Mavros Whissell is a Sudbury-based geologist and land technicianIt should be easier than ever to identify that the source of Canada’s most serious problems, especially on-again-off-again tariffs, is US President Trump or, as some refer to him, “Donald.”As Prime Minister Trudeau put forth in a rousing performance on Tuesday, backed by the expressionless mugs of ministers Joly and LeBlanc, “Canadians are reasonable, and we are polite. But we will not back down from a fight, not when our country, and the well being of everyone in it, is at stake.”Rousing words and, for a moment, one could be excused for thinking Trudeau was at last being the forthright defender our country needs. But, even if it’s rightly the time to rally ‘round the flag for all our leaders, and even if they’re doing an admirable job, much of this uncertainty could’ve been better anticipated. These tariffs are incredibly destabilizing, recalling historic pretexts for economic collapse.Since at least 2016, the Canadian government was aware something like tariffs was coming.Under POTUS Joe Biden, the US only partially stepped back from Trump’s first-term protectionist policies. Biden maintained Trump’s tariffs against China while adding tariffs onto clothing, steel and high-tech Chinese imports. For those reasons and more, globalism continued to decline. Across the Pacific, China under dictator Xi Jinping concerned itself with becoming the world’s economic and geopolitical leader.The US, some argue, is now in an unrecoverable state of decline.“Donald” doesn’t buy it.To the US President, every attempt to negotiate US influence, from the Panama Canal, to overriding the USMCA, to the Northwest Passage, is an opportunity to construct a secure base of world operations.As terrifying as it may be to many Canadians, trade negotiations with the US may involve prolonged pressure. The destabilizing effect may afford the US greater economic influence and ultimately greater control over Canada. That’s what all this “51st state” talk is about, a subtle manipulation of the Overton window. It’s entirely purposeful by Trump.We love our country.But we’ve lost a lot of what our country was under Trudeau’s push to make Canada “the first post-national state” with “no core identity”. We’ve flooded the country with immigrants to such an extent that even Trudeau himself admitted he was wrong. “Make that make sense,” (as Trudeau cajoled about Trump’s attempt to end the war in Ukraine.)We can barely defend ourselves, let alone Ukraine.Canada’s military woes, from decades of neglect, exacerbated under the Liberals beyond what most imagined. Recent reports on our artic vulnerability and the reality of global warming — anthropogenic or not — prompted CPC leader Pierre Poilievre to campaign on defending Canada’s arctic.The Liberal government, on the other hand, has been too busy trying to expand the “rules-based world order” Trudeau crows so incessantly about to see the wood for the trees. It’s been that way since they were first elected.In 2017, Trudeau and his subordinates headed to China, lusting after a free trade agreement. They hoped that, after further exposing Canada to one of the most powerful and corrupt regimes in history, they would gain access to China’s markets. They ignored evidence that businesses in China are permeated by the CCP.They ignored many things.Foreign interference by the CCP comes to mind.It turned out that Xi ignored them, too.When the Liberals suddenly shifted to something they called “friend-shoring” around 2022, it was a desperate about face. Their plan to access the Chinese market was an abject failure. Their naiveté, which cannot be blamed solely on its embodiment in Trudeau, must be attributed in some part to the voters that put him into power.The Liberals gambled on China and lost. Canada’s government made a beeline toward the global neo-liberal rules based order. But China doesn’t want any part of that. They don’t want human rights, they don’t want syncretism, they don’t want Western values (the ones most Canadians still hold).Now, our once closest ally is at our throat.The US — not just Trump, as Trudeau pretends — doesn’t trust us any longer. We gambled against them, ready to align with China and globalism. We lost that bet, and now it’s time to pay for our choices.I only hope we don’t make the same mistake at the voting booth this year.Mavros Whissell is a Sudbury-based geologist and land technician.
