First off, we have almost* no bargaining chips in any negotiations with the US, and that holds especially true as long as our own useful idiots continue to help obstruct any pipelines to tidewater. Any concessions an increasingly isolationist US makes towards us are due only to their own good graces, not due to anything we have to offer, and certainly not due to our extraordinary negotiating abilities.
However, in order to be completely energy independent in the long term, and to keep their refineries running as they are currently designed, they do and will need our heavy oil, potentially our Uranium, and likely some rare earth's and other minerals.
The era of colonialism is mostly extinct, militarily taking over another country is no longer in vogue, nor necessary in the era of economic warfare.
So, push Canada to the brink, block all attempts to export our oil elsewhere, threaten(and most likely succeed) to block all trade and exports, sow dissent, particularly east vs. west, and between levels of government, turn industry, business and primary producers against the government. Watch us squirm, and starve economically long enough, and many will come to the inevitable conclusion that if you can't beat them, join them. The carrot and the stick, once the stick has been exhausted, switch to the carrot, one at a time, pick off the productive or strategic provinces or regions with offer pipelines, or resumption of trade, with them laying out all of the terms, and us grateful to have a lifeline of any sort. Thanks to Quebec, provinces have the right and the ability to leave confederation, and Manifest Destiny has never entirely gone away. Which is an indirect way of saying, we will become American states, or jurisdictions of some description out of desperation.
If you subscribe to this rationale, and I'm sure most Canadians don't( most choose to ignorantly claim their entire identity is to be Anti-American, rather than anything positive or definable, but that is another debate), but, if you think this is the eventual end game, and the intention of these tactics, regardless of who is president, and what party is in power, wouldn't we be better off taking the initiative sooner rather than later, and bargaining while we still have a modicum of leverage, rather than waiting until desperation sets in and we are forced to beg for the crumbs? In the case of the western provinces, we have nothing to gain under the current scenario, and it appears to be only getting worse, and potentially a lot to be gained by joining the US, especially if we were to play one federal government against the other as to who can offer the best terms.
Yes, it would destroy confidence in Canada's currency, and scare off investment, but if things continue in the direction they are heading, those things are happening anyways, the difference is a slow bleed vs. abrupt. Conditions for those remaining in the confederation will be much worse, and motivation to follow suit, much stronger, even while their negotiating position gets ever weaker.
Pretending we are a sovereign country that doesn't need the US is complete lunacy, just look at our trade numbers, look at our almost complete lack of military, look at the length of our shared borders, our intertwined infrastructure and intelligence, and our inability to even patrol our own shores. We exist as a separate entity in name only, and purely due to the US allowing it to be so.
While the concept is completely unpalatable to most Canadians, I ask them to please offer an alternative scenario. Flame away...
However, in order to be completely energy independent in the long term, and to keep their refineries running as they are currently designed, they do and will need our heavy oil, potentially our Uranium, and likely some rare earth's and other minerals.
The era of colonialism is mostly extinct, militarily taking over another country is no longer in vogue, nor necessary in the era of economic warfare.
So, push Canada to the brink, block all attempts to export our oil elsewhere, threaten(and most likely succeed) to block all trade and exports, sow dissent, particularly east vs. west, and between levels of government, turn industry, business and primary producers against the government. Watch us squirm, and starve economically long enough, and many will come to the inevitable conclusion that if you can't beat them, join them. The carrot and the stick, once the stick has been exhausted, switch to the carrot, one at a time, pick off the productive or strategic provinces or regions with offer pipelines, or resumption of trade, with them laying out all of the terms, and us grateful to have a lifeline of any sort. Thanks to Quebec, provinces have the right and the ability to leave confederation, and Manifest Destiny has never entirely gone away. Which is an indirect way of saying, we will become American states, or jurisdictions of some description out of desperation.
If you subscribe to this rationale, and I'm sure most Canadians don't( most choose to ignorantly claim their entire identity is to be Anti-American, rather than anything positive or definable, but that is another debate), but, if you think this is the eventual end game, and the intention of these tactics, regardless of who is president, and what party is in power, wouldn't we be better off taking the initiative sooner rather than later, and bargaining while we still have a modicum of leverage, rather than waiting until desperation sets in and we are forced to beg for the crumbs? In the case of the western provinces, we have nothing to gain under the current scenario, and it appears to be only getting worse, and potentially a lot to be gained by joining the US, especially if we were to play one federal government against the other as to who can offer the best terms.
Yes, it would destroy confidence in Canada's currency, and scare off investment, but if things continue in the direction they are heading, those things are happening anyways, the difference is a slow bleed vs. abrupt. Conditions for those remaining in the confederation will be much worse, and motivation to follow suit, much stronger, even while their negotiating position gets ever weaker.
Pretending we are a sovereign country that doesn't need the US is complete lunacy, just look at our trade numbers, look at our almost complete lack of military, look at the length of our shared borders, our intertwined infrastructure and intelligence, and our inability to even patrol our own shores. We exist as a separate entity in name only, and purely due to the US allowing it to be so.
While the concept is completely unpalatable to most Canadians, I ask them to please offer an alternative scenario. Flame away...
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