That’s super cool. I’d absolutely spend extra for Montreal bananas.
My home province of BC has been doing pretty good at growing stuff in hothouses, I’ve even routinely buying local lettuce and peppers and mushrooms from big stores like Costco even before the boycott started.
So we can do this. It will take some time to ramp up and getting imports from allies will help with us this transition period and beyond.
This is an extremely good point. Perhaps I should have addressed this in my ~~rant~~ opinion piece, because it's absolutely true. I've been confused by the Green Party's whiplash and underwhelmed by the federal NDP's muted approach.
I will admit that I have enjoyed seeing Singh getting sharper in his criticism in recent months, and wish we could have seen more of that for the past years. He is saying things that need to be said, and I commend him for that. But I imagine a world where Charlie Angus won in 2017 and that feels like a better world than this one.
I hope out of the ashes of all this we can get someone on the left we deserve too. Call me naive but I have this intangible gut feeling that we will? That if Singh resigns, the current mood is such that we have a chance of getting someone really inspiring to take charge of the left going forward? I sincerely hope we do.
I'm hopeful that he will be! It will be a difficult time and we really do need the best right now.
I know it sounds like hyperbole but the thought really does make me want to cry, especially as he's ramped up so effectively in recent months.
Exactly.
And what pisses me off is the calculation that you implicitly state, that by not reacting now the Democrats know they are "safe" because the ire is pointed somewhere else. It pisses me off because I recognize the same impulses in myself. I didn't think Canada was in danger when the ire was on Mexicans and Haitians and Muslims. Just like they don't see the danger now.
But when the barrel is pointed at you, you see more clearly. We are today, and the cowering Democrats are next. The longer they wait, the harder it will get -- but that's how divide and conquer works. The groups all accept the evils being done to the current group to buy their own safety, and they get picked off one by one.
And as you say -- in Canada we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to break this cycle here. We see what's coming now, and we won't break.
You do realize what you're saying, right?
You're saying it would be a tragedy of optics to try to stop a dictator from seizing power. That if democrats do nothing they can avoid being targeted in the short term, while Trump chases after others.
Yes. This specific attitude is what I'm furious about. And I'm going to work my damnedest to stop it happening here in my country.
I have the utmost sympathy and care for democrats and independents who tried and failed. I can't tell them how to feel, but I'd feel scared and helpless.
Republican voters got them elected, Democrats are standing by doing nothing as their country is ruined.
There are no attempts to secede, there are no wide-scale protests or strikes. Their democracy falls while they sit back and fret, laughing along with Jon Stewart and smug in their knowledge they are better that Republicans. For all their much-touted "second amendment" they are idle as a tyrant solidifies power.
I do blame Republican for their actions. But I blame Democrats for their inaction. I'm furious because what I see in them I recognize in myself -- it's a challenge for me to not be complacent and fight for my own country. Because if we coast like they do, we will suffer the same fate.
You’re goddamn right I’m furious.
And no less furious at the weak-kneed Democrats who do nothing as their own country is ripped from them by a clown. “Oh sorry; we’ll try again in 4 years” they say. Fuck your thoughts and prayers, how about do something. You won’t get a free election in 4 years, dummies.
Oh yeah, I realize you’re super busy and with your sportsball games and your reality TV marathons. Your inaction today will haunt your future.
And no this isn’t a call to action or a cry for help. We’re going to be just fine. You’re the ones who have to live there, and live with yourselves knowing you did nothing.
What can we do with the money instead?
We could create a cross-trained National Corps who would be skilled in guerrilla-style defensive warfare, and also in providing peacetime support to help deal with climate crisis and building out infrastructure. These corps could be deployed domestically and to support our allies in times of their crises.
Or we could build domestic manufacturing to build the types of equipment we need to defend ourselves. With the integrated automotive industry in desperate peril, can we re-tool the facilities and retrain the people to make what we need?
Or we could shore up support with our European and other worldwide allies and buy equipment from them.
Yes, Canada has invested money and resources into the F35 project and that money will be wasted if we abandon it.
But let’s not throw good money after bad. In economic terms, the money we’ve spent is called a “sunk cost” - meaning that it’s gone. We shouldn’t consider that lost money when deciding what we need to do in the future.
Our country’s defence does not require astronomically expensive fighter jets. And we certainly cannot rely on a country who is threatening to conquer us to supply us the tools to defend ourselves.
I expect the authoritarian posturing and nationalism will be successful inside America as the world unites against them. And that any further hopes they have of opposition will be strangled by increasing anti-democratic measures as time goes on. That’s the playbook that has been successful elsewhere and I see no basis for believing in American exceptionalism here.
Will be extremely happy to be wrong on this, but I can’t see a world where waiting until 2028 works out for Democrats.