Can't be any worse than that bubble drink he's been hawking.
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Can't be any worse than that bubble drink he's been hawking.
*SNERK*
Seems like a lot of chatter in the pages of The Globe and Mail by several people of note about the prospect of a US collapse into anything from autocracy to civil war (Northern Ireland-style) to full-on dictatorship, and what - if anything - Canada can actually do to brace for it. I think some of it is an attempt to remind us to practice learned helplessness. I worry about that a lot.
I saw those! I thought about posting something about that here, but didn't end up doing so.
Certainly some fear-inducing articles, with titles such as:
- The American polity is cracked, and might collapse. Canada must prepare
- 2022 is the year America falls off a cliff. How will Canada hang on?
- We’re witnessing the continuing cultural divergence of Canada and the United States
- Don’t count on an American restoration in 2022
If something like this does come to pass, though, there is no possible way we come through it unscathed.
Speaking of our national pastime of comparing ourselves to the US, I also read this interesting article in Maclean's recently. (Note that the article is actually from 2017; I only saw it today since it was linked from a Jan 3 article about the "infodemic" from the US.)
The American Dream has moved to Canada
After detailing a number of measures where Canada is in a better position than the US (as of early 2017, anyway), it then goes on to say:
Maclean's said:
Just curious as to what everyone's thoughts are regarding this assessment?
Well, I think for one thing, we've weathered Covid far better due to policies in place, and despite there being Antivaxxers, there's been less division among the ranks, and more of a feeling of unity among the pandemic.
I think it might be important to start stressing our differences and uniqueness. Of course, it's hard when we're neighbours and we constantly get compared to, and sometimes even referred to as 'Americans', and even share some of the same influences. It's unfortunate that Americans have taken the name of the continent, as the reality of it is that we share it, and anything embarrassing they do tends to get tacked onto us from an outsider point of view.
I remember being extremely disappointed in how we showed ourselves to the world when we last hosted the Olympics. It should have been an opportunity to dig deeper and show the world other aspects of our culture across the provinces, but they'd instead decided to take it easy and instead play it safe by showing the world exactly what they'd already known about it in terms of musical acts. In watching other countries hosting the Olympics, I've learned much more from their deeper dives, so why we couldn't have done the same was disappointing to me on many levels. It only ends up reinforcing stereotypes people have about the country, and not in a good way. There was so much more we could have done.
In terms of media, I think we're far more insular. We tend to keep a lot to ourselves. There's still so much that the outside world doesn't know about about us, and when brought up, there tends to be a lot of surprise about such and such being unknown. I think we can do better. But I also think the problem is that we tend to ride the U.S trends too much and worry too much about what they'll think about much of our media.
I think it might be important to start stressing our differences and uniqueness. Of course, it's hard when we're neighbours and we constantly get compared to, and sometimes even referred to as 'Americans', and even share some of the same influences. It's unfortunate that Americans have taken the name of the continent, as the reality of it is that we share it, and anything embarrassing they do tends to get tacked onto us from an outsider point of view.
I remember being extremely disappointed in how we showed ourselves to the world when we last hosted the Olympics. It should have been an opportunity to dig deeper and show the world other aspects of our culture across the provinces, but they'd instead decided to take it easy and instead play it safe by showing the world exactly what they'd already known about it in terms of musical acts. In watching other countries hosting the Olympics, I've learned much more from their deeper dives, so why we couldn't have done the same was disappointing to me on many levels. It only ends up reinforcing stereotypes people have about the country, and not in a good way. There was so much more we could have done.
In terms of media, I think we're far more insular. We tend to keep a lot to ourselves. There's still so much that the outside world doesn't know about about us, and when brought up, there tends to be a lot of surprise about such and such being unknown. I think we can do better. But I also think the problem is that we tend to ride the U.S trends too much and worry too much about what they'll think about much of our media.
The problem right now is that there are people who very much want to make us experience a "Fall of America" - they'd prefer that fall be into fascism - and those are the people backing Trump even now. For some of those bad actors, this has been a decades-long project that they believe in wholeheartedly, and Trump was just one more weapon of opportunity who fell into their hands at what's seemed to them the right moment. Our political and cultural divergences from the US are just one more set of obstacles for them to put aside on what they expect to make the terms of their choosing.
And they just keep on coming! Today was Chaos is coming to the U.S. What will Canada become?
sounds like the G&M is turning in global news.
And now the pushback starts to roll in...
- Spare us the hyperbole: Another U.S. civil war is not on the horizon (G&M)
- Canadians should worry more about democracy here than in the United States
- Canadian intellectuals worry about the U.S. becoming a dictatorship. Maybe they should worry about Canada.
first past the post needs to be taken behind the woodshed but other than that democracy is pretty healthy here despite some conservative attempts to follow the republican lead ( yes harper I’m looking at you and your voter Id laws you wanted).
Seeing us attempt to follow a Republican lead is like watching someone try on a hat that doesn't fit. It doesn't really suit our ideals.
rumours doing the rounds that if o'toole is dumped as tory leader that poliveve is the front runner to replace.
If they go to an election with that twerp in charge, trudeau can look forward to another majority after the next election.
poliveve is busy boosting the trucker convoy that's protesting the manadatory vaccination policy (with a western seperatist as a big organiser).
the tories need to wake up and learn that pandering to it's social conservative base in Alberta is not going to win elections.
If they go to an election with that twerp in charge, trudeau can look forward to another majority after the next election.
poliveve is busy boosting the trucker convoy that's protesting the manadatory vaccination policy (with a western seperatist as a big organiser).
the tories need to wake up and learn that pandering to it's social conservative base in Alberta is not going to win elections.
It's kind of depressing, isn't it, in that none of the leaders are inspired choices to lead a nation.
and with the provincial election coming up it's not much better in Ontario.
If the tories wind up in minority the liberals and ndp will bring him down lickitly split and god help us if horvath gets on the treasury benches. Ndp should have jettison her years ago.
Yeah, agreed. And our liberal MP made her first showing by making a statement recently. To be fair, I'm sure she's been doing a lot of work behind the scenes, but she hasn't made herself very visible as a leader, and hasn't really shown that she was the right choice. Our choices were all unknowns last time out.
Our tory MP is flapping her yap with support for the anti-vaxxes and the protesting truckies and I'm hearing comments it's not going down well with the local tories.
Our tory MPP is doing a decent job is one the very few who's kept his office open during all of the past 2 years despite various threats against the safety of him and his staff.
TBH, I'm not sure it really bothers me that they are basically unelectable.
Them announcing that so early might backfire, if it energizes the PC base to ensure they get out to vote. And it might also send some votes to the PCs who would otherwise vote Liberal but don't want to have the NDP anywhere near power.
Story on the CBC this morning that if the truckers were a protest by black and racialised people, they would have been cleared out by now.
The other big story out of Ottawa is the expectation that the tories will vote on o'toole's leadership tomorrow and he'll most likely be dumped.
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