Canada

Canada as a country needs to find new markets in particular within Canada as we have many barriers between our provinces (the President of the United States is on a buy American slogan (I understand that and we will do the same breaking down the barriers between our provinces)). Countries need to purchase their own products but it is also nice to have items we can not create or grow (hence our huge purchases from the United States and if one takes out the oil then the United States has a trade surplus with Canada). So that is what will be happening over the next little while. We will diversify our market. Europe is desperate for oil and gas and we could get our surplus there since President Trump has said that the United States doesn't need our oil and gas. We can rebuild our refineries so that we do not have to buy back refined gasoline to run our cars since it is basically our oil going south being refined and sent back. We have lots of oil; we just went into NAFTA/CUSMA because we are such great friends - the drawbacks were visible and they have come to pass. Our mercantile/small appliance industry has been whittled down and eliminated and it is time to rebuild it. Our youth is unemployed and more than willing to work. We need to get them out of the offices and building with their hands and create all that industry that was lost during NAFTA/CUSMA. The computer knowledge though is essential as it turns out, my carpenter/electrician/plumber brother (yes he did do all those trades! as did my other brothers but this one was younger and into computers early on) spent time on his computer creating the needed structure or whatever to do the job. All of these skills exist in this country and we need to put them to work re-creating our lost industries.

Now a lot was said about our becoming a 51st State - we are 13 provinces/territories and would never go into a union as a single state because our representation would not be sufficient (the United States went to war in the 1770s for representation!). We are all different with different products and styles of business. Becoming a Greater United States with 63 states would be quite a shock to their Congress for sure but it would be the only way that we could consider - call it the spirit of the Patriots demanding representation and many many Canadians are descendants of those Patriots including my daughters (5th generation Canadian and 5 to 6th generation American before that and some of the lines are even closer than that to the United States and most lines are from the United States going back to the 1600s). It was my husband's 2x great grandparents Isaac Kipp and Hannah (Mead) Kipp who came to Canada in 1800 seeking land as settlers with their four boys (one left behind with his namesake Mead grandfather (a Patriot) and probably he wanted to stay and he did come later after the grandfather died). 

Sep 11, 2001 will always be a reminder why it is better to have countries that are friends around you when crisis develops. The United States closed their air space; asked us to close ours and we certainly did over Ottawa so that planes could not attack the Embassy there. We kept ours open until the last planes headed to the United States had landed here in Canada. That was no mean feat as our airports were absolutely packed by the end of it all. Gander was re-opened and equally solidly packed. Gander is out in the wilderness on an Island (Newfoundland) and it was a long way by bus to the capital city where even the hotels were overwhelmed by so many visitors. But none the less the value of us being there and independent was enormous. Plus you stayed for ten days which was fine we were glad to be able to help you; we loved having you and knowing you were safe. 

We can take a lot of pain up here; we lived through the Great Depression in the 30s when our farmers were starving in the west. We have had smaller recessions when we tightened our belts and worked hard and Canada thrived. The First Nations have always been at our side because they are Canada too (they own huge swathes of this land). We are all Canadians. We went to war in 1914 to help England and France (our mother lands for many of us) and our losses for a population of less than 20,000,000 were huge - nearly 70,000 dead and probably as many as a million injured. We went to war in 1939 for the same reason unfortunately and more dead and injured but again we picked up and carried on and we will again.

But our Prime Minister talks for us and he is not a failed Prime Minister. He has stepped down because the will of the majority wanted to move on to a new leader. That is what we do; we follow the rule of the majority which can speak at any time. But until a new leader of the Liberal Party is elected he is Leader. He speaks for us just as his father spoke for us many times. He is experienced in governing. I may not always agree with him as I hate the way Liberals throw money around. But he is our Prime Minister and did an excellent job during COVID for sure. 

Fentanyl is a scourge and we have done an enormous amount and continue doing so because we have thousands of deaths here as well. We are doing and continue doing everything possible along our border on a province basis because they know their borders and have the people who are most familiar with those borders hard at work. We also prevent people from crossing into the United States illegally. As we tighten up our immigration from outside of Canada this will continue to be rare to never instance especially now as you would freeze to death in Canada trying to cross our border on the sly this time of year. Even here where I am in a city right now it is minus 8 degrees celsius (18 degrees Fareinheit) and it has come up a long way and is much colder along the border.