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Caledon Citizen https://caledoncitizen.com/national-affairs-by-claire-hoy-the-worlds-not-about-to-end/ Export date: Sat Nov 23 12:54:40 2024 / +0000 GMT |
National Affairs by Claire Hoy — The world’s not about to endIrony — and humour — has never been the strong suit of zealots. Which is why the earnest organizers behind a campaign to impeach newly minted President Donald Trump — before he's had a chance to do anything — call themselves Free Speech for People. Like many Trump haters — which includes most of the media, academia and political elites from both the Democrat and Republican parties — the only speech they think should be “free” is speech they agree with. This anti-Trump hysteria — which lasted the entire election campaign and continues unabated — makes you think the world is about to end. Indeed, if you were to believe what so many “experts” are saying, this column may be the last I'll ever write and the last you'll ever read because, alas, we are all doomed. Perhaps we are. I think not. But there is no doubt that Trumpism will shake up the status quo. The Toronto Star was so shaken by Trump's inauguration — in keeping with its' serial Trump bashing — it ran a rare front-page editorial warning us of its apparently grave dangers. Globe columnist John Ibbitson — who normally is more sensible about these things — wrote a column headlined: “We should fear this swaggering President.” He — and others like him — knock Trump for what he characterizes as Trump's “belligerent, populist, dangerously protectionist inaugural address.” Really? Most politicians come under fire for running on one platform and governing on another. But Trump — who, if nothing else, was clear about his intentions — actually thrives on being belligerent, populist and favouring radical protectionism. He ran — and won — on all these things, against the combined muscle of the great Establishment, and it seems he actually meant it. Imagine. No wonder the nay-sayers are in panic mode. When Trump first emerged as a candidate I didn't think he had a chance. In the end, however, choosing between Trump and Hillary Clinton was tantamount to choosing between arsenic and hemlock. Pick your poison. But he has been elected, yet much of the media and the old political elites still can't accept it. They continue to argue that his victory isn't valid. Well, it is. Yes, Clinton won the popular vote, but so what? What counts is the electoral college vote. And Trump won that going away. The reason they have that system is the same reason why in Canada we put different weights on voters from different parts of the country. If the winner was simply on popular vote, then a handful of states would decide every election. Same thing in Canada. If it were all based solely on numbers, then voters in Atlantic Canada and Saskatchewan might as well stay home. That's why your vote in a Toronto-area riding is not equal to a vote in a P.E.I. riding, which has just a fraction of the voters our ridings represent, yet each riding counts as one seat, regardless of the population. Much of what Trump is saying about the Washington elite looking after themselves and their friends and leaving behind many parts of the U.S. is absolutely true. And, unlike Barack Obama, who you would think would have been more active than any president on the problems of the big inner cities, Trump is at least promising to do something about that. Whether he can or not waits to be seen. Obama, like Nero, essentially fiddled, while thousands of black kids died in his adopted home town of Chicago. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should have skipped part of his self-serving Tim Hortons tour and been there because Trump's intention to rip up trade agreements could be quite worrisome. On the other hand, Trump will approve Keystone and de-demonize fossil fuels, which could be a terrific boost to our economy. When Trump says the rest of the world haven't been carrying their weight in paying for world affairs, he's right. Canada — and many other countries - has been living off the avails of U.S. funding in NATO and elsewhere for years, and that free ride will soon be over. On the debit side, if Trudeau insists on imposing a carbon tax and higher taxes – as our fiscally challenged Premier Kathleen Wynne has already done – we'll lose big time when Trump goes in the opposite direction, making it even more expensive to do business here and encouraging companies to pack up and move south, something Wynne's disastrous eco-energy madness has already exacerbated. Trump may be a disaster. Or, he may turn out to be just what we need at this time. It would be nice if the haters gave him a chance. But they won't. It would be counter-intuitive to the “liberal” view which, essentially posits that there is only one acceptable view; and they own it. Anything else is a threat. Which explains their fear that Armageddon is upon us. 
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Post date: 2017-01-27 10:11:12 Post date GMT: 2017-01-27 15:11:12 Post modified date: 2017-01-27 10:11:12 Post modified date GMT: 2017-01-27 15:11:12 |
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