by S. JayasankaranKK
Make money and the whole world will conspire to make you a gentleman – Mark Twain
The Canadians have more sense than their southern neighbours.
Early this week, the country’s voters gave Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party a third term. It was a stunning turnaround: only three months ago, Mr Carney seemed set to lose, trailing his conservative rival Pierre Poilievre by 20 percentage points.
In the event, Mr Carney’s Liberals narrowly won, Mr Poilievre lost his own seat and, not surprisingly, it’s thanks to Donald Trump.
For reasons known only to his therapist, the Donald had slapped tariffs on Canada’s exports. He also threatened to annex the country, talking about making it the USA’s 51st state.
Mr Poilievre, a right-winger himself, didn’t appear as outraged as Mr Carney who, correctly sensing national anger, made Mr Trump’s actions an election issue. He was right: enough Canadians agreed and left Monsieur Poilievre snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory.
Alas, poor Pierre. If he felt trampled upon, a great many Americans felt the same way. Indeed, the CIA’s secret files have classified the Donald’s first 100 days: “Bull Meets China Shop.” That’s the problem with ignorance: it picks up confidence as it trundles along.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump, who considers himself modestly highly overrated, has dubbed this period “A 100 Days of Greatness.”
It’s anything but. Truth be told, it’s the most destabilising period in current world history. Canada isn’t the only country feeling uneasy. The Donald has threatened to take Greenland by force and has spoken about seizing control of the Panama Canal.
In one of his milder acts, he arbitrarily renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Given his litany of complaints in the run-up to the Presidency, he might want to make the grouse America’s national bird.
He’s also acted on his own “complaints”, too. Example: Mr Trump complained about his “enemies.” Now he’s weaponised the Justice Department, tightened the government’s purse strings, and gone after institutions that’ve “slighted” him – legal firms, media outlets, universities, even museums.
He’s gutted the civil service: an estimated 100,000 federal workers have been sacked.
And if you thought he’d set an example, he has – a terrible one. He’s pardoned every single defendant convicted of crimes related to the Jan 6, 2021 riots, including those related to violent crime and criminal conspiracy.
The Watergate scandal brought a serving President down and its aftermath brought on rules designed to protect against political meddling in law enforcement. Mr Trump said nuts to that and showed it the finger.
A compliant Congress has allowed him to take over spending and trade policy. In the process, he’s unleashed an international trade war in the name of remaking the global economy.
The result has been the US economy’s first contraction in three years: real growth shrank 0.3% in the year’s first quarter.
True to form, an unfazed Mr Trump blamed his predecessor, the hapless Joe Biden. Mr Biden actually bequeathed the ingrate a strong economy.
Like a modern-day Caligula, Mr Trump has arrogated enormous power to himself. Indeed, everything so far is unprecedented and uncharted territory.
The man’s self-belief is terrifying. Like Oscar Levant, he believes there are only two sides to any argument: his side and the wrong side.
WE