U.S. 'handouts' to Canada

There is a lot of anguish about (U.S. President) Donald Trump these days, including anger at what is seen as an attack on Canada.

I’d like to offer a different opinion. Trump is doing what is necessary and has been necessary for many years now. It is necessary for the U.S., but also the Western world. It is not wrong to protect your borders, build up your economy and rebuild the government and education systems that have led to our current status.

People deeply resent it when the person supporting their lifestyle decides to stop. When someone is used to free handouts and those handouts stop, the resentment towards the provider comes fast and furious. The U.S. might once have offered us a safety net, but we used it as a hammock.

Decades of easy money from the U.S. reduced our ability to be competitive, negated the urgency to remove the inter-provincial trade barriers and made us a financially weak country. Soft living invited woke, socialist ideology into our government and education systems, with the ruinous results we are seeing now.

We created a system that makes the construction of infrastructure and the building of businesses almost impossible, with far too many leftist ideologues given far too much say in the process, and whose opinions carry far too much weight.

I’m sorry, but not all projects require the sign-off of First Nations or climate change activists, wanting to save “magical” rocks or invisible toads. We have given special interest groups the whip they use to beat us and beat us they do. We need to listen to those voices, certainly, but weigh them against the greater need and not scurry fearfully into capitulation.

The next few years may be uncomfortable as we are forced off the couch and into an exercise regimen to purge us of our flabbiness. A muscle that is not exercised is weak and the first months on the treadmill are going to be tough as we build up that muscle, but build it we will, and we will emerge a stronger, safer, and wiser country.

The True North, strong and free will arise in a few years, after some much needed changes to our attitudes and legal systems. Then we will thrive. Trump is forcing our hand, and we will resent him for it, but we are not a nation of beggars. We have just been badly led and allowed to become indulgent. Our response should be to rise to the challenge of self-sufficiency.

Oh Canada, we did not stand on guard for thee. We let you grow timid.

We can whine, or win. I know what my choice is.

Kevin Bennett