Donald Trump would be bad for Canada (but not as bad as Trudeau)

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A spate of current articles in the USA have been speculating about how America will change if Donald Trump is re-elected in 2024. However there will likely be opposed adjustments in retailer for Canada, too.

For many years, the U.S. and Canada have been amongst one another’s greatest traders, suppliers and prospects. However eight years of the Trudeau authorities has weakened Canada economically, turning it basically into an autonomous financial area of the USA.

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We nonetheless have a separate political system, which is, like California and New England, extra socially liberal than most American states. However Canada is extra depending on its neighbour than ever earlier than, as a result of the Trudeau authorities has not shored up the nation’s power, economically or militarily. This has dramatically diminished our geopolitical significance.

What this implies is that if a nationalistic and autocratic Trump wins subsequent yr, Canada will likely be merely a supplicant with out heft. Trump will seemingly attempt to pull out of NATO, regardless that Congress simply handed laws to stop this.

If compelled to remain in, Trump will demand that Canada meets its spending commitments to the safety alliance of two per cent of GDP. Trudeau has acknowledged this can by no means occur and Ottawa now spends solely 1.38 per cent of GDP on defence.

We will additionally count on Trump to insist that Canada pull its weight in NORAD, the continent’s collective defence association. If Trudeau balks, Washington will ship an bill.

A Trump regime would seemingly additionally require Canada to scrub up its act when it comes to intelligence gathering. The prolonged legal proceedings towards Cameron Ortis, a former high-ranking intelligence official with the RCMP, just lately ended and revealed to our allies that Canada has been a safety threat for years.

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He was convicted of leaking intelligence to criminals and was reportedly about to share knowledge with a international energy, seemingly China. He put the safety of Canada and its allies in danger, tarnishing this nation’s repute in intelligence circles.

In 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructed the New York Instances that Canada was the world’s first “postnational state,” after which got down to make that occur. His neglect of the nation’s army and economic system has undermined what sovereignty Canada had earlier than he was elected.

The Canadian Armed Forces have a minimalist presence within the Arctic, at the same time as Russia is spending huge fortunes to say its militaristic dominance within the Far North. President Trump would seemingly station U.S. troops there, or construct army bases and try to power Canada to foot the invoice.

Canada additionally has extra shoreline than any nation on this planet, however has a Navy with a handful of ships and four old submarines, solely one in all which has been at sea since 2021. Canada’s army forces are demoralized, short-handed and ignored by Trudeau’s authorities.

Final yr, the Trudeau authorities spent $17.7 billion on administration consultants to assist run the place, which is equal to about two-thirds of the 2023-24 defence finances.

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The Trudeau authorities has additionally knee-capped wealth creation by overtaxing and hobbling useful resource improvement with pointless purple tape and regulation. This has pushed up prices and resulted in large-scale disinvestment in useful resource improvement.

Canadian capital has left. Investments by Canadians into the U.S. soared from US$323.21 billion (C$433 billion) in 2015 to US$589.29 billion in 2022. Against this, American funding in Canada has solely increased slightly, from US$361.95 billion in 2015, to US$438.77 billion in 2022. The result’s that the U.S. has outpaced Canada and can proceed to take action.

Trudeau’s extreme immigration ranges are one other drag on the economic system as a result of they’ve contributed to exorbitant housing prices and strained health-care techniques. What the Liberals and NDP don’t comprehend is that when plenty of folks all of a sudden come, and can’t pull their weight economically, the scale of the financial “pie” doesn’t improve proportionately, however is split amongst extra folks.

The underside line is {that a} Trump presidency wouldn’t be excellent news for Canada, however not almost as unhealthy Trudeau successful one other election.

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