Unchecked evil and the Canada-U.S. relationship
Roderick Benns is the publisher of The Advocate. An award-winning author and journalist who grew up in Lindsay, he has written several books including Basic Income: How a Canadian Movement Could Change the World.
I made the decision, many years ago, to avoid the United States in two different ways. First and foremost, I decided I never wanted to visit again. It’s been at least a dozen years since that happened and I have never regretted the decision.
Secondly, I wanted to avoid absorbing too much U.S. media and culture, and to increase the absorption of my Canadian (and foreign) content.
These decisions were not made against the American people, per se; I have met many decent Americans in my lifetime. They were made because I believed that successive U.S. governments had fundamentally lost their way, and U.S. cultural dominance should be kept in check. (Keep in mind, all of this was before Donald Trump’s first presidency, let alone his second.)
When Donald Trump arrived, he was the embodiment of that most repugnant of U.S. qualities – its unique propensity for blending entertainment, big money, and politics. And the average American voter on the right ate it up.
Now here we are, barely into his second presidency, and we’re supposed to absorb this message from his inaugural address: “The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation – one that increases our wealth, expands our territory…and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons.”
How could U.S. voters not believe this vile, senior-toddler was capable of anything, with his long, ugly track record of misogyny, duplicity, fraudulence, and amorality and his limitless need to be in the spotlight? Where are the Trump apologists now, in the wake of this economic attack on our nation?
A recent opinion piece in the Star by Andrew Phillips urges Canadians to hold onto their anger when it comes to this issue. That won’t be difficult. It first starts with being outraged with American supporters of his presidency, the ones who chose to throw in with this malevolent huckster, currently masquerading as a G7 leader.
India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, once said “Evil unchecked grows, evil tolerated poisons the whole system.” When leaders propagate hateful ideas, they legitimize those notions, making it easier for others to act upon them. We even see copycat Trumpian personalities springing up in Kawartha Lakes.
Despite Trump’s actions that tilt towards 19th century U.S. colonialism, be it Greenland, Denmark, Canada, or elsewhere, there are already clear signs that his followers, instead of tempering his worst impulses, are simply getting on board. And products promoting Canada as the 51st state are now being sold.
As an existential threat hangs over this nation, I am also furious at our own decades of inaction. Our neglect of our military. The lack of investment in our infrastructure to ensure we are self-sufficient. Interprovincial trade barriers that should have been eliminated long ago. If I teach in Ontario, I can’t teach in Manitoba or Alberta? Or agricultural products needing to be inspected again when they cross provincial borders? What a waste of time, energy, and money. Are we a nation or just a loose assembly of constituent parts?
Only fours years to go. Then again, in 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin amended the constitution, which reset his term limits, effectively allowing him to run for two more six-year terms after 2024. I predict this line of thinking from the dictator-in-chief to our south. In the meantime, let’s get our own house in order. Fast.
