Keeping it Real…

Donald Trump has wreaked havoc on global trade; upset the free world’s co-operation and defence alliances; ignored International laws; threatened America’s traditional allies; and, used the US military against his own citizens.

In the case of Canada … the Mad Hatter has done ALL of the above .. and shown no real interest in resolving current disputes, or even re-opening negotiations.

So Prime Minister Mark Carney and Canada’s Premiers are quite justified in reaching out/exploring/achieving new or expanded trade and economic trade deals with other nations.

Within reason!

Carney/Canada must not grovel at the feet of despotic, undemocratic dictatorships or even supposed “democracies” that restrict/ignore/violate principles, rights, values Canadians hold dear.

The Prime Minister’s visit to China last week … and his recent kissy-kissy make-up session with India really bother me.

Has Carney already forgotten the totally unjustified inhuman conditions/imprisonment China arbitrarily inflicted on the two Michaels for 1,019 days; China’s repeated actions to interfere in Canadian elections; China’s intimidation of Chinese Canadians?

And what about Canada’s principles that stood up/spoke out and acted against China’s disgraceful, aggressive human rights violations against the Uighurs, Tibetans; the government’s oppression of dissent, the shutting down of newspapers/arrest of journalists and its repeated threats and intimidation of Taiwan; its illegal seizure and media owners; militarization of the East China Sea; and, its economic support of Russia’s murderous war against Ukraine?

Then, there’s India.

How can Carney embrace Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister whose government sanctioned the murder, in Canada, of a Sikh activist … a Canadian citizen; ignore the evidence the RCMP provided to a Parliamentary committee about “Indian Government Agents’ Involvement in Violent Criminal Activity in Canada”; the Indian government’s repeated attempts to interfere in Canadian elections: and just days ago, an RCMP report that the Bishnoy gang, accused of extortion and murder-for-hire in Canada has been “acting on behalf of the Indian government” ?

What about India’s brutal treatment of its Muslim and Christian minorities; it’s restrictions, arrests and attacks on press freedoms under Modi; its suppression of protests, including extra-judicial killings of government opponents; and, the Ukrainian blood on India’s hands from its huge financial support for Putin’s war of aggression by soaking up massive amounts of Russian oil?

Canada need not abandon our own efforts to support democracy, principled, ethical human rights and international policies and kowtow to India and China now!

Trade agreements with those two countries now will encourage them NOT to change, NOT to cut back on their aggression, NOT to stop their abuses of human rights. NOT to stop their interference inside Canada.

After all, under Carney’s standards, they can get away with it!

I get it: our economy is hurting due to the tariffs imposed by the Mad Hatter.

But Canadians endured far worse challenges, sacrificing and suffering during the SIX YEARS of the Second World … much worse than anyone alive today can imagine …and emerged victorious, with our heads held high.

Surely, the current generation can hold on for 10 months … until the US midterm elections … when Trump’s powers/policies will likely be severely reversed by a widely expected Democrat takeover of both the House and Senate!

In fact, the US Supreme Court could even roll back many/most of the Mad Hatter’s shoot-from-the-lip tariffs within days … and Trump’s/Republicans’ ever-declining polling numbers will very likely on their own lead to substantial Trump trade policy backdowns as early as this Spring.

Let’s keep it real: Trump every day moves closer to being a lame duck President … or, as he could (but won’t) say “maybe the the biggest lame duck President the US has ever seen.”

Geography, history, democratic principles, business, cultural, personal and family connections across the 49th parallel make Canada and the US far more natural long-term partners and allies than lowering ourselves to the morals/mores of China and India!

Hang in there, Canada … Trump’s days are numbered … and declining every day!

We should only trade with India and China on our terms … without selling out our principles, turning a blind eye and going silent to their brutalities, or forgetting how they have disrespected, mistreated, spied on and even murdered our citizens … and tried to subvert our democracy.

Harv Oberfeld

(Follow @harveyoberfeld on “X” for free, First Alerts to new postings on this BC blog.)

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BC’s economy, since David Eby became Premier, leading his version of an NDP government, has slid steadily downhill … beginning well before US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Eby became Premier in November, 2022 … inheriting a $6 Billion SURPLUS from John Horgan’s NDP government: just a year later, 2023-2024, BC recorded a DEFICIT of $7.3 Billion … that’s a $13 Billion swing; for 2025-2026, the DEFICIT is projected to reach $11.6 Billion; and in 2027, a staggering $12.6 billion!

The province’s total debt in 2023-2024 stood at $71 Billion; and now, it is projected to reach $155 Billion by 2027!

Holy sleepless nights for future generations, Batman!!

And not a penny of that reflects the Eby government’s BIGGEST … and, possibly soon to prove MOST COSTLY gaffe: bringing into Law (with the support of the Liberal and Green parties too) the disgraced and radical-controlled UN’s pie-in-the-sky Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).

Eby … and his minions … assured British Columbians the new law would facilitate/expedite reconciliation with First Nations, without impacting/hindering private land ownership, investment and development.

Oh… how the Premier and the NDP were snookered by BC’s militant Indigenous nations!!!

While Eby and his Ministers were fawning over them, including loudly/publicly proclaiming First Nations land acknowledgments, Indigenous leaders were busy too … hiring lawyers to invoke and enforce DRIPA and other pandering government moves/decisions … to uphold TWO Court claims for ownership/jurisdiction over “unceded” BC lands, starting with a huge tract of developed industrial and residential land along the Fraser River in Richmond.

They won!

“The B.C. Court of Appeal declared today that the provincial government’s current mineral claim-staking system is inconsistent with Indigenous rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) has immediate legal meaning in provincial law,” the Daily Hive reported Dec. 5th.

“According to the judgment, UNDRIP now provides a lens through which all provincial laws must be interpreted and sets the minimum standards the provincial government must meet.”

Oops!

The First Nations have made a fool of Eby and his ideologically-driven pandering government.

Major industrial investment/development projects have already been cancelled. (Who in their right mind would commit millions to “buy” and develop projects on land that that future Court decisions could turn over to a First Nation!)

“We write to you on behalf of thousands of British Columbians whose livelihoods, communities, and futures are tied to the natural resource sector. Today, those livelihoods are at risk,” the letter begins. “A series of federal and provincial policy decisions have destabilized the industries that sustain our province and are eroding the economic foundations of British Columbia,” a BC Resource Coalition wrote Eby last Month.

““We’ve got this lull in the economy, the private sector is really lacking confidence about making investments in B.C. and layering on top of this, we’ve got these really fundamental questions about how our democracy works and how our system of property rights works here in B.C., all of which would lead investors to pause,” David Williams with the Business Council of B.C. told Global News in December.

But First Nations are fighting back … saying “any repeal or amendments … would have a negative effect on reconciliation.”

And yet, the government is still not prepared to repeal DRIPA … proposing instead “amendments”.

“I think we should be driving forward in terms of this relationship and really I think doubling down in terms of our efforts in terms of fully implementing the Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act,” Terry Teegee, Regional Chief of the BC Assembly of First Nations said last week.

And the BC government soon afterwards gave in … again!

“Repealing DRIPA wouldn’t make title claims, like the one involving the Cowichan, go away. Repealing DRIPA would return us to a dark time and set us back a generation in our relationship with First Nations,” Minister of Jobs and Economic Growth Ravi Kahlon said Friday.

I put it to you it’s time Eby and his government starting putting its relationship with ALL the people of BC first … not just the First Nations!

Not that he has a great record of listening, learning … and altering course!

Unless DRIPA is FULLY repealed, major investment in BC will continue to be too risky; the province’s deficit and debt will continue to swell; BC’s 6% unemployment rate (13% for under 24s) will continue to flounder; and BC’s tax-paying population, which dropped in 2025 for the first time in the province’s history, will continue to shrink.

And that will ALL be Eby’s legacy.

Harv Oberfeld

(Follow @harveyoberfeld.ca on “X” for FREE First Alerts to new postings on this blog. No spam .. just alerts to new topics up for discussion,)

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