I’ve told many people before that I’m a true Son of the South; it just happens to be from Southern Ontario, about a hundred miles east of Toronto.
I could see Lake Ontario from my bedroom window growing up as a proud Canadian while getting all my U.S. news and shows from TV stations in Rochester, N.Y., 50 miles away, directly across the lake.
So, I grew up Canadian, and those roots run deep, but I’m also an official American, having become a United States citizen in 2017 after moving to Atlanta nearly 20 years earlier with my U.S.-born, recently ex-wife. It’s a long story why it took so long (the citizenship, not the ex, though that, too); let’s just say bureaucracy was deeply involved.
I expect that from the government, though.
Bureaucracy just seems to be a given in much of our lives, something we’ve all learned to live with.
Jump through the hoops to get things done. It may not always make sense or prove the most efficient method, but an end purpose remains in sight.
We know the means even if we don’t always appreciate the method.
That all seems to have gone by the wayside, however, when it comes to Co-President Trump, his minions, and his sycophants. There appears to be no sense of organization or protocol, no bureaucracy, to so many of President Flip-Flops’ declarations and decisions. (Are we having tariffs, or not?)
Seriously, who can honestly endorse Trump’s oft-stated desire (intention?) for the United States to annex Canada, take over Greenland, cede Ukraine to his war-mongering pal in Russia, or re-assume control of the Panama Canal? Are we talking about a president here or an Austin Powers villain?
For Canadians, merely the suggestion of becoming part of the U.S.A. is deeply offensive.
Not because of any hatred for Americans or even their government, but for the sheer audacity and disregard for a sovereign nation’s border. It’s the longest unguarded international border in the world, by the way, which clearly speaks to a mutual level of respect and trust.
Or at least it used to.
Co-President Trump has destroyed that respect, though, by repeatedly calling the northern U.S. border “an artificially drawn line,” as if Canada’s vast national territory (the second largest worldwide) has always rightfully been part of the United States.
In reality, “Kanata,” as it was originally known, appeared on European maps as early as the mid-1500s, making it a known, defined territory long before Canada’s official July 1, 1867, incorporation as a sovereign nation and long before the “birth of a nation” below that already-well-established southern border.
Canada has long stood beside the U.S. in times of trouble and strife, too, fighting side-by-side in war and stepping up with safe harbor for stranded U.S. flights on 9/11 at East Coast airports, to name just a couple of instances. Despite a distinct big brother-little brother divide at times, Canada has always had Big Brother’s back.
So, it’s baffling to me that Elon Musk’s number-one employee seems bound and determined to muck up what has been a mutually beneficial relationship for nearly 160 years. Just by suggesting Canada should become “the 51st state,” he betrays each and every Canadian who ever had respect, even admiration, for their southern neighbors. And there are (were?) plenty of those.
Suggesting Canada is no more than a U.S. state and openly mocking the recently replaced Canadian prime minister by calling him “Governor Trudeau” is deeply offensive behavior that all Americans should reject and condemn from their so-called “leader.”
Put another way, cavalierly suggesting Canada become a U.S. territory or state is no less offensive than if Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping suddenly announced that the United States should be made a Russian republic or a Chinese province.
Think about that MAGA people, and don’t think it couldn’t happen once President Trump-Musk makes his-their global market deals. What once sounds far-fetched can actually become a real threat — regardless of how ridiculous and offensive it truly is.
Just ask my fellow Canadians.