"We Used To Be The Best Of Friends"

There is no shortage of songs in response to the aggression from our southern neighbours. This, in my view, is one of the best, by Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy. I only take issue with his last line. (That ship, for me, has sailed.)

Well, Another Post About The Lost One

I thought I was finished writing about Wayne Gretzky, but this past week on This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Mark Critch lit into him. 

Enjoy (or not).

The Power Of Canadians

Normally, when world events overtake us, we feel largely powerless. Happily, that is not the case when it comes to the punitive and totally unjustified American tariffs. Many, many Canadians are making their power felt through their wallets and travel choices as increasing numbers choose to eliminate U.S. destinations from their itineraries.

More power to them.

There are also other ways to make our outrage felt.

And it you haven't taken to the streets for a while, there is this:

Canadian Pride, Canadian Anger

 

If you think about it, in some ways we owe Don Trump some thanks. Not only has he roused us from out normal placidity, evern torpor, to feel deep pride in our country, he has also made us very, very angry. In the long term, that can only work to our collective good.

As previously noted, Canadians are responding to American tariffs by making concerted efforts to buy Canadian products, shunning the American version in increasing numbers. Similarly, plans to travel to the U.S. are being cancelled, often redirected to other countries, including our own.

Canadians are clearly putting their money where their mouths are.

Pam, a 64-year-old retired woman from British Columbia, said she and her husband had cancelled a five-week trip to Palm Springs, losing their $5,000 (£3,900) deposit. They were planning, she said, to buy a Honda truck now instead of a Ford. 

One woman from British Columbia who lives a 10-minute drive from the US border and is participating in the boycott pointed to the irony of having joined several Facebook groups promoting Buy Canadian campaigns – one of which had now ballooned to 1.2 million members.

The tariffs, or rather our government's response to them, have had a massive impact on the politics of this country. A Polaris Strategic Insights survey reveals the following:

Dan Arnold, chief strategy officer at Pollara, said the survey contained warning signs for federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in his looming faceoff with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal successor.

 Fully 41 per cent of respondents believe Poilievre would “do what Trump demands” while 27 per cent felt the Tory chief would “strongly oppose his demands.”

In contrast, just 17 per cent thought Liberal front-runner Mark Carney would do what Trump wanted, while 44 per cent said the former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor would oppose the president’s demands.

Similarly, 16 per cent said Liberal hopeful Chrystia Freeland would do what Trump demanded, while 44 per cent said the former deputy prime minister would oppose his demands.

Probably the most heartening news I read this morning was Justin Trudeau's response to Trump's demand that Canada cease retaliatory tariffs:

... Trudeau declined, agreeing only that he might delay the second tranche of countermeasures, depending on whether Trump agreed to abide by tariff-free access under the North American free trade deal the two renegotiated and signed in 2018.

But Canada’s counter-tariffs on $30 billion worth of U.S. imports would remain in place until U.S. tariffs came off, Trudeau is said to have told Trump. 

I couldn't be prouder of our government at this moment. 

Canada Strong!

UPDATED: Scenes From My LCBO

I took a walk over to my LCBO store yesterday afternoon, and I was pleased to see that Doug Ford's order for the removal of American alcohol is being implemented with dispatch. Below are two pictures I took, the first of the American Whiskey section, and the second of the shelves formerly housing California wines.

Needless to say, I left the store quite heartened.

Oh, and one more picture. Yesterday seemed to be a propitious day to display my allegiance.

UPDATE: I love this:

DEI - Setting The Record Straight

Special Note: I won't be commenting today on the imposition of American tariffs, but I hope the following puts American madness into proper perspective.

Last week I posted about the craven response many corporations are having to the Trump push to demonize Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs. The majority, both in the U.S and Canada, are clicking their heels and shouting "Aye, ready aye" to the MAGA fiat to disempower traditionally underrepresented people in the workplace. An unseemly abuse of power, it reflects the American tradition of finding witches in their midst and dispatching them to metaphorical dunking chairs and pyres.

From comments I received last week, some see these programs merely as corporate-imposed dictates, a kind of performative politics that ultimately mean little. Indeed, it has been alleged that they have been wielded as a cudgel to advance the agenda of certain groups. While there may be elements of truth in that,  DEI programs have much to commend themselves.

David Olive writes:

DEI is simply the enlightened business practice of creating workplaces whose diversity of talent and backgrounds helps make enterprises more productive, responsive to customers, and profitable.

But U.S. President Donald Trump regards DEI as “woke,” or unduly sensitive to marginalized people, and has banned DEI programs in his administration, claiming they are “radical” and “wasteful.”

Olive goes on to make reference to corporate obeisance to Trump by Canadian companies like Shopify, as well as sponsors now pulling out of Pride Toronto sponsorships, including Nissan Canada. 

Many, however, have rushed to defend DEI.

...major Canadian corporations including Loblaw, Magna International, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and Brookfield Asset Management have kept their DEI practices in place.

And a deeper dive by David Olive reveals the value of such programs:

What is DEI?

In their hiring practices, organizations that adopt DEI values recruit employees of diverse backgrounds. Managers are trained in DEI practices of celebrating diversity.

Managers’ pay is tied to achieving DEI goals that commonly include promotion of women and minorities. DEI enterprises purchase from Black-owned and women suppliers.

And DEI organizations use their financial resources to support marginalized groups in the wider society from which they draw their employees, customers and suppliers, including the LGBTQ+ community, Indigenous Peoples and people with disabilities.

Advocates of DEI regard it as a set of tools for creating a sustainably successful enterprise. That means maintaining “safe” workplaces where employees are protected from sexual predation and racist behaviour.

Such enterprises build employee loyalty and suffer less turnover, boosting productivity.

Corporate quislings responding with such alacrity to the madness from the U.S. risk compromising their businesses. 

“Inclusive workplaces drive innovation, enhance productivity, and increase profitability.”

“Companies that turn away from inclusion risk alienating talent, stifling innovation, and exposing themselves to long-term harm.”

Add to that the disgust many Canadians will feel over a corporate lack of spine in this arena, especially in these times, when the Americans are seen more as foe than friend. Companies would therefore be well-adivised to proceed with extreme caution and eschew the frightened-rabbit response so many sadly seem prone to today.

Not Exactly As Advertised

 

The U.S. always touts itself as the greatest country in the world (if not in all of history). The nation bruits its achievements, its pool of talented citizens, its democracy (now it rapid decline) amongst its stellar achievements. However, one thing the nation lacks is any perspective or context outside its own self-proclaimed greatness, while the rest of the world has known, or is coming to know, the real state of nudity in which the emperor parades.

I was thinking about this last night as I watched the news. Each evening, Canadian channels warn of the hard times ahead should Trump's tariffs come into effect. However, frequently a counterbalance is offered through stories about how the American threat has affected the Canadian psyche, reflected specifically in our buying habits. Stories abound of angry, insulted Canadians cancelling travel to the U.S., along with their grocery purchasing choices - more and more Canadians are shunning, whenever possible, American products and buying more local and Canadian goods, When the latter is not possible, they are selecting non-U.S. products.

In Canadian grocery stores, United States-grown produce is wilting on the shelves. Local executives are scouring wine lists over dinner to avoid ordering California pinot.

“It speaks to an awareness — and an intention to vote with their wallets,” said Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute. A survey of 3,310 Canadians by the Vancouver-based research firm last week found that 85 per cent of people plan to replace U.S. products with alternatives. Nearly half of respondents said they would change their travel plans to avoid the country.

 Canadian airlines also have begun to scale back flights to the U.S. in anticipation of falling demand.

“One thing we can do is not give our dollars to the United States right now,” said Curtis Brown, principal at Winnipeg-based Probe Research, which found in a recent poll that more than six in 10 respondents are planning to avoid vacations to the U.S. Brown said his own daughter’s school division recently cancelled field trips to the country.

Clearly, Canadian pride has been massively reawakened, and that reawakening is likely to be long-term. Although I am an inveterate cynic, I see here renewed hope that as a nation we realize what a jewel our way of life is. Certainly, we justifiably carp about its many inadequacies, but undeniable is that we have a system predicated on the wellbeing of the collective, not just the individual.

I was reminded of this while watching a story about the upcoming Oscars, juxtaposed against the devastation of the California wildfires. One young couple, who work in the film industry, capture the precariousness of life in the United States at the 16:35 mark of the following:

As explained above, if this young couple does not work a certain number of hours, they don't have any health insurance. This is but a brief window into what many Americans face and what Canadians are spared.

Yes, we have doctor shortages, we have hallway medicine, we have many without family physicians. But what we don't have is a society that essentially tells us to sink or swim, as is the case with the 'great' American project.

So I am happy and grateful that we live in Canada, to me the best country in the world. And I will do everything I can as a citizen to make sure that will always be the case.