God I hate trade wars, but good on Canada for not rolling over for Trump.
this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2025
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Bury him. The entire world will thank you.
"Matching the US tariffs dollar for dollar" is such a stupid policy.
A better policy would be stopping flows of Canadian dollars to the US. Declare that US patents are no longer valid in Canada. Pass a law requiring that Apple and Google allow competing app stores on their phones with no strings attached. Remove any penalty from jailbreaking phones and allow anybody who wants to sell jailbreaking kits. Declare a universal right to repair in Canada, so that Canadian farmers don't have to pay John Deere if they want to repair their tractors. Say that all copyrights belonging to the Hollywood copyright cartel are no longer recognized, and let people trade their music, tv and movies freely.
Nobody's going to be brave enough to do that. But, really, the US declaring a 25% across-the-board tariff on Canada is basically an economic nuke. Don't respond with a measured and exactly equal economic war response. Canada can't win by fighting by those rules.
Edit: Better yet, because it's more likely to be possible, just decriminalize it. Don't change the laws. Just make it clear to police and prosecutors that someone who infringes on American IP should be treated like someone smoking pot in public in 2015. Imagine someone setting up a little kiosk in the Eaton Centre selling the latest movies and software for pennies while the cops just ignored them. If John Deere tries to get someone charged for selling "fix your tractor" software bundles that bypass the access controls on tractors, the police should just laugh at them. Picture a kiosk that roots your phone and lets you install a Canadian app store where the vendor's cut is only 5% not 30%, and all the profits stay in Canada. A thriving business could be set up where you bring in your HP printer, and walk out with a device that can use any ink at all. Canada could even host How-Tos and tools for the rest of the world on how to take control over your electronics. Can you imagine how quickly Tim Apple would book a flight to Mar A Lago to beg with Trump to back down?
I think this is much more likely in Mexico though. The respect for US intellectual property is already pretty low there to begin with. But, formally, the government still officially respects US IP. What if they let off the brakes entirely and just let the "invisible hand of the market" work without the handcuffs of IP law?
You are not wrong in some of theses but they would requiere a legal framework that does not exist today to be created in a hurry.
Tariffs are literally easier so they are the first step and it does not mean they would be the last
Doesn't the Tariffs Basically invalidate the old trade agreements, making them worthless so now the other countries can do whatever they want?
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Stop! You are making too much sense!
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If y'all want to burn the white house down again, I'll bring marshmallows for us to roast on the flames.
I wanna see people partying like it's 1812
I'd rather they burn down Mar-a-lago. The White House is a nice historic building.
Make US thirteen colonies again?
"Why don't you want to join the land of the free and home of the brave?"
Because if we gave in to the pressure and joined, we would be neither.
Canada should join the EU.
The EU as a structure is such that some piss drops like Orban can stall its reaction to events long enough to make it useless.
But! A new no-bullshit world confederation would be nice. With a combined military, of course.
I'm an expat who has been a permanent resident of Canada since 2017, and it's a horror show watching Trump receive a second term and then turn on Canada. I know his threat of invasion/buying Canada or whatever is all peacocking, but if in ten years I've been thrust back into the American healthcare system, I'll throw myself off of a bridge.
Genuine curiosity, why do you call yourself an “expat” instead of “immigrant”? Is there a difference?
It's the (stupid) legal term of an American who has moved abroad. Even my tax returns are done through "expat services".
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I'll throw myself off of a bridge.
But couldn't y'all set a better example by throwing anyone involved with private insurance off that bridge?
Canada won't willingly be part of the US. If the US invades Canada, it would be the end of the US.
The US gets boners over their military tech, but they weren't able to successfully occupy Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. Canada is bigger than those countries, and this would not be an overseas war where they can just go home when they fail. Americans don't have the willpower to succeed with a long drawn out occupation. They freak the fuck out over a few drones in New Jersey, they obviously wouldn't be able to handle a war on the North American continent involving drones flying over them carrying explosives and searching for targets. And that's just the tip of the iceberg of what a US war with Canada would be like.
The population of the US has no appetite for invading Canada, many of us have close friends and family there, we consider Canada a friend and ally and Trumps hissy fit doesn't change that.
If the US invades Canada there will be a lot of Americans aiding resistance.
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I don’t actually think the US would survive such a war. The trouble is that many states would defect. Can you imagine CA footing the bill for an invasion of Canada? Already a trade war is extremely dangerous. How easy would it be for, say NY, to sabotage the border controls?
Yeah it would be a both a reason and an opportunity for states to secede.
There's a significant probability of that happening anyway... how long will progressive (and wealthy) states subsidize backwards and ignorant states? The whole reason why Trump is in power is because there are no consequences for significant parts of the US to be backwards thinking. If it were all separate countries the red states (red countries?) would have to become a little more progressive or they'd be living in poverty. As it is now, states like California and NYC are forced to subsidize the red states no matter how backwards they get and the red states get to force their backwards values onto the progressive states.
This is not sustainable long term. If this situation persists, it's the end of the USA. If Trump pushes things too far it only accelerates the timetable. Right now the allies of the US don't want this to happen. But those countries are no longer allies of the US and start working in the other direction then it's all over for the USA.
The US can turn things around, but there needs significant changes to reverse it's downward spiral.
Troop morale would be incredibly low, too. I would be pissed if I somehow got drafted to invade Canada. It’d be like something out of a cartoon.
Right? Like "Bro they've got maple syrup, healthcare, and poutine. If you think I'm pointing a rifle at them instead of marching up there with a gift basket and immigration papers, you gotta be out of your mind!" Lol
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It would literally be asked to potentially die for the cause of betraying an ally for money. And not money for you, money for already extremely wealthy oligarchs.
Like Russia and Ukraine, basically... But way more direct and overt.
Plus, it’d suck for at least four months a year
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Imagine fighting a resistance that can just cross over the border and perfectly blend in with your population. It's madness to even suggest it even if they weren't important allies.
The whole idea is ludicrous. There are so many things that would make it utterly impossible.
- The border. Ignore everything else, just think about the border. The US/Canada border is the longest land border on the planet. It's utterly impossible to defend that border.
- Utter lack of support for the war. Even the Vietnam War enjoyed a decent amount of popular support for the first few years. Imagine starting a war that more than 50% of the population opposed right off the bat.
- Conflict on US soil for the first time since the Civil War. Sure, the US participated in WWI and WWII, and they were the main military force in the Korean, Vietnam, and Gulf wars. Those were all wars that happened overseas somewhere. A few thousand people died on Sept. 11th and the whole country freaked out for decades. The US psyche isn't ready for a war on US soil.
Militarily, Canada couldn't stand up to the US at all. But, the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland show what guerilla tactics can achieve, especially when it's almost impossible to distinguish the "bad guys" from the "good guys". And, that's without even talking about all the Americans who would take the opportunity to turn against their own fascist government.
Would any allies be dragged in to support Canada? Could it escalate?
There wouldn't really be any formal arrangement, because I imagine the Canadian government would fall within days. Ottawa is only a 2 hour drive from the US border, most of the Canadian population lives right next to the border. But, you could easily see various countries covertly supplying resistance cells with weapons. Most of Western Europe wouldn't do it openly because they're too vulnerable to the US. But, maybe covertly. China and Russia would definitely try to help Canadian resistance, just to destabilize the US.
I disagree, meal team six would make short work of any Canadian bacon, thus starving the Canadians into submission
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