First, remember that the core demographic who elected Trump was white, poorly educated, provincial, and male. Trump is not an aberration, and he does not represent any departure from American society and culture, nor from what is deemed normal in this world. He simply reflects the kind of people whose actions primarily represent their fears and failings. And they take it out on others while delivering stupidity and chaos to the world. 

However, as Canadians, we must stop being overly reactive and emotional about American stupidity and its deteriorating empire. America is undergoing a culture war that may turn out to be a civil war if they are not careful. America represents moral decay, moving backwards in redefining itself as the worst of humanity, so we must not get caught up in an endless and dark abyss of ignorance. 

With crisis comes opportunity, and the opportunity for Canada at this moment must be to find its independent voice and spirit, lead its people and set its own agenda. We must find our true identity and break free from the polite American neighbour to the North reputation that we’ve built for ourselves in the shadow of America. This crisis represents an opportunity for Canada to express itself, for Canada to become truly Canadian and not just less American, nicer, or just a more intelligent version of Americans. We must seize the opportunity to define change.  

At the least, Trump has woken us up to the need for serious leadership in challenging times and helped us dodge boarding the fool train, conducted by none other than “Axe the Tax” Pierre Poilievre, aka PP. Trump wannabe. His epic fall is classic Shakespearean: the talentless arrogance of a hubristic leader always finds their way to the dramatic downfall. Thanks, Captain Chaos, aka Agent Orange!

Pursuing the Opportunities

Trump has provided Canada with a runway for realigning our trade relationship with the U.S. The opportunity to engage and form other economic blocs to help foster transformative trade and commerce relationships benefiting our Canadian economy, resulting in less dependence on the U.S. and a more resilient Canadian economy.  

The TTs are also an opportunity to free ourselves from the gravity model of trade, which essentially means that trade between two nations was primarily pursued or determined by their economic size and proximity. For Canada, we’ve allowed ourselves to become lazy and dependent on the size of the American economy and their dominating culture, leaving us without a true Canadian identity, and vulnerable to dumb shit coming out of the US. 

We must be more entrepreneurial, particularly in an ever-evolving digital world, there is no reason why we can’t explore more diversified and beneficial trade relationships around the world. 

With Trump’s alliance with Putin the dictator, there has never been a better time to seek out more trading and geo-political alliances. 

Canada and Mexico certainly must be considering natural bilateral deals or at least deepening economic cooperation. Both must look to bilateral agreements with other partners in Asia, Japan, Africa, India, the Americas and the Caribbean—the world is open and willing.

The biggest opportunity for Canada is the European Union (EU), which is the wealthiest economic bloc in the world. Canada was invited recently to the European emergency summit on Ukraine, after the disastrous Trump Oval Office fiasco. So things are already happening, but Canada must not sit back. It must aggressively accelerate a value proposition into the EU supply chain to consolidate trade, help harmonize regulations, and work on digital projects, particularly AI-safety policy to facilitate responsible AI development. Otherwise, we'll get caught letting big tech oligarchs run our economies like what is happening in the U.S. now. 

China, the world’s largest economy behind the U.S., is already seeking to expand trade relationships in the Asia-Pacific region. China has an export-led economic growth model, and they are constantly in search of more substantial regional trade and investment partnerships. The more relationships Canada can insert itself into with China and Asian countries, the more our trade and commerce networks will grow and so too our prosperity and power in the world.   

New Economic Alignments

However things play out with Trump and his stupid tariffs, there is going to be a new global economic order forming. Trump's behaviour can’t be undone or forgotten; only foolish leaders would trust him. 

Canada can decide whether it wants to help design the future world or merely participate. 

Canada must also move away from Western biased views of the world, that they know best. And believing that trade deals mainly with other Western nations, i.e., the U.S., is in their best interest because of their perceived shared cultural, historical and geographical ties. As America has just proved, your friend can stab you in the back, so it is only sensible to be diversified. 

We must not limit our ambitions and prosperity to proximity. There is a big wide world out there that can benefit the wealth of our nation. 

The U.S. has gone rogue; we can’t become victims. Maybe it was nice while things lasted between us, but it’s time for Canada to find its true identity and become a global economic powerhouse and progressive leader.