The soul of this country is at stake today, as is its existence. Saturday’s assassination attempt on former President Trump must be seen as an urgent wake-up call for Canada. Our neighbour to the south — the most powerful country in the world, with more than 400 million guns in civilian hands — is now embarking on a dangerous path that other countries have followed in the past, with disastrous results not only for itself but for its neighbours as well.
Now that the prospect of outright fascism or even civil war in the United States is no longer the stuff of pure fiction, our small country is about to enter a difficult period that threatens not only our social contract but could also perhaps affect our national security, and even our existence as an independent state.
We are woefully ill-prepared to deal with all this.
If I entered politics, after 14 years of working in conflict zones, it was because I had a strong sense that our institutions, our security and our well-being could no longer be taken for granted. Russia’s criminal invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s ongoing criminal war against civilians in Gaza are, in my view, the telltale signs of a changing world order, a world that is moving away from the consensus that emerged from the last Great War.
We who were fortunate enough to have been spared the cataclysms of the last century were raised to believe that we were immune to these distant disturbances. Canadians, more than any other citizens on Earth, have benefited from our spectacular geographic advantage and the security provided by a reliable, democratic and peaceful neighbour.
All that is about to change, and it will take more than visits from “Team Canada” to Washington to prepare Canadians for what this means for them, and even more to protect them from the consequences of this transformation.
With an economy heavily dependent on the stability of the American market, a highly integrated security and defense infrastructure, and the longest undefended border in the world, we are vulnerable to the slightest shifts in the United States. And we have many of the things that some Americans will soon seek: security, water, land, raw resources. The growing impacts of climate change will exacerbate these pressures. If you think countries are no longer invading other countries, read the news.
This should be a wake-up call for progressives across Canada. With the world no longer turning right and domestic politics listening to the calls of right-wing, even far-right, populism, the Liberals, NDP, Greens and Bloc Québécois need to stop drinking their own partisan Kool-Aid. It’s time for them to pull their heads out of the sand and get to work for all of us. That includes the Bloc Québécois, because the aforementioned threats—both from the south and from within—will not magically stop at the border if Quebec declares independence.
The most pressing and immediate question today is therefore not who will be prime minister tomorrow morning – one must be dangerously narcissistic and delusional to believe that one can single-handedly turn the country around – but what set of values and what positioning will allow us to better protect our sovereignty, our national identities and our communities.
Seeing how the Conservatives are attacking the foundations of our institutions before even assuming the responsibility of sitting in government, it becomes perfectly clear that Pierre Poilievre’s party is not up to the task.
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Our best defence against the calamities to come is to prepare for them. Job number one is to come together, set aside petty partisan divisions, and deliver what Canadians need, and on a scale that will make our collective mobilization efforts during the Second World War pale in comparison. It requires millions of new homes, an immediate reduction in inequality through a vigorous redistribution of the vast capital accumulated by the wealthy at the expense of the vast majority of Canadians, a dismantling of private monopolies, and the addition of massive investments in local production and in emergency preparedness and territorial defence.
Progressives can do this if they put aside their monumental egos and petty parochial disputes to serve Canadians first and foremost in this critical hour. It is up to all of us today to come together and fight for the world we believe in if we are not to suffer the consequences of its dismantling for decades to come.
You may not listen to me. I am just a slightly disillusioned and resigned politician who has spent too much time counting bodies in mass graves and negotiating with delusional armed militias who have led their countries to hell while believing they are marching towards heaven. But if it happened elsewhere or if it happened before, it can also happen here and now.
We had better not waste any time. The only thing that can still protect our children’s ignorance from the very real pain and suffering of the very real nightmares that are pressing upon our doors may soon come down to this: the willingness of progressives to put duty before ego and country before party.