22 upvotes, 9 direct replies (showing 9)
View submission: Canada's Trudeau announces counter tariffs
Canada and Mexico should consider making overatures to China about establishing military bases in their countries. Maybe then Trump and Republicans in Congress might realize that pissing off your closest allies can have disastrous consequences.
Comment by biglyorbigleague at 02/02/2025 at 03:52 UTC
38 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I would not recommend responding to one poorly thought-out decision with another.
Comment by NoNameMonkey at 02/02/2025 at 03:31 UTC
57 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Please don't. I am not American but the standoff to guy had with Russia about missiles in Cuba very nearly ended the world. It would be worse today.
Comment by Ozzykamikaze at 02/02/2025 at 03:33 UTC
31 upvotes, 1 direct replies
If that happened, you might want to start your submissions for flags with more stars on it. That's probably not a joke.
Comment by gscjj at 02/02/2025 at 03:49 UTC
13 upvotes, 0 direct replies
As great as this sounds, I don't think Mexico or Canada can afford to be completely sanctioned by the US and redirecting their entire trade overseas.
Comment by Dilated2020 at 02/02/2025 at 06:32 UTC
10 upvotes, 1 direct replies
A stronger alternative would be for those countries to instead threaten to switch to the Euro. The US as the reserve currency is what keeps our economy afloat with our massive debt. Countries leaving it would mean economic ruin. It’s a great leverage.
Comment by Impressive-Rip8643 at 02/02/2025 at 03:29 UTC
8 upvotes, 3 direct replies
That would unironically trigger an invasion. The Canadian military is pathetically small, as is Mexico's.
Comment by PubliusVarus at 02/02/2025 at 17:09 UTC*
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
We should consider no such thing, we aren't going to immediately jump into the "Axis" sphere and forgo our long standing post WWII alliance system both economically and militarily because the POTUS never read a book in his life and never heard the word "Mercantilism" before.
Hilariously, its like a National Treasure movie the answer has been in front of them the whole time. The American Revolution was largely fought over British "mercantilist" policies IE tariffs. Canada needs to keep its cool, our parties need to be bipartisan, Parliament needs to be recalled with the understanding that the election, while not our immediate concern, is nevertheless very important and needs to be held later in the year, regardless of where we are.
In that time, the Canadian Government as a whole, regardless of political affiliation needs to work on behalf of the people who elected them in the first place and do everything in their power to protect Canada's economic interests from coercion as well as present our interests to the Americans over and over again as well as our international trading partners and allies.
If Canada keeps its cool and doesn't cry uncle, the bullies will loose focus/energy. The Americans will "make a deal" that re-establishes the status-quo (as much as we can) and declare a win regardless of the facts.
Canada needs to look at diversify its trade long term and forge stronger trade links with the EU and the UK. Which means large infrastructure projects in terms of rail, pipeline and port facilities. We can never all out stop trading with the U.S. (nor would we want too) but we can make sure we have goods, services and energy going elsewhere to friendly nations and economies to brace us against the increasing bad faith between the American political parties and their agendas. We could be in for a swing like this every four years until all the boomers die out or people start realizing that they are being "had".
Edit: Addendum: Regarding m use of the term "Axis": Canada had a long road to independence from Great Britain, allowing any kind of Chinese military "help" would be hegemonic in nature and we would simply be someone else's blood and treasure to shed to allow the Chinese to get even with America without consequence. It is literally the worst possible thing we could do. We would be cutting our noses off to spite our face.
Canada was already involved in the First and Second World Wars when America joined with us to figh those wars. Canada was part of the allied agenda that set the stage for the post-war world. We would be extremely foolish and naive to nose dive away from that progress in favour of disingenuous "help" from the PRC. Even if it were offered, which it wouldn't be.
Comment by BeefBurritoBoy at 02/02/2025 at 12:16 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Bad idea. That would literally start a war with America.
Comment by MarthAlaitoc at 02/02/2025 at 07:57 UTC
0 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I don't think that would be a good idea, though it might not be the worst economically. I think if we purchased some Nukes though the US wouldn't be so free with their abuse. That's the only language trump and Republicans seem to understand.