Our fight, it is no exaggeration to say, is the civilized world’s fight. It is a fight for reason and comity in the affairs of nations, against an administration whose worldview, and behaviour, is increasingly that of an aggressive dictatorship, in all its crudeness and its thuggery.
Mr. Trump, as the Prime Minister has said, aims to “break us,” a phrase with historic echoes. He has to now, or others will follow our lead. If he succeeds, then the world will be governed by nothing but force in the end, in trade as in other matters. But if we prevail, then “broad and sunlit uplands” must surely await.
I am locking this because it id basically off topic and the endless brickering between Canadians and Usonians here in the comments is BS.
I wish European politicians would finally find their balls and stop kissing Trump’s boot every time he uses it to kick the continent, and instead follow Canada’s lead.
Meloni was the worst. She learned nothing from Mussolini’s mistake with the Nazis.
Von der Leyen, Kallas, Merz—the list of spineless leaders goes on. Even Macron and Sánchez just talk the talk, but when it comes to action, they don’t step up either. None of them seem to get that the era of the U.S. as allies is over.
All that was led by Von Der Leyen. He actually contracted psychologists and had EU convinced that if they just stroked Trump’s ego, Trump would reward Europe. This was the advice from some shit university psychologist (pick any one, they are all full of shit). All that did we make Europe seem submissive to Trump and so he went harder. The same thing happened in Canada. Carney decimated Canadian environmental polices, got rid of the digital tax and the carbon levy to align with Trump’s administration, then Trump pushed harder when he realized Canada could be dominated.
Kissing Trump’s ass accomplishes nothing, it was counter-productive. Japan will learn the hard way.
Sánchez told trump to fuck off from Spanish airspace at least. That was a good start. France, Spain and Germany are also in the process to migrate away from US IT service dependence, which is another step in the right direction. More is urgently needed to un-vassalize the economies and the militaries.
The problem is that EU member states have different interests and priorities. For example, Poland don’t want to rile up Trump because Poland is reliant on the US military to deter Russia. And trying to wean off from US is risky because many EU members themselves are reluctant to invest more on homegrown European defense like Spain.
Another example is Ireland. We are too fucking balls-less to decouple from American multinationals and we’re all too happy to be a tax haven. Even after the EU court ruled that Apple has to pay the back taxes to Ireland, the Irish government is reluctant to actually pursue Apple. We’ve also become a Trojan horse for corporate surveillance. Our data protection commissioner was a Meta employee. No conflict of interests there! We are closer to Boston than to Berlin, indeed!
This is a dated mindset though. Poland has really fallen for the USA’s divide and conquer tactics, but surely even they must now see that the USA is never going to back them against Russia?
I guess from the Polish point of view, Europe is not offering an alternative for US protection. At the moment they are playing the balancing act between hoping that the US will stay and telling Trump to buzz off.
Edit: wording
They are using US weapons at the moment, though.
They are, and they’ve been bending over backwards to simp for Trump. Gotta course-correct quickly in my opinion.
as an european, this is the moment we should form some kind of free trade relationship with canada.
Canada and EU has CETA. It’s been active but the deal still needs final approval from national parliaments in 10 out of 27 EU member states. These countries need to get their thumbs out of their asses. If Europe wants to deal with US aggression, they need to stop the glacial movement of their governments.
I’ve heard enough. Finalize CETA, replace Israel with Canada in Eurovision, and put Canada on the path to EU membership (even as a joke, just to really take the piss out of Trump).
Glaciers are probably moving faster by now tbh
Canada doesn’t do free & fair trade. That’s the whole point.
?
Troll.
Maybe less watching more together!
He plays devide and conquer. Let’s unite and resist!
Come on Canada, PLEASE kick his orange ass and show the world what a stupid sack of shit he is.
Ah, they’re in Seoul in the pic in the article. I was wondering why he had an earpiece in, and if maybe Carney was speaking only French as a fuck you.
Canada is great, they passed healthcare for all, equality for LGBTQ+ people and ended cannabis prohibition, while usa still lags badly in these areas and more. It’s due to the frequent regression with maga, so can’t make sustainable progress in all these areas.
Quality of life in states is decreasing again and lowest among other rich nations, falling farther behind China in tech too. maga will double down and try to do like Argentina, but it will lead to more decay for most of us if they get their way. Stuck and held back by the same anti-science, anti-liberty and justice for all, high-control, low-level thinking, to benefit those with the power and wealth.
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Actually, Canada has been taxing American goods at insane rates for decades. It’s been Canadian “tariffs we don’t really call tariffs” kind of sneaky BS. Protectionism at its finest. I’ve been to Canada and bought Budweiser and Marlboros at 3x the price they cost in America (and 4x the cost of their Canadian counterparts), with the border just 20 miles away.
But when the shoe’s on the other foot, Canada cries like a little baby.
As much as I don’t like Trump, it is fun to watch Canada take a dose of its own medicine. And here’s the kicker – America doesn’t need Canada. At all. In fact, Canada is an expense for us. So I say shut the border entirely. It won’t hurt the US one bit.
Trump is posing an existential threat to our sovereignty, but you’re mad that you had pay more for your Bud and smokes when visiting Canada?
Existential threat? Really? If tariffs are existential threats, then Canada has been exitentially threatening the US for decades. They’ve been tariffing us for years and then you complain when we return favor. Grow up.
This is a Europe community, your inter-north American brickering about BS like the costs of cigs is off-topic and I will moderate it if you continue.
ok, bye
So you are saying that Canada is imposing higher taxes on alcohol and tobacco? Good.
No sweat, we’ll just stop importing your syrup and electricity (which really only makes up 11% of electricity used in a couple locales/towns). We don’t need you. At all.
The whole world
the whole world: Brussels, NYC and an American in Korea
EU, Japan, now do the same. It is insane to submit to Trump’s threats, he will always be back for more.
That would require the EU to have a spine, impossible
I can’t stand how we still trade with them, let alone work with them.
I don’t want to work with or finance terrorists.
As I was telling my parents last night I don’t think the average person understands how dire the most recent talks are.
I agree with you but that takes decades and realistically never match our trade with America. In the meantime many Canadians are going to lose their jobs with no hopes of another job on the horizon.
Canada needs a UBI yesterday.
I’m european, we don’t even have the proximity excuse.
And remember, keep yer stick on the ice.
Meanwhile, in the USA…
Contrast this with how other countries have responded to American threats. Japan, which relies on the U.S. for 3 per cent of its GDP, nevertheless agreed to a 15-per-cent baseline U.S. tariff – down from the 25-per-cent tariff it was facing otherwise – while committing to invest US$550-billion in the U.S., increase purchases of U.S. energy and agricultural products, and provide greater access for American cars.
The European Union, with an exposure to the U.S. similar to Japan’s and an economy two-thirds the size of the U.S.’s, likewise buckled, making a long list of concessions – no tariffs on U.S. industrial goods, wider access for U.S. agricultural products, and increased purchases of U.S. energy, AI chips, and defence equipment, in addition to US$600-billion in investment – “in return for” agreeing to U.S. tariffs of 15 per cent.
Been watching in dismay as this unfolded. Blatant betrayal of people’s interests. I expected quite a bit more from the EU especially. I expected more than from our gov given how much more exposed and infiltrated we are.
I would argue that, at the moment, Canada has more space for maneuver than Japan and the EU.
Japan has its own restrictions and is surrounded by sea on one side, china and russia on the other side with the Koreas in the middle with… complicated relationship.
The EU is (as much as I love it and hate to say it) a mess, with the economy being what is, the weather messing up harvests and shit, literal war like 7 meters away from the border and the very real threat of the war being 7 meters inside the border in the near future.
Both EU and Japan have to keep the toddler-in-chief happy, for now. Make no mistake, there is A LOT happening behind the scenes, at least in the EU, don’t know about Japan. But can’t afford to do anything major just now. The things that need to happen first take time to make happen. When they do, EU will have so much more options. And when that time comes, I’m afraid the US will be the ones standing alone, in complete shock, wondering what the hell happened.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love for the EU to start swinging right now. But that would have some major consequences, some predictable, some unforeseen.
Japan is working hard to build more connections with other countries including Canada for trade but it’s really hard for our government to disobey the “master” that is the USA for now. Like you said, our economy is highly dependent on them and so is our national security. As an Okinawan-Canadian, I could never fully trust the USA but the mainlanders just don’t seem to give a shit.
Their military presence on the island where I live scares the shit out of me. What if Diaper Hitler just suddenly said, “fuck it Okinawa is ours now,” and take over??
Yup. Its not easy to start making radical changes to relationships, when the other guy is sitting on your legs with a rifle.
What bullshit they did nothing and well do nothing. Just like last time Canada took a stand against a country.
Nuh-uh!
To paraphrase Clarence Boddicker in Robocop: " Guns, guns, guns!"
The US has them and the cannon fodder to wield them, while Japan is saddled with a constitution that prevents military ramp-up, while Europe has been sleeping under the umbrella.
And I am not in favour in any way of nuclear escalation not military arming.
But these are the most obvious causes one can point at.
Yeah, it hurts seeing how they buckle down to Trump… spineless bastards.
I would love to see Canada being a part of the EEA and schengen. I don’t know that it will happen, but more integration with Europe and less with the US would be good.
In particular as a Canadian, I would love to see membership in a mutual defense clause with the EU specifically, outside of NATO.
As long as we (europe) tolerating Trumps stupid tarrifs and invest even more in the US and letting them sell their bullshit products here, they are better without europe.
I hope he chokes to death on maple syrup
The hell he will! He don’t deserve our delicious tree nectar…how about runoff from tar sands?
He can choke to death on fully synthetic breakfast syrup. That matches his level of sophistication.