Confucius said it best. “May you live in interesting times.” That was not a goodwill statement on his part. It was a curse. And here we are.
We face a cart full of serious challenges these days. The world is far from peaceful, perhaps more so than at any time since the Second World War. But the big difference now is that the number one tyrant is not in Germany. He is right next door and, incredibly, has at least an even chance of once again becoming President of the United States of America.
Should we, as Canadians, care about that? Damn right, we should. There is much to compare in the wrong hands between Russia and Ukraine and The United States and Canada. More about that later. Let’s first have another look at this man, Donald Trump.
Journalist Andrew Coyne wrote an article in the Globe and Mail last Friday, the first two paragraphs of which said this: “If the American empire should fall, history will record (if there are still historians to record anything) that it was brought down by a single man. And not some latter-day Simon Bolivar but by a corpulent sweating, stone-ignorant grifter from Queens.
“It will have fallen, in that event, not to some rival power of superior ideology, but to its own interior rot. All it took, those future historians will marvel, was one push for the whole edifice to collapse. One push by a failed businessman and serial groper with a bad comb-over and a peculiar habit of sniffing after every few words.”
A little on the harsh side? Perhaps, but sadly, there is more truth there than fiction.
Donald Trump has convinced himself that he won the presidential election in 2020 when he clearly did not, and every court to which that matter was referred said so. If he was not the instigator of the assault on Congress that year, he clearly condoned it. He has sworn to pardon all those who were convicted of participating in that insurrection should he again become president. He is currently facing 88 criminal charges and at least some of these are very serious.
Trump has no respect for the truth and, in fact, has said if you tell a lie three times, people will believe it. That may be one of the few truths he has uttered because, as a result of mistruths and intimidation, he has created a cult of supporters who unconditionally believe his lies, support his intimidation, and represent a significant base of American voters.
More stunning, perhaps, are those who don’t believe Trump’s lies or support his behaviour but will vote for him anyway in this year’s presidential election.
Bill Barr served as Attorney General in Donald Trump’s administration. After the 2020 election, he told the President flat out that he had lost. He has since spoken out against him in several public interviews and said that Trump should never again be near the White House.
But on CNN last week, anchor Katelin Collins said to Barr, “So, you’re voting for someone who tried to subvert the peaceful transfer of power, who can’t even achieve his policies, that lied about the election—someone who is facing 88 criminal charges?”
Barr: “The whole episode is painful but the answer to your question is yes”.
Then there is South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsay Graham, who just a few years ago said this about Donald Trump: “He’s a kook. I think he is crazy. I think he is unfit for public office. He is not a Conservative Republican. He is an opportunist.” But Graham has tasted the Kool-Aid. He is now a staunch supporter of Donald Trump.
Contrast this with well-known Republican Liz Cheney, who said, “I will never vote for Donald Trump. My view is I disagree with a lot of Joe Biden’s policies. We can survive bad policies. We cannot survive torching the Constitution”.
I am with Liz Cheney here. I believe that the difference between Donald Trump’s winning or losing the next election will be the people who vote for him, knowing full well that he should not be in the White House simply because they do not like the alternative.
While I understand that is a conundrum for many people who believe they are between a rock and a hard place, I cannot accept the concept that one should knowingly vote again for someone who is so obviously unfit to hold office and could become a clear and present danger to democracy. As one who has never missed a vote in my lifetime, I would destroy my ballot if I found myself in that situation. That is because I also agree with Dan Rather, formerly one of America’s most prominent newscasters. “Let me make this perfectly clear. It’s not about politics. I’ve voted for both parties. It’s about me, as a patriot rejecting a cheating, lying, racist, treasonous fascist, and vile man who attacks the free press and wants to lead the country I love.” Again, perhaps a little overboard, but more truth than fiction.
Trump is a man who has publicly said he wants the economy to crash now so he could be seen to fix it when he becomes president. He stopped a bipartisan Bill from going through Congress because he did not want to give a win to Biden for addressing problems at the southern border. He is the first President since Hoover to lose jobs while in office. He is a liar, a cheat, and a bully. He has told potential voters that he needs their support so that he can punish his enemies. He is clearly, in my view, someone who should never again become President of the United States.
So, why should I, as a Canadian, care about that? I do because another Trump presidency in the United States will inevitably negatively affect this country. Even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (unwisely, in my view) has conceded this.
Donald Trump has never shown real support for Canada, although he has shone covetous eyes on our large reserve of natural resources.
According to Toronto Star business columnist David Oliver, Trump’s promise, if elected, to impose a 10% tariff on all U.S. imports would start an international trade war and drive Canada into recession with severely increased inflation.
Whether we want to believe it or not, Canada’s prosperity, at least in part, comes from being closest to the world’s most powerful nation. We depend on their military to defend us, and we depend on their trade. What if that changes?
Several months ago, Tucker Carlson, a journalist so far to the right that even Fox News fired him, was in Alberta addressing a standing-room-only crowd. This is the guy who has said that the U.S. should send in its military to “liberate” Canada.
Later this week, Donald Trump Junior, likely his father’s preferred successor, will be in Toronto spreading his usual venom and misinformation. We have been seeing this kind of intrusion and saber rattling too frequently lately, in my opinion. One has to wonder why.
In my view, our entire world has too much going on now, too many problems to solve, to risk the potential of an unprincipled, unbalanced, unreliable, and potential despot at the controls of a country as pivotal to world order as the United States of America. Indeed, we live in interesting times.
Hugh Mackenzie
Hugh Mackenzie has held elected office as a trustee on the Muskoka Board of Education, a Huntsville councillor, a District councillor, and mayor of Huntsville. He has also served as chairman of the District of Muskoka and as chief of staff to former premier of Ontario, Frank Miller.
Hugh has also served on a number of provincial, federal and local boards, including chair of the Ontario Health Disciplines Board, vice-chair of the Ontario Family Health Network, vice-chair of the Ontario Election Finance Commission, and board member of Roy Thomson Hall, the National Theatre School of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada. Locally, he has served as president of the Huntsville Rotary Club, chair of Huntsville District Memorial Hospital, chair of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, president of Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and board member of Community Living Huntsville.
In business, Hugh Mackenzie has a background in radio and newspaper publishing. He was also a founding partner and CEO of Enterprise Canada, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm established in 1986.
Currently, Hugh is president of C3 Digital Media Inc., the parent company of Doppler Online, and he enjoys writing commentary for Huntsville Doppler.
Don’t miss out on Doppler!Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox three times per week!
Click here to support local news
I always enjoy reading your commentary. We certainly are living in interesting times. I don’t like Trump, the person, however, Biden has been a disaster as well and just as dishonest. Another 4 years of him doesn’t bear thinking about. The choice is not good either way, but of the two I would choose Trump.
It seems to me that world leaders that have their people’s interest at heart are few and far between right now. In Canada, we too have a Prime Minister that is dishonest, unethical, arrogant, incompetent and following his own agenda (or the agenda of the WEF/globalists). What did we ever do to deserve him? And, like the US, our choices are ‘bad’ and ‘bad’. Interesting times indeed.