can never be appeased.