LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Can we weather the economic storm?

When Donald Trump got elected in November 2024, almost all of our Conservatives in Manitoba, including members of Parliament, countless pastors, pro life people, anti-LGBTQA+ organizations, they all celebrated in view of a bright future, a golden era to come, full of hope to get rich instantly, of getting rid of minorities, seeing a big blow to anything even remotely liberal. Have all those people ever listened to an election speech given by Donald Trump or J.D. Vance? Or were they all deaf when they should have heard what the Republicans plan was in regard to economy, taxes and project 2025? And all those who celebrated Donald Trump’s election success were, you guess it, not Liberals, but Conservatives, called by Donald Trump “his great friends in Canada”.

The moment Donald Trump was sworn in as president of the United States of America, all those who celebrated his election were deeply surprised when Trump started to fulfill his election promises. Surprised? Really? His relentless willingness to harm his economy in sight of a greater success, a country double the size of his America, with all the natural resources, with no border from Texas to the North pole, only great richness in any imaginable form.

So now, since we know the economic storm heading against our country with the goal to get us into submission, we have two ways to react; with weakness or with strength. Konrad Narth recommends in column (Report from the Legislature), weakness. We should, if I understand him correctly, lower taxes, reduce regulatory burdens and do what Donald Trump is expecting to do from us. If this works, it will trigger even higher tariffs, until we Canadians go enough into submission to give up our sovereignty. We simply can’t cool down Donald Trump’s temper by submitting to him.

The only way out of this economic storm is by being strong and combine our strength by working together with new trade partners, like the European Union, Japan and Mexico. We Canadians should never have relied on the U.S. as the almost sole trading partner. Did you know that the shipping distance between Montreal and Germany is closer than the distance from coast-to-coast in Canada? And the freight over the ocean is cheaper than on road or rail? Therefore, whatever we need as Canadians and have not in Canada, we should source in countries other then the U.S. Whatever we need to sell and have no significant marked in Canada should never be sold to the U.S., be it oil, gas, lumber, grain or meat. In order to get there, it is important to put tariffs on anything coming from the U.S. It will eventually reduce the trade deficit the U.S. is complaining about.

I am stunned by the amount of people in Canada who believe joining the U.S. would solve our problems. Yes, Canada has too much debt, way too much. It stands presently at $1.28 trillion, or evenly divided by our population at $32,000. This debt costs us interest, in the form of taxes, of if we can’t afford to come up with the interest, it adds to additional debt. It is a vicious circle, that is why lowering or axing taxes can’t lead us out of depression.

The U.S. on the other hand has a federal debt of $36.2 trillion and growing constantly. Tariffs will not lead them out of debt. If evenly dispersed the U.S.-debt to every American, it would be $94,000 US (or $134,000 CDN) per American. So now, the consequences of being part of the U.S., we would still owe debt of $32,000 per capita as the 51st state, plus the debt we would inherit from the U.S. Welcome to the country with the deepest debt. Our $1.28 trillion is suddenly not as bad, yes, bad enough, but not nearly as bad. And this country wants to take us over?

Soon we will have an election in Canada. It is no secret who Donald Trump wants to see as the winner of the next Canadian election, the party who hates Liberals and scientists the most. The Conservative Party of Canada has spent all the effort to tell Canadians how bad life in Canada is and how important it is to hate Liberals. This is exactly the rhetoric of Donald Trump and his Republican party.

Is it worth it to fight for our future as Canadians? Yes, it is. We’ve had now 10 good years of life in Canada, it was prosperous, minorities were not harmed, we had universal health care, there was at least some effort to protect the environment, we came better through the COVID pandemic than many other countries including the U.S., our economy was running like a freshly oiled sewing machine, should we not be happy about our successes? As a Canadian of choice, (rather than a Canadian by birth), I am happy to be here and I don’t mind if it costs some effort to protect our country from becoming part of the U.S. We together, we will win this economic storm, with a government which has a clear message, doesn’t have any sympathy to a bully of a president, one who wants us to go into submission, one who does not have any mercy for anyone other than the filthy rich and loyal.