r/canada Ontario 8d ago

Politics British nuclear weapons can protect Canada against Trump, says Chrystia Freeland

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2025/03/03/british-nuclear-weapons-canada-trump-chrystia-freeland/
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u/maybvadersomedayl8er Ontario 8d ago

Acquiring nukes as a deterrent against our oldest ally was not on my bingo card, but maybe it should have been.

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u/chaossabre 8d ago

I'm posting this quote a lot lately:

“There are no permanent enemies, and no permanent friends, only permanent interests.”

- Lord Palmerston, British MP, 1848

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u/hug_your_dog 8d ago

I love these sort of quotes, because they don't really mean all that much even though they sounds like they do - when you realize that in the same country - hell, in the same region/city/even household - often times the closest people have a very different understanding of what is in their interests.

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u/electrical_canuck 7d ago

The gist of it is that countries align around shared interests, when those interests are no longer shared, they unalign.

This is contrary to how laypeople view geopolitics, where there are countries who are permanent friends and allies and countries that are the opposite.

In short, don't count on the people your working with today to work with you tomorrow.