Silver Linings

You gotta find them wherever you can. A few months ago, I suggested that one possible silver lining in the absolute shitshow that's going on is that Trump's annexation threats are going to have an impact on the inevitable Canadian election. It's been over a year since it looked like we were headed for a Conservative landslide victory, going into cartoonishly large margins by the end of 2024.  Following Chrystia Freeland's resignation from cabinet, polling had vote intention for the Liberals at 20% versus the Conservatives at 45%. More than double. It was going to be a spanking.

And then Trump started making "Governor Trudeau" jokes and comments about Canada becoming the 51st state. On top of that, he started the stupidest trade war ever.

Fun fact - the one thing that unites Canadians more than anything else is our smug self-satisfied sense of superiority that we get from not being American. "At least we're not the USA" is the one thought that is shared by more Canadians than any other. It is essentially the core of Canadian identity - our non-American-ness.

And so we had a rally round the flag effect. And the deeply unpopular Justin Trudeau announced his resignation. And the new guy - still does not have a seat in Parliament - took over. And now the Liberals are leading the Conservatives by 6.

I had initially thought that the bump the Liberals would get from Trump's antics would have moved us from strong Conservative majority to Conservative minority government - but that ship has sailed and we're now verging towards a Liberal majority. Without an election campaign or really much of anythign being said by any candidates. Just solely on us freaking out about US imperialism.

So, sorry that Trump is fucking you Yanks six ways from Sunday - and much of the rest of the world is also getting screwed over pretty royally. And even us Canucks are getting shafted by the big stinky orange turd. But at least you're saving us from our own Trumpian dipshit asshole becoming head of government.