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Donald Trump spent Christmas day publicly raging through his rolodex of political enemies. Canada remains near the top of his list. He has been insulting the Prime Minister, degrading our nation and musing about taking us over. CNN claims that these threats are mere “teasing”. But the American broadcaster did note approvingly that such a takeover would result in an acquisition larger than the Louisiana purchase of 1803.
The fact that the leader of the most powerful nation is “teasing” about running puppet Canadian political candidates (Wayne Gretzky) and undermining the legitimate sovereignty of allied nations should draw full court attention in Ottawa.
But that hasn’t been the case. Ottawa, to say the least, is too distracted by our own internal political drama. Or maybe we just don’t get what’s coming.
Let’s consider the response to Trump’s Christmas break tirades from other affected nations — Greenland and Panama. In Denmark, Prime Minister Múte Egede stated bluntly that his people would defend the sovereignty of Greenland and “will not lose our long struggle for freedom.” Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino stated, “Our country’s sovereignty and independence are not negotiable.” Mexico’s bad-assed President Claudia Sheinbaum has also been outspoken.
The best we got from our {Prime Minister was a lame tweet based on an old American news broadcast on how nice Canadians were. If you were looking for a tough and determined response, this tweet was a limp fish. Perhaps Mr. Trudeau is hoping that low-key diplomacy like flying to Mar-a-Lago will allow him to get on the right side of Trump like he did in 2016.
But this is not 2016. And the power dynamics around Trump and Trudeau have changed dramatically. The goon in Mar-a-Lago senses weakness as he watches a wounded prime minister attempting to negotiate a dysfunctional parliament.
On a whole array of important issues, the Trudeau government has seemed adrift. Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre, on the other hand, has been using a MAGA-style playbook to drive home the message that “Canada is broken”. And certainly, Parliament appears broken as all legislative work has been paralyzed for months.
And then there was the Freeland fiasco. Trump jumped on the news that Finance Minister Freeland torched the PM on the day she was supposed to deliver his mini-budget. Some have accused Trudeau of throwing a strong feminist minister under the bus. Others counter that Trudeau was hoping that Freeland would take over the all-important role of negotiating with Washington in these stressful times.
Cut-throat Liberal court intrigue is as old as Confederation.
But at this time? Seriously?
Freeland’s move might prove to be a fatal blow for the PM. In the face of a growing chorus of Liberals demanding Trudeau step down, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh stated it was impossible to continue supporting the visionless government. Not to be outdone, Pierre Poilievre, up 24 points on his rivals, has written to the Governor General to demand a Christmas election.
In ordinary political times, these political shenanigans would be a reason for political pundits to get out the popcorn and watch the drama of a falling government. But we are not in ordinary times. We are in Trump times. The clock is ticking down on the arrival of the chaos machine in Washington in January. Canada is staring down a political tsunami, but our politicians are too busy to notice.
Since the November election, I have been speaking up on the need to resist Trump 2.0. A recent speech I gave in Parliament that articulated a clear vision of Canadian values has been viewed nearly two million times. I have been interviewed numerous times on the popular American MeidasTouch site and covered in American media.
I have been overwhelmed with positive messages from Canadians. They don’t expect their politicians to wave a magic wand. They don’t need to hear a tit-for-tat strategy in resisting a punishing tariff war. What they want to hear are elected leaders standing up for the country and proudly defending Canadian values.
And they are not hearing this.
And neither is Trump.
Is the guy in Mar-a-Lago just trolling us or is he getting set for a truly despotic rule? Nobody knows. But this is the guy who praised Putin for being “savvy” and a “genius” for launching his murderous war in Ukraine. There is nothing funny in his threats to Canada.
The coming months will be the most disruptive in memory. Canada’s national and provincial leaders need to stop fighting in the sandbox and work together for once to defend Canada.
Charlie Angus has been the member of Parliament for Timmins-James Bay since 2004. He is the NDP's critic for natural resources and Indigenous youth.
Comments
Thank you Charlie Angus for giving Canadians a voice. I hope you reconsider your retirement and hang in there, take over the NDP leadership. And very possibly become the next PM.
I have no illusions about who pp cares about. It is very far from Canada and Canadians. I also believe that PM Trudeau loves this country and is playing the best long game he can what with the years of mob hatred fomented by the opposition and other betrayals. I want him to stay past the release of that foreign interference report. We ll see then who the traitors are. This crazy panic to have him gone right now is a very ugly play and the utterly stupid Atlantic Liberal caucus I am ashamed of are falling right into that trap.
I dont know what Jagmeet thinks he is accomplishing by pushing for early prorogation but he is not fit to be leader of a national party either.
I am grateful to the National Observer for presenting some other perspectives than the usual foreign owned"Canadian" msm. We have no reliable national news source any more, certainly not the obseqious CBC I once adored and cherished. Well I do blame Trudeau for letting that happen. He s missed some big ones.
But he is not evil incarnate and he will come back with a voice. Even if it is to leave, I believe he will first make sure we have someone in place able to deal with the foreign nationals now against us. And after her trick, I do hope it is not Missy Tight Red Dress. She s just showed us who she is.
Bravo Monsieur Angus!
I, also, will ask you to reconsider your decision not to be a candidate for the coming elections. We need strong voices like yours.
Agreed. Please don’t go, Charlie. Please stay, please keep saying what needs to be said, please run again for the leadership of your party at the next leadership convention. Canada needs a strong, informed, determined leader to stand up to the bullies who are creating the dangerous oligarchy to the south.
Thank you. 2025 is not a 'carbon tax' election. It is a sovereignty election. The US bro oligarchs would turn the US into a neo-feudal state with Canada at the most feudal edge of empire. Canadians must resist and elect a leader who will stand up for our country. Interested, Mr. Angus?
Your words are on point, Charlie.
I also think if you were running again next year you would have not uttered them to this degree or as forthrightly.
It's easier to speak freely when you aren't worried about the consequences.
Those consequences DO affect one's own/one's party's political fortunes, making them not only interchangeable but also effectively doubles one's constraints on what can be comfortably said.
This is rarely mentioned but hypocritical charges of "playing politics" DO get levelled with thoroughly annoying frequency.
So imagine adding on several more layers if you're actually IN government, along with THE most rabid, malicious and personally vicious opposition in Canadian parliamentary history, a shit show Charlie has had a front row seat to for years. Considering this, and as a parting gift from the statesman he'd like to be seen as, you'd think he'd take this opportunity to declare the ONE salient truth that would offer perspective---that the NDP ARE ALSO PROGRESSIVES. Which is why they should have just kept the wholly functional agreement that SHOWED that while helping Canadians the most AND met most of the NDP's supposed long-held goals.
Instead he laments about how Canadians should be getting together to take on Trump, when it's HIS party and leader who have inexplicably jumped right onto the con bandwagon to bring down those nefarious Liberals who "don't deserve another CHANCE!?"
This surprising sabotage of the Liberals at the worst possible time may be one reason why the NDP will probably never win government federally--they're just not competent "playas."
And we don't hear a lot from them about climate change either btw; apparently they're content to leave that to the miniscule Green Party, ALSO supposedly progressives.
There is no "and". The NDP are sometimes progressives--witness the policies they forced the Liberals to enact, which represent most of the Liberal legislative legacy of Trudeau's whole time in power.
The Liberals aren't. Like the Democrats, they'd rather lose the election than do useful enough things to win.