Make No Mistake: Pentagon renovations needed

Remembering William Lyon Mackenzie King

 

With Trump back in Washington, Canadians today face threats to our national sovereignty which we have not seen in well over eight decades.  Former Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, a Liberal, guided us through the difficult terrain of much of the Great Depression and the Second World War.  He is the longest serving prime minister of Canada, and he bears comparison with the shortest serving prime minister to date we have ever had: Mark Carney, also a Liberal. 

In addition to being trained as a lawyer, King had a doctorate in Political Economy from Harvard.  Carney, a Commonwealth Scholar, has a doctorate in Economics from Oxford.  These two individuals are the only Canadians who served as prime minister to have a doctorate – Pierre Trudeau’s doctoral studies at the London School of Economic were never completed.  Carney’s experiences at the Bank of Canada (handling the Great Recession of 2007-8) and at the Bank of England (handling Brexit) can, in some ways, compare with the weight of the disruptive threats facing the world in the 1930’s and the 1940’s. 

Certainly today’s political landscape, when looking at Trump and across many parts of the globe, resembles the authoritarian path taken by Europe - not just Germany - in the 1930’s.[1]  On top of that, Trump’s tariffs can be seen as a new iteration of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, imposed by the USA in 1930, which promoted economic protectionism and further precipitated the depths of the Great Depression.

So, as Mark Carney seems to have risen to today’s occasion, let us not forget Mackenzie King who dominated Canadian politics under similar circumstances.  Here is a poetic reminder of Mackenzie King’s political skills:

W.L.M.K.

How shall we speak of Canada,
Mackenzie King dead?
The Mother’s boy in the lonely room
With his dog, his medium and his ruins?

He blunted us.

We had no shape
Because he never took sides,
And no sides
Because he never allowed them to take shape.

He skillfully avoided what was wrong
Without saying what was right,
And never let his on the one hand
Know what his on the other hand was doing.

The height of ambition
Was to pile a Parliamentary Committee on a Royal Commission
To have “conscription if necessary
But not necessarily conscription”,
To let Parliament decide –
Later.

Postpone, postpone, abstain.

Only one thread was certain:
After World War I
Business as usual,
After World War II
Orderly decontrol.
Always he led us back to where we were before.

He seemed to be in the centre
Because we had no centre,
No vision
To pierce the smoke-screen of his politics.

Truly he will be remembered
Whenever men honour ingenuity,
Ambiguity, inactivity, and potential longevity.

Let us raise up a temple
To the cult of mediocrity,
Do nothing by halves
Which can be done by quarters. [2]     

                                 F.R. Scott

                              

 

 

---

[1] See David Clay Large, Between Two Fires: Europe’s Path in the 1930’s (New York: W.W. Norton, 1990).

[2] F.R. Scott and A.J.M. Smith, The Blasted Pine: An Anthology of Satire, Invective and Disrespectful Verse, Chiefly by Canadian Writers (Toronto: MacMillan, 1962), pp. 27,28.

Pericles was ahead of the democratic curve – others, less so

After the first year of the war between Athens and Sparta (431 B.C.), Pericles, the democratically elected leader, delivered his famous Funeral Oration in honour of the Athenians who had already died in the war.  Here it is, in part, as recorded by Thucydides, the historian, who also had high praise for Athenian democracy:

Let me say that our system of government does not copy the institutions of our neighbours.  It is more the case of our being a model to others, than of imitating anyone else.  Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people.  When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law, when it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses.  No one, so long as he has it in him to be of service to the state, is kept in political obscurity because of poverty.  And, just as our political life is free and open, so is our day-to-day life in our relations with each other.  We do not get into a state with our next-door neighbours if he enjoys himself in his own way, nor do we give him the kind of black looks which, though they do no real harm, still do hurt people’s feelings.  We are free and tolerant in our private lives; but in public affairs we keep to the law.  This is because it commands our deep respect. …

Our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our love of things of the mind does not make us soft.  We regard wealth as something to be properly used, rather than as something to boast about.  As for poverty, no one need be ashamed to admit it: the real shame is not taking practical measures to escape from it.  Here each individual is interested not only in his own affairs but the affairs of state as well: even those who are mostly occupied with their own business are extremely well-informed on general politics – this is a peculiarity of ours: we do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say he has no business here at all.  We Athenians, in our own persons, take our decisions on policy or submit them to proper discussions: for we do not think that there is an incompatibility between words and deeds; the worst thing is to rush into action before the consequences have been properly debated. …

We make friends by doing good to others, not by receiving good from them.  This makes our friendship all the more reliable, since we want to keep alive the gratitude of those who are in our debt by showing continued goodwill to them: whereas the feelings of those who owes us something lack the same enthusiasm, since he knows that, when he repays our kindness, it will be more like paying back a debt than giving something spontaneously.  We are unique in this.  When we do kindnesses to others, we do not do them out of any calculations of profit or loss: we do them without afterthought, relying on our free liberality.  Taking everything together then, I declare that our city is an education to Greece, and I declare that in my opinion each single one of our citizens, in all the manifold aspects of life, is able to show himself the rightful lord and owner of his own person …[1]

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War (431 BC)

---

[1] Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, tr. Rex Warner, intro. M.I. Finley (London: Penguin, 1972), pp. 145, 147.

“A Very Stable Genius”

Source: The Globe and Mail (04 April 2025).

A Statistical Note of Thanks to My Readers: latest pageviews by country

United States  40.1K

Canada  36.5K

Singapore  31K

Hong Kong  13.2K

Germany  8.56K

Russia  6.34K

France  4.02K

United Kingdom  3.32K

Ukraine  1.96K

Romania  1.3K

United Arab Emirates  1.01K

Japan  848

Netherlands  753

Finland  743

Unknown Region  704

China  665

Spain  583

Israel  556

India  522

Other  17.5K

 

 

The Polls Toll for Canada: Angus Reid Surveys

 
     Artist: Lynda Smith

51st State: Canadian resolve in saying ‘no’ continues, while a massive gap between Trump & Americans is revealed

60% of Americans say they have no interest in Canada joining, 32% say only if Canada wants to

---

March 12, 2025 – U.S. President Donald Trump continues to escalate his trade war and annexation rhetoric this week, leaving economists, commentators, and even supporters wondering about his motivations.

New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds Trump’s repeated threats to make Canada the 51^st state out of line with the views and opinions of his own country and voters. Asked about this idea, three-in-five Americans and 44 per cent of Trump voters say they have “no interest” in seeing Canada join the U.S. Further, one-in-three Americans and 42 per cent of Trump voters say they would only be interested if the idea was supported by Canadians.

It isn’t.

For the second time in 2025, Angus Reid Institute finds nine-in-10 Canadians saying they would vote ‘no’ to joining the United States if given the option.

Amid continued threats, more than half of Canadians now think Trump is serious about this (54%). In January, just one-in-three (32%) felt this way. South of the border there has also been in increase in the proportion who feel Trump is serious, but to a smaller extent, rising from 22 to 34 per cent.

One notable domestic dynamic at play is the higher number of current Conservative Party supporters who would vote ‘yes’ on this question, and the implications of the expected federal election. At present, one-in-five would-be CPC voters say they would vote yes, compared to almost zero Liberal (2%), NDP (3%), and Bloc Québécois (1%) voters. Angus Reid Institute asked those Conservative supporters if they would change their vote to join the U.S. in the event of a Liberal majority in the next federal election and found a 12-point increase in yes voters, up to 33 per cent.

About ARI

The Angus Reid Institute (ARI) was founded in October 2014 by pollster and sociologist, Dr. Angus Reid. ARI is a national, not-for-profit, non-partisan public opinion research foundation established to advance education by commissioning, conducting and disseminating to the public accessible and impartial statistical data, research and policy analysis on economics, political science, philanthropy, public administration, domestic and international affairs and other socio-economic issues of importance to Canada and its world.

INDEX

Part One: Number who believe Trump is serious grows in both countries

Part Two: Canadians offer a resounding ‘no’ to joining

• Nine-in-ten Canadians would vote no to joining the U.S.
• Men more interested than women
• One-in-five Conservatives would vote ‘yes’

Part Three: Americans don’t want Canada

 

Part One: Number who believe Trump is serious grows in both countries

Outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in the process of handing over historic responsibility to Prime Minister-designate Mark Carney, though he will be challenged imminently in a federal election to maintain it. U.S. President Donald Trump continues to threaten escalating tariffs on Canada, in what Trudeau has described as an effort to “collapse” the Canadian economy in an effort to make annexation of this country easier. While those threats were seen as a joke a few months ago, the environment in March is much different. A majority of Canadians now feel Trump is serious (54%), a 22-point increase compared to January. In the United States, 35 per cent now say Trump is serious, a 13-point jump.

Belief that Trump is serious about annexing Canada has increased across the political spectrum but has grown the most among those who voted Bloc Québécois in the 2021 federal election. Now majorities of all 2021 voting groups – except Conservative voters – say that making Canada the 51^st state is a “real ambition” of Trump’s:

Part Two: Canadians offer a resounding ‘no’ to joining

Shark Tank and Dragon’s Den personality Kevin O’Leary recently opined about the desire of Canadians to join the United States, stating that half of Canadians would be interested. We’d love to know where Mr. O’Leary is finding his data.

Nine-in-ten Canadians would vote no to joining the U.S.

Angus Reid Institute asked Canadians in both January and again this month if they would be interested in joining the United States, finding the same number – approximately nine-in-10 – saying they would vote no in a referendum on the issue:

Men more interested than women

There are some pockets of the Canadian population that are more amenable to Trump’s overtures. Among men 35- to 54-years of age, one-in-five (22%) say they would vote yes to join our southern neighbour in union, more than twice as many as their same-aged female counterparts. Young men, too, show a higher affinity for American annexation, though the vast majority dissent:

One-in-five Conservatives would vote ‘yes’

Would-be Conservative Party voters are significantly more likely than those who would vote for other parties to say they would vote yes on joining the U.S., indeed, making up almost the entire population in Canada willing to do so. One-in-five CPC supporters would vote yes, compared to three per cent or less among other partisans:

The political motivation among Conservatives – who haven’t formed government for a decade now – drives some of this sentiment. Note that when CPC supporters are asked how would respond to another Liberal majority government in the next election, the size of the “vote yes” population increases by 50 per cent to one-in-three:

Part Three: Americans don’t want Canada

Angus Reid Institute data has recently suggested that President Trump is out of step with both his country and even a significant segment of his own voters in his tariff threats and general approach to Canada. The same is evidently true when it comes to the annexation of Canada.

Asked whether they have any interest in acquiring Canada through annexation, Americans are largely opposed. Three-in-five (60%) say they have no interest at all in this, while those who do are largely only interested if Canadians want to join (which they clearly do not):

Even among Trump’s own voters from the November election, there is little desire to take Canada by either political and economic pressure (12%) or by force (2%). Equal numbers of Trump voters say they would only want Canada if Canadians wanted to join (42%) or they aren’t interested at all (44%) in this conversation:

Survey Methodology:

The Angus Reid Institute conducted an online survey from Feb. 27 to March 3, 2025 among a representative randomized sample of 2,005 Canadian adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

ARI conducted a second online survey from Feb. 27 to March 3, 2025 among a representative randomized sample of 2,005 American adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum USA. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding. The survey was self-commissioned and paid for by ARI.

Source: The Angus Reid Institute