Yeah, seems like.

The problem is that the second part really isn’t true. They’ve been relied on for a whole lot. It’s very painful to move on, even if the relationship seems unsalvagable, and so there’s a lot of hopium out there about waiting this presidential term out and then everything goes back to normal.

You have to factor in how much more words matter to Trump than anything else. If I was Carney I’d probably sound the same - in public.

Yeah, Canada is the same.

Will red America really see it that way? Blue America will still hate Trump, of course.

Good to hear! That hasn’t been my experience.

I wonder what kind of hard numbers there are on that.

They’re definitely invited to my imaginary post-NATO alliance, but I’m curious, why do you bring it up?

The question is which Carney was the act, right? The pre-election version, or the one after? Even if he is elbows-up, doing it quietly would be imperative, so it’s not impossible.

Trump doing things is actually what gives me hope. If the trade war hadn’t happened we’d be following the US trajectory exactly, and PP would currently be PM. As it is, Doug Ford is kind of repeating what Churchill did way back when, starting fascist-aligned and then moving off, and might be the next Conservative to actually win.

Trump doesn’t do much. He’d have to have actual knowledge to operate those levers. He makes demands, and the ones he makes a lot get carried out by other officials out of self-preservation.

Greenland is one of those repeated and clear demands. Canada is up in the air… for now.

It’s a third that leans poor and less educated. Fancy people are still on a “business as usual” kind of wavelength, which is also how it’s been allowed to get this bad.

>50% have normalcy bias, where they fully believe the stuff they see on TV only can happen in far away places. Because it never has here in living memory.

I think it gets even higher once you get to the elites who could actually prevent it.

Well, for one thing, a car is a luxury in most of the world. Ask how people feel about riding on busses. Sometimes the answer is that they can’t for some reason, but usually it’s just that they prefer a private vehicle and no timetables.

For another, a good potion of the population isn’t actually struggling, and has Amazon or Temu stopping by to deliver dumb stuff from China all the time. Like, that entire sector, along with meal delivery, is all about spending surplus income. I’m not talking about the bottom quarter here.

I’m guessing it would mostly be stupid for the government in power, and staying in Canada would win decisively.

In Alberta there’s a barely-concealed affinity between separatists and MAGA, so it becomes a useful wedge issue to unite your own party. Not so in Quebec.

So the PQ is probably going to win, in your assessment?

C’mon Carney. If they go we’re all but goners too. Our only hope would be getting nukes and (somehow) not being invaded before they’re finished.

A tripwire force, basically. Albeit small even for that purpose.

Trump’s clearly committed to the goal. Multiple people are organising around it, and he’s consistently talking about it.

I actually think that would be really good for Trump, if it actually happened. Remember what happened to W’s approval after 9/11, and what kinds of new powers were passed even with the then more functional democracy.

Yeah, we definitely aren’t yet.