Republican and Democratic U.S. senators who visited Ottawa this past weekend say they want to bolster the Canada-U.S. relationship despite U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war.
In other words, some Republican senators still want to insert the knife into Caanda, to drain our lifeblood, but they want it done compassionately.
My general stance is that, for the most part, Americans are like everyone else is. They're mostly perfectly fine individually. It's when you get them all in a group that they're an issue.
“We’ll be better at it if we’re friends than if we’re just tolerating one another…. I’m just here (in Ottawa) to say thank you, and then to encourage Canadians to take another look and give us another chance.”
You can’t talk about making Canada into the 51st state and then cry for another chance. As far as I’m aware, most Canadians have a backbone. A concept utterly alien to conservatives.
I think you are mistaken. The common American politician, upon biopsy, has been found without a backbone. It keeps its form with an exoskeleton, shed once every 20 years.
"He [Carney] announced a $6-billion purchase of over-the-horizon radar systems from Australia in March as part of the government’s ongoing NORAD modernization project.'
A NORAD radar.
From Australia.
That just HAS to sent the Americans a message about Carney's thinking towards the Americans.
There are simply too many reasons to say no. How the US treats people entering and leaving the country. How due process is ignored for people within the country.
In broad terms the US is an unkind society. This is not to say that there are not kind individuals, but they are unable to influence the overall norm that is so clearly on display.
You don’t get to cause so many damages to a partner and then suggest we give you another chance. That ship has sailed and I am ready for us to find other trading partners and address our own internal trade barriers.
“Bookings of Canadians to come to Virginia Beach are down significantly, and colleagues of mine in other states are saying the same thing about tourism,” Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia told Stephenson. “So we’re definitely seeing it.
I will never visit the United States again. You have the gestapo snatching people off the streets now. A large percentage of your population approves of what is happening, while not requiring the propaganda to reach or hold that conclusion.
“We were aware, because we all have great friends in Canada, that there was a lot of anxiety about, well, gosh, what do Americans think of us?” he said in explaining what spurred the senators’ visit. “The five of us wanted to come to say, ‘Look, we love Canada.'”
The anxiety that you're referencing is a direct result of your country unilaterally choosing to betray us. Not that guy Donald Trump, but you. You enabled all of this, and you have absolutely no idea how to walk any of this back. You're under the impression that you can fix this in an election cycle.
A large percentage of your population approves of what is happening, while not requiring the propaganda to reach or hold that conclusion.
I agree with everything else here, but propaganda absolutely plays a role in the current fascist movement in the States. The Venn diagram of Trump supporters and people who watch Fox News is probably pretty close to a circle.
I'm saying that there's a segment of the fascist populace that is utterly aware of what is real, what is bullshit, and are quite content with the presence of said bullshit, as long as it maintains the current reality.
I'm a fan of balkanization. That'd fix a lot of problems quickly, albeit for a limited number of states and at the cost of making things worse for other states.
Is it really a cost if those states want to make things worse for themselves? They all have the same ability to choose sensible economic policies, they just seem to want morons in charge.
As for Mr. Trump’s threats of annexation? “We don’t even want them to be the 51st state,” Mr. Cramer said with a laugh. But unable to resist, he added: “We want Alberta to be the 51st state. And then we have two Republican senators.”
Fuck these guys. They're the usual entitled American idiots, blundering around in foreign countries without understanding them.
My 5 year old kid likes to say this, when I've finally imposed some consequences for doing something she shouldn't be doing after she's ignored my repeated requests to stop doing it. She usually says it while still doing the thing that caused the issue in the first place.
And sorry Democrats, until you get your Republican problem under control, we can't trust you either. In 2016 it looked like it might just be a flare-up, but the reappearance of symptoms indicates that the infection is deeper and ongoing.
I don't know if that is a good idea for us. Even if in two years they take back congress and the senate, the next two years after that they could put in another pack of lunatic fascists. I think we should continue with our diversifying strategy and put much more effort into CETA and CPTPP.
Actually, US senators are in a position to do something that would actually go some way toward repairing relations with Canada - they can (with the House's cooperation) remove the profoundly mentally ill, immensely dangerous and brazenly corrupt demagogue Trump from office.
Nothing short of that is going to accomplish much of anything though. As long as that psychopath is in office, incrementally turning the presidency into a dictatorship from which to pursue his literally insane agenda, nobody will or should trust the US for anything.
The childish and sort of pathetic nature of the whole thing led me to visualize a hardass middle-aged mom dragging Trump up to Canada by the ear and standing him in front of everyone and saying, "Donnie has something he wants to say to you all, don't you Donnie (pinch)"
Eat my entire ass, until the fascist is out and you take real steps to make sure that can't happen again, I'll shop elsewhere. I learned to cook over this.
"We still love you as much as ever" said senator Tim Kaine.
And we love you as much as ever - but it has never been as much as you think.
Canada and Canadians have always harboured a quiet, seething resentment towards the US - even as our snowbirds have flown south in the winter and we've greedily bought crap on Amazon. As proud as we are of Canadian musicians hitting the big time, we're slightly bitter that we spend more time listening to American content.
I think it's fair to say that we've always - at least in my 50+ years of awareness - felt the pressure of living next door to a ten-ton behemoth that fills our every waking moment just by merely leaking across the border.
And now the dam has broken. Trump has made things so unbearable that we finally have the resolve to break free. It's going to be tough, it's going to hurt for a number of years, we're going to suffer financially in the short-mid term, but I'm confident that we're going to do it. We will not allow ANY country or trading partner to control our destiny as much as the US has done since 1959.
So thanks for the love, but I'm afraid we're still getting out of this toxic relationship.
Do not capitulate. The greedy fucks in charge right now want you to buckle and make them look tough. We need MAGAts to suffer so that there's no doubt who is solely to blame for this.
Your leaders and their Corpo-Masters have repeatedly made comments about Invading us,
you look for every opportunity to whitewash and shield the Genocidal, Warmongering terrorist regime in Russia, who I might add, considers themselves to be at war with us, and you. And during a time thats basically the opening salvo of WW3, You decide to say its the Europeans and Canadians that are treating you "nastily"
And while all this disrespect and devils advocacy for our enemies, you stamp your feet and scream that we join the team and get ready to go to war with China for you, Hardly anyone in the world had a problem with China, Until America started getting afraid that their hegemony would be challenged in the 21st century. So let me be clear, if Russia and Ukraine isnt your war, China Isnt our war.
and thats all before we even mention the flip flopping trade wars and your insistance on waging a "culture war" in your own country, slowly turning everything in the room to be something the Proud Boys would blush at.
No, America, most of us aren't on speaking terms with you right now, the best thing you can do , is shut the fuck up and go away for a while.
tRump is just a symptom. The USA is and always has been an oligarchy, founded on genocide and grown through slavery, patriarchy and misogyny. The original constitution gave ALL political power to Rich White Males and only superficial changes have been made over the last 250 years, the real power still remains with the oligarchs. tRump has just dropped the mask for the world to see what a fascist shit-stain of a country the U.S. really is at its core. The world (and Canada) will be extremely unwise to ever trust them again no matter which faction of the oligarchy is in power.
I was grocery shopping yesterday and saw ginger root and wanted some. But then I saw "Made in USA" so moved on. But then there was organic ginger root made in Peru and I got it. Not even sure what the price difference was, at the time I figured it didn't matter if the organic was twice the price, though now I wish I had checked because tariffs might have even cancelled out the organic premium. I'm not even sure what the current status is for Canadian tariffs on US goods.
A few years back, I would have been happy to see ginger root made in USA instead of China. Funny how quickly things can change so much.
Also, any politician who tries to work with these senators to increase Canadian spending on US goods risks affecting their own popularity more than the popularity of US goods here.
The fact that they are asking for another chance means they internally acknowledge they fucked up with their unprovoked trade war and assault on our sovereignty. The fact that they won't just say that and apologise means they refuse to learn, so every single interaction with them should result in "Your guy's still that orange dude, huh? Okay come back when you change". They KNOW he's fucking himself and their whole country over, but they expect us to just allow the betrayal.
tl:dr Get fucked US reps, certainly untill you're going to meaningfully stop attacking us.