Canada ready to face chaos?

OTTAWA | Regardless of the outcome of the presidential election next Tuesday, we expect chaos.

First in the United States, which will be torn by whether Donald Trump respects the results for weeks, if not months.

And if Trump wins, the mess will spread beyond America’s borders, including Canada. We will not escape it.

Kamala Harris also promised that life would be difficult for us commercially.

Are we ready?

Peace?

The man who has spent the last year criss-crossing the United States with the goal of convincing the Americans to leave us alone is still “peaceful” with him next week.

“We are following this with a lot of interest, but also with a lot of serenity,” said Minister François-Philippe Champagne in an interview.

I have to admit that the testimony is surprising, especially when we compare it with François Legault, who said that he was very worried about the outcome of the American presidential election.

Minister Champagne has no real choice but to be optimistic.

As the iceberg approached, the captain of the Titanic also looking quiet…

Tightly woven

In Ottawa, we believe we can weather the storm, whatever the outcome, and even if Trump promises to be more radical than ever, he is promises to impose 10% tariffs on American imports.

“We are in a better position than we were before,” believes Minister Champagne.

Basically, because of wars, COVID and tensions with China, the Canadian and American economies are intertwined even more tightly than before, according to him.

Whether it’s for critical minerals, electronic chips or electric cars, Canada and the United States are closely linked. It is not easy to harm one of them without harming the other.

The fact remains that Canada and Quebec are dependent like a puppy on its mother on the American market. Although the opposite is far from true.

Protection

The same logic applies to protection. Trump is tired of paying to protect the countries of the free world, and that includes Canada.

Of course, the Democrats are also putting pressure on Ottawa to spend more on defence.

“For our American partners, the issue of security is critical,” said Mr. Champagne. We have to reassure them.”

To calm things down, the Liberals announced this summer that Canada will reach its famous target of 2% of our GDP in military spending by 2032.

To achieve this, we would have to roughly double our spending. Are we really ready to pour $80 billion into our military?

Canada risks having its ears pulled for a long time by whoever is occupying the White House.

Borders

There are issues where Ottawa’s responses are more evasive, such as the border.

The first president Trump pushed hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers towards Roxham Road because of his immigration policies.

What would happen if he followed through on his promise to exterminate millions of people?

“We are not at the time to speculate, we are going to take it step by step,” replied François-Philippe Champagne. What people need to know is that we are ready. “

Will Justin Trudeau once again send a message of openness to anyone seeking refuge on social media, like back then?

It would be surprising if that was part of the plan this time…