Photograph Soruce: The White House – Public Domain
Relations between the United States and Canada continue to sour over the latest failed trade talks, with the imposition of 50% US tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods and the announced reciprocal “dollar-for-dollar” Canadian tariffs on US goods, disrupting the highly interconnected economies on both sides of the border. The US is Canada’s number-one trade partner, while Canada is the number-one trade partner for 26 states and a top-three partner of 19 more. That’s a whole lot of shaking going on, but the wider issue is the ever-increasing dismantling of government in the everyday lives of citizens and consumers, going on over four decades, and now hot-wired by instant messaging.
Many Americans see the US-Canadian relationship in the same gauche terms as their 47th president, who regularly belittles the standard pleasantries of life, calling Canada “the 51st state” and its prime minister “governor.” Funny to Americans, offensive to Canadians, but more importantly detrimental to good relations between two bordering countries, not least in economic terms. Tourist travel to the United States is down over 25% since the first round of US tariffs on April 2, 2025, American liquor is no longer sold in 8 of 10 Canadian provinces, and almost half of Canadians now think the US is a greater threat to world peace than Russia.
Is the ongoing gamesmanship another ploy to destroy the auto industry in Ontario to increase car manufacturing in Michigan, grab more Canadian market share for American milk farmers, or keep Canadian lawmakers from restricting US tech companies from Canadian regulations (e.g., a 5% streaming levy)? Likely all of the above, and yet the cost of living grows even higher in the largest economy in the world. Add in thousands of job losses and rising uncertainty if the US retaliates with more tariffs and Canada counters with restricted potash, mineral, and energy sales. What’s next, a state of emergency or more insider stock deals to arbitrage every economic measure whatever the social costs?
When asked to respond to the US president’s comment that “Canada needs the US; the US doesn’t need Canada,” former Canadian Minister of International Trade Mary Ng simply replied, “Well, that’s not true.” But lies are what build consensus among the misinformed, now supercharged in our virtual, internet-run world.
Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan saw the effect of speed on the news cycle in his 1962 book The Gutenberg Galaxy, explaining that our senses are becoming externalized in a new “hot media” with a natural narrowing of identity towards tribalism. McLuhan’s suggested “global village” continues to reorient modern economies as consumers follow the electric bread crumbs to the cheapest online giant. Economics is all a game now with no “buyer beware” instructions to counter the keyboard bandits. Everyone has a Pandora’s Box in their pocket.
Comparing the loss of freedoms in Spain during the 1939-1975 Franco dictatorship to a changing ethos in a growing devolved global community, Spanish historian Julián Casanova warns about the dangers of rising fascism, the increased violence around the world, and an unaccountable technological oligarchy running our lives, stating that “Goebbels needed to occupy countries to introduce propaganda. Elon Musk needs three minutes.” Truth, justice and the “American Way” is being eroded day by day, dollar by dollar, as Google, Facebook, X, TikTok, et al. shovel more hours of our time and disposable income into their vast corporate coffers.
In The Affluent Society, Canadian economist and one-time US ambassador to India in the Kennedy administration, John Kenneth Galbraith wrote about the rise of the corporation and growing top-down economic control, stating “Inequality resulting from monopoly might be the warning of fatal flaws in the system itself.” That was before the 1989 breakdown of international borders with the start of the World Wide Web. In a supercharged clickable marketplace (Amazon rakes in about $80 million per hour), corporations are becoming even less accountable for their profit-hungry actions, aided by reduced governance.
Donald Trump is only too happy to keep the money rolling to US corporations and his billionaire friends/donors, via tax cuts, lax governance, and little or no regulation. In the past forty years, billionaire wealth has grown to $18 trillion from $1 trillion in 1987, while 12 people (all men) own more than 50% of the world’s total wealth. Galbraith also noted that in Adam Smith’s liberal economic society, “regulation was by competition and the market and not by the state.” TrumpCo is just attempting to return the state to a pre-society, anti New Deal era, “yea, even unto the Middle Ages.” No more mom, no more pop in our modern oligarchic state that gathers money like raindrops.
Today’s dismantling has been in plain sight since Ronald Reagan’s smug analysis of the problems of our age, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.” Trump and Friends are furthering the dismantling, tearing up long-standing economic, environmental, and electoral regulations, not surprising given that eight of Trump’s 23 cabinet members are billionaires and 57 Trump officials are worth over $100 million. Government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich.
Essentially, government is no longer in the Good Samaritan business, while handouts are for losers. “Peace, love and understanding” is being replaced by “What’s in it for me?” in a country where two-thirds of the population identify as Christian. The 1967 Summer of Love Boomer generation is now in charge, dispensing the good news, administrative governance, and abundant spoils as they see fit. Just don’t expect any sitdowns.
Canada is on the frontlines of the changing global order, a flashpoint for an attempted American oligarchic takeover that sees allies as competitors, ratcheting up distrust everywhere in a refashioned muscular nationalism. The two immigrant-founded countries are similar in culture, yet followed separate political models since their respective schisms from the British Empire: revolutionary republic in the original 13 colonies, relatively peaceful confederation in the original four provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. One could say socialism for the rich (i.e., corporate Keynesianism) in the US versus socialism for all (e.g., universal health care) in Canada.
Some Americans will say the US has been taken advantage of since the end of World War II by NATO freeloaders, ungrateful trading partners, and rising foreign markets, despite the world order being largely created by and designed to serve US interests. Or that an unfettered US is needed to counter the growth of China, now the world’s second-largest economy, out-performing rusted American manufacturing on new energy, electric vehicles, and storage batteries, all critical sectors in the rising green economy.
But discarding capitalist oversight and governmental checks and balances to counter China’s anti-democratic practices and rigid command economy is a mistake that sees human activity as an economic equation and life as a transaction between game players. Exactly what the tech giants want to monetize even more of our lives. Soon everything will be just another bet.
It is ironic that the United States is home to the world’s first billionaire, Scottish immigrant Andrew Carnegie, who made a fortune pioneering the vertically integrated business model in the US steel industry, but also created the world’s first public library to help share knowledge and foster understanding, a worldwide success story. Sadly, the US is also home to the world’s first trillionaire, South African/Canadian immigrant Elon Musk, who helped pioneer the modern electric vehicle, but also reformed an electronic instant messaging system into an unverifiable mess of misinformation for selfish political gain.
At the same time as we squabble over who gets to divide the world’s material wealth, we are all receiving a failing green grade as pollution, global warming, and inequality increases. As Donald Trump fights over oil assets five kilometres under his feet, our thin strip of air is killing us all. Canada isn’t doing any better than the US on global warming, but is on the frontline of the expanding rogue American petrostate. The whole world must stand up to economic blackmail, especially as AI, cryptocurrencies, and digital surveillance impact more of our lives.
One wishes the negotiating efforts were spent on solving the real problems of our world. But then that’s not the goal of this version of American truth and justice. Hopefully, we can still say “no,” or in digital parlance when asked for one’s web compliance, “I do not agree” and “Reject all.”
