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From ‘Elbows Up’ to Capitulation and Back | The Tyee (thetyee.ca)

submitted 3 days ago by breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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It was a moment of global clarity. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech to the world’s political and economic elite gathered in Davos this week described global realities, past and present, with a candour and nuance rarely heard from a serving politician.

The message was twofold.

First, Carney made clear that the world has changed, and the old comfortable ways of global politics are not coming back. Those who wait for sanity to return are waiting in vain. We are in a world increasingly shaped by the threat and the use of hard power. All states must accept that reality.

Despite this, Carney’s second and more hopeful message was that while the globally powerful may act unilaterally, others — notably “middle powers” like Canada — are not helpless.

By finding ways to co-operate on areas of shared interest, states like Canada can pool their limited resources to build what amounts to a flexible network of co-operative ties. Taken together they can provide an alternative to simply rolling over and taking whatever great powers like the United States dole out.

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[-] ZiggyTheZygote@lemmy.ca 46 points 3 days ago

I moved from Lebanon 8 years ago with my Canadian wife, and I was happy to leave that unstable region with the worst neighbours. Alas, I'm fated to live next to terrible neighbours again. I hope Canada will strengthen the relations with the rest of the world, and never turn to the US again. And as an anti-capitalist and anti-facist, I hope Canada does not become like the US.

[-] GuyIncognito@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 days ago

I mean, look on the bright side. At least the unhinged fascists to the south aren't bombing us right now, unlike Lebanon's case. It's not 'out of the frying pan, into the fire', it's 'out of the frying pan, into a different, less hot frying pan'. Could be worse!

[-] ZiggyTheZygote@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 days ago

For now. If not militarily, they might get us politically by turning our politicians into their fashion, and thus take control of us.

[-] GuyIncognito@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 days ago

Hell, they already had us, and we just didn't know it. Every western country was in lockstep with the US, especially in foreign policy. Now the US has decided that soft power is woke, and everyone has to publicly submit to them. This could at least offer us an opportunity to break free, though the odds could be better.

[-] ZiggyTheZygote@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

I don't know if you are on FB (I hadn't used it for a long time but now I'm active again, especially after being suspended on reddit, don't judge me 😳) but there's a lot of Canadian posts asking if we are ready to defend Canada against a possible US invasion, join the army, that sort of talk. Which makes me wonder if our taxes are going to be spent on the military instead of our public services (mainly the healthcare system which is not doing too well). But honestly I don't think we stand a chance against them, unless we form alliances with Europe. I don't know I'm too hungry now I can't focus.

[-] GuyIncognito@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

I got rid of it years ago, thankfully, but I've heard the talk. As it stands, we wouldn't make it a week outside of a guerrilla war, and I don't know if we have a strong enough society or motivated enough populace for guerrilla war. We could make ourselves a hard enough target for them to avoid if we invested heavily in expanding the military, but where are we going to get the weapons? America? They could turn them off remotely I'm sure. China would be a good option, but America might invade us right away once they found out we were doing that. It's a big problem.

Even if we could get the Europeans to do anything more than write a strongly-worded letter, they don't have much in the way of military might themselves. Frankly, I don't trust them to help unless something changes, but the ticket is deterrence. We need to make ourselves a hard enough target that the Americans aren't willing to try to take a bite, and it's going to take a combination of alliances (we should ally with Mexico, since America is coming for them too) and armaments.

Regarding shifting social spending to defence, I think it's a bad idea, at least without other major changes elsewhere. Part of our problem is motivation - we've had 40 years of neoliberalism telling us the state owes us nothing besides tax credits and we owe the state nothing besides paying our taxes and obeying the law. We're already halfway to losing public healthcare, so we won't even be able to fight for that. We need a fundamental paradigm shift to save this country, and I'm not sure if we have the will or the imagination.