Bloody his nose

Donald Trump blinked. He attacked our country. He thought it would be profitable for him. Global equity markets swatted him down on Monday morning—signalling that the cost of his foreign adventures would be high. So, he blinked. But we will be here again in 30 days. And perhaps every month after that for four years. We must be ready to fight.

We must prepare to bloody his nose while we still have the strength and opportunity to do so. Before he breaks our arms and legs.

Along the way, I expect we will learn how strong our nation is. How great it can be. The idea of Canada—the existence of our country— is about to be tested. The pain and hardship will be profound. But there is no choice but to push back as hard as we can.

This is where we are. We know who the enemy is. We know it won’t be long before he crawls out of his cave again, hungry for maple burritos.

In my estimation, we can go in a couple of directions: Canada may be ripped apart at the seams—revealed as a thin paper nation. Or it may forge a stronger, more united people in the face of an aggressive predator led by a belligerent imbecile. I am betting on the latter. And we saw strong indications of this in the early days. I was pleased to see Prime Minister Justin Trudeau come out forcefully on Sunday morning. His finest hour. Matching tariffs on US imports and a promising to take the fight to Washington.

“We don’t want to be here, we didn’t ask for this, but we will not back down in standing up for Canadians,” Trudeau said. These are the right words. Said forcefully.

Pierre Poilievre and Jagmeet Singh offered similar statements—unified by a common enemy. Provincial premiers, too, are united this week. This is what Canadians need now. What we expect. Pray that it endures— that it is more than words.

We can’t rule out the possibility that fissures that were once considered part of our unique character may, under stress, widen and snap. We must pull together rather than pull apart.

Trump, meanwhile, expects Canada to roll over—to accept his arbitrary decree. He promised to hike tariffs further if Canada retaliated. We must be ready to do the same. His ambition is to dominate Canada—to flex America’s muscle against a docile friend. To establish a 51st state.

Whether it is a genuine project or meant to signal to Moscow and Beijing the American administration is joining the club of expansionary empires or just the man-baby pounding his rattle on the highchair, it is useless and dangerous to attempt to decode Trump’s primitive motivations.

We must stop trying to read his mind. And we must stop trying to persuade him with rational arguments. It is like reasoning with a goldfish. Diplomacy, negotiations, coddling and flattery have failed. Miserably. (Perhaps made circumstances worse.)

Instead, we must inflict a cost on him. It is all he knows and understands. This is the fight. He has dropped the gloves—we must punch hard. And fast. It will hurt us more than him—but we cannot curl up in a frightened ball.

Our energies must be focused on preparing to disrupt America’s vital supply chains in a sharp, unified strike. Lumber, minerals, oil, natural gas, electricity, fresh water. Everything. All at once. Hard and fast. A blizzard of punches.

When he feels the cost directly—falling polls, roiling bond and stock markets, rising inflation, slowing new homebuilding—is our only chance at altering his behaviour. (Then, of course, he will claim it is what he wanted all along.)

The lizard brain’s nerve endings are located in the stock and bond markets. Exchanges around the world plunged on Monday morning, reacting to Trump’s tariffs. More than 90 per cent of stocks fell on US exchanges in early trading. Bond markets were more muted—anticipating Trump would flinch before the day was done. And he did.

We gained only temporary relief. We must prepare for round two.

We have weapons in this fight. We can’t win in a long war, but we can inflict damage in the short run. Canada must land some punches early. We must make them count. If not, we are dead already.

We must make as much noise as we are able. We must risk tipping global markets into steep decline. Equity valuations are frothy, trading is unusually volatile, and sovereign debt is staggeringly high, limiting fiscal responses. We can do damage to the thing he loves most.

We must do so to ensure there is a painful cost to be paid when you cross the street to fight with Canada.

Foremost, we must stop blaming ourselves and our leaders. We didn’t do this. Our leaders didn’t do this. Our nation has challenges and issues we need to work through, but we did not do this. Donald Trump did. He is the enemy.

It is not a fight any Canadian wanted. But it’s the fight we have.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca