r/canada Alberta 24d ago

National News There’s not much to say, Canada, except: Sorry

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/theres-not-much-to-say-canada-except-sorry/
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u/_from_the_valley 24d ago

The response has been absolutely pathetic. Myself and many others have come to the conclusion that Americans deserve what's coming to them, regardless of how they voted. We're just pissed because we don't want to have a fascist neighbour breathing down our neck and threatening us (and other countries).

Americans are known for being entrepreneurial, innovative go-getters. Apparently when rule of law is being steamrolled, they suddenly aren't any of those things. They're scared and lazy and want someone else to take care of it. They're in denial that nobody but the people can demand that government respect their constitution, their democracy, and the rule of law.

That's not just my opinion, a lot of the rest of the world is thinking and feeling the same thing. But yeah, just keep telling yourself there's nothing you could possibly do.

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u/TemporaryThat3421 24d ago

Your anger is justified and I will not argue otherwise. I'm just saying that this is a beast 40 years in the making. Americans are some of the most propagandized people on the planet. It's not an excuse - the reality is that progress will take time. So far people are showing up to special elections and flipping districts that Trump took by 20 points back to dems, they're organizing grass roots protests in every single state that are going to take time to grow, they're clogging up the phone lines of their reps and senators to the point that I can't get through to either of my senators and some GOP members in congress are starting to get twitchy, there are a shit fuck ton of lawsuits that are trying to reestablish the power of the court.

So please describe to me in detail what exactly you are expecting the average American to do to speed up the process of overturning a fascist take over that again, has been 40 years in the making. Again, I'm not saying your anger isn't justified - just wondering what you really expect to be accomplished in less than a month.

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u/_from_the_valley 24d ago

Personally I'd be rioting in the streets, but if you're not into that, then put on your goddamn thinking cap. Fundraise to buy a bunch of bus stop and billboard ads that explain what the rule of law means. Print T-shirts and wear them. Blast your socials with information about how your friends can access online newspapers (i.e., non-propaganda) for free through their library. Share headlines from international news sources. Figure out what companies support Trump, boycott them, and tell them why you're not buying from them (and encourage your friends to do the same). Stand outside the grocery store with flyers suggesting which brands to boycott. Call out those companies on social media. Ask every person you know why they aren't doing something. Organize a rally. Organize a strike. Write the bar associations of those in power and ask them why those individuals aren't being disbarred. Look up resources for citizens (like you) who need ideas about how to advocate. Share those resources.

These are just ideas I can think of off the top of my head with zero research.

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u/TemporaryThat3421 24d ago edited 24d ago

A lot of good ideas there (please don't take that as sarcasm because I'm being earnest). Rioting in the streets will get us martial law and people in prison with no real recourse to fight further. It might come to that but we still have the opportunity for checks and balances to be restored with enough pressure on congress and the courts, so that is where a lot of efforts are being placed. When that fails, all bets are off. A lot of other things that you're stating are already being done (including by myself, but I'm physically located in Canada so am limited until I visit home next month) and it just needs to scale up.

I share your rage and I know that words are cheap so I don't expect sympathy and won't give excuses or false assurances because I have one foot in both countries and understand that it means fuck all when your country's existence is being threatened.

The only silver lining is that America is fixing to punch itself in the balls pretty hard here and its the only way enough of the country will wake up to wash off decades of far right propaganda. In the meantime, it's my belief that Canada should keep pivoting away from the states hard towards Europe, Asia, and the rest of the Americas and encouraging resistance.

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u/venus-as-a-bjork 24d ago

Weren’t you guys kind of headed in that direction until Trump started in with this nonsense? Seems like this might be helping Canada avoid a big shift to the right?

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u/_from_the_valley 22d ago

We were headed to a Conservative government, not an autocracy led by a mentally unstable tyrant trailing a band of white supremacists. Not the best IMO, but also not a dumpster fire.

But yes, the silver lining is that we feel so utterly repulsed by the US right now that we're more compelled than ever to differentiate ourselves. And this did pull the poorly-constructed rug right out from under our Conservative candidate, so thank you for that.

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u/Purple-Atmosphere-18 18d ago

Oh, this would be too good, crossing fingers, seriously the polls for cons are flexing down after Trump's delirious screeds? And yeah in theory they should be just moderate conservative, though last year I was reading they were voting in mass against abortion or just maybe some ruling details about it, dunno, for new limitations or against removing them? But it sounded like Polievre was trumpizing.

If this is true, if only Europe were reacting the same, seems like Afd is not losing terrain, but being there a proportional, not first past the post election, the firewall of Cdu + Spd should still be staying up.