You’ll enjoy so much listening to a man of keen intellect and a sound grasp of the issues talk to his constituents. We used to have that in America, not so long ago as a matter of fact. And I have no doubt that we will have it again — unless Trump does persuade the military to back him in a coup d’etat and we end up living in a Xian nationalist hellscape of some sort. That is another alternative if democracy folds. Listening to Mark Carney speak reminds me of Pete Buttigieg and Gavin Newsom.
All three men are measured, grounded, and sane. Why is this so remarkable that it’s worth mentioning? Only because Mark Carney and the two American leaders named just now would never do an AI video wearing a crown and dumping shit on their citizenry from a fighter plane, to the tune of stolen adventure-movie music. What a pleasure that politics can be politics and farce can be relegated to entertainers and entertainment channels. Hopefully we’ll return to that world as well. Meanwhile, the Canadian PM has some sobering news for us.
Carney: But this decades-long process of an ever-closer economic relationship with the United States is now over. And as a consequence, many of our former strengths as a country—more particularly, our economic strengths based on close ties to America—have now become our vulnerabilities…
Canada has always been our closest ally. It saddens me to hear their Prime Minister speak this way. I’m quite sure it saddens him as well. And I’m also quite sure he didn’t lightly draft this speech and deliver it. I’m sure that the same is true of this clip, which is being run in Canada.
REAGAN: “When someone says let’s impose tariffs, it may look like they’re doing the patriotic thing… but over the long run trade barriers hurt every 🇺🇸 worker.”
🇨🇦 Ontario just ran this👇🏽powerful ad using Reagan’s voice against Trump’s trade war during game 7 of the ALCS ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/M0l27CLB5B
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) October 21, 2025
If Trump were normal minded, which he clearly is not, he would read the handwriting on the wall that Canada is putting there in neon. And if Trump had people aroound him who were not terrified of him and his instability, they would call all this to his attention. I don’t expect that to happen.
Scott Bessent has one oar in the water, but don’t expect too much from him. He was put in the Treasury cabinet post but the reality of the situation is that, like Marco Rubio, he’s juggling numerous responsibilities way outside of his stated job description as this mis-administration stumbles on shambolically.
Madeleine Dean predicted this would happen to Mike Johnson a few weeks ago in their now famous exchange. Indeed, our allies are looking elsewhere and our main ally has just put us on notice, basically, that it’s sayonara sweetie. And our enemies are laughing at us and that will only continue.
My bigger question is: Can we mend fences with Canada at some future date, or have they decided that the American electorate has screwed up one too many times and our formerally good and productive relationship is finished? I guess we’ll find out in due time.
The tragedy of Trump getting in a second time is that the first time we were able to chalk it up to a mistake of some sort, two unpopular candidates, an Obama backlash, many reasons. But for America to choose to send Trump back to Washington, seeing what he did in his first term, seeing the Capitol riot, seeing the conviction for 34 felonies, all of it, we simply look like morons. Maybe we will never live it down. Sad to contemplate but there you have it. I don’t blame Canada one jot. Carney’s words make perfect sense to me.
And on a larger level, Canada may assume a greater role in world affairs, certainly for the time Trump has left in office. We are the laughingstock of the world stage right now. And every day Trump does something to worsen that status, not reverse it.
If America can’t lead, Canada will and I think we may be looking at the beginning of that.
I think Carney is taking the longer view. Whatever happens in America, it’s time for Canada to step out of the shadows and assume a leading role in the world community. It’s one of those forks in the road, a positive step for Canada, not a negative reaction to trump. It’s long overdue IMHO. We can offer hope and opportunity for many Americans who decide to relocate, reversing a long-standing trend of seeing our best and brightest go south.