Keith McNenly
Special to Niagara Now/The Lake Report

Humanity is entering a new era in the dynamics of self governance. With the United States embracing authoritarianism, dismissing the concept of rule of law, threatening allies while cozying up to enemies of democracy, we are on the cusp of, well, something very different. 

In the face of threats against our sovereignty, now is the time to temporarily set aside our political party differences and fight as one Canadians, all Canadians. 

In this period of crisis, coincident with the resignation of the prime minster, we find opposition parties eying an easy path to fiefdom through a vote parliamentary non-confidence. We see Premier Ford of Ontario calling a unnecessary early snap election, not to work with the other 70 per cent of Ontarian’s who aren’t conservatives, but to pick off another four-year mandate.  

A first economic step must be to repeal the ridiculous trade restriction that exist between Canadian provinces. This would have immediate impact in Niagara on our wine industry, an industry expected to be impacted by new American tariffs.

International Monetary Fund data reveals, “Canada could increase its GDP per capita by as much as 4 per cent — or $2,900 per capita estimated in 2023 dollars through liberalization of internal trade in goods.”  

The world is now facing economic warfare from a powerful authoritarian and should respond by declaring united economic warfare back. Even though their own nations are not currently the target, they will be soon enough. Canada is not the end game. Canada is an experiment.

A tariff victory destabilizing Canada’s economy would probably be followed by attacks against more nations having significant assets. It’s all about the money. The grift is the goal. Authoritarianism and oligarchy is all about making your money their money.  

If any sovereign nation tries to rein in propaganda posted by an American oligarch’s social media platform, by legislating content regulations, they will face the prospect of punishing economic retaliation from the U.S.  

Meta (Facebook/Instagram) has gone total “anything goes” regarding posts on its platforms. In its final capitulation to the new administration.

There will be no factchecking. This means in every country, algorithms will push the biggest lies designed to get readers angry and to maximize advertising income. Meta controls two thirds of global social media, while Google controls 90 per cent of search. 

An oligarch with 400 billion dollars could spend a million dollars a day for more than a thousand years and would not be able to spend even just the principle amount. In fact with compound interest alone it would be hard to spend just the interest at the rate of only a million dollars a day, and yet they want more, much more.  

Might Canada lead the formation of a global trade alliance? Built on the NATO model, if one of the member countries is attacked, it would be considered an attack on all members and all would join in economic retaliation. An Economic NATO.  

Long-term diversification of trade is required by Canada. 

I am confident Canada will abide. We will come out stronger with a more diversified economy. Canadians are riled up. Most importantly we are in the right, smart and strategic. 

I hope freedom loving Americans will rise four years from now at their next presidential election, but it is on Canada and the rest of the world to lead the resistance and hold out until then, perhaps longer. 

Canadians have the instinct that if you’re sleeping next to an elephant, it’s good to know if it sleepwalks, and so, many of us are more than passingly familiar with the American constitution and system of government.  

Were the American founding fathers asleep at the quill when they wrote the constitution? They established three co-equal branches of government in an attempt to backstop one another and to protect their citizens from a future “king”: The congressional, the administrative and the judicial branches of government.  

Much ballyhoo is made about the founding fathers brilliance in writing the constitution, only to find some 250 years later — has a “king” outwitted the lot of them after all?