(DON THOMPSON / iNFOnews.ca)

OPINION

Canada and the United States share the world’s longest international border…and the histories and cultures of the two nations are inextricably intertwined. But there has been little similarity between Canada and the U.S. in politics…until lately.

I remember when then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau praised Cuba in a linguistic middle-finger salute to America’s anti-Castro policies. Trudeau was the first Canadian leader to become, well, famous…standing up for Canada rather than kowtowing to America on virtually every issue.

Sadly, Trudeau made more headlines in the U.S. for simply dating a much younger Barbra Streisand…and her refusal of his earnest marriage proposal. They remained close friends until Trudeau’s death in 2000.

The border isn’t impervious to the happenings in either country…but the flow of things good and bad seems stronger going north. Long term, perhaps the most harmful thing coming across the border from the U.S. isn’t contraband…not drugs or guns…though those aren’t insignificant worries.

It is Right Wing politics…today’s extremist version…that should bother every one who lives and breathes in the True North. I say this from bearing witness to what has happened the last 15 years in the U.S., primarily to the Republican Party…which has undergone a perverse makeover.

The gap between Conservatives and Liberals here - like the gap that grew between Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. - is widening with every passing month. Pierre Poilievre leads the Conservatives…gliding on an unspectacular 20-year political career…that could very well allow him to slip into residence at 24 Sussex this year.

Like Trump, when you tell lies…repeatedly…it becomes the accepted truth for people who want to look no further than their Facebook page. Things will only get worse with Mark Zuckerberg’s abdication of fact checking at Facebook…the last time he ignored truth it led to 43,000 lives being lost during the Rohingya genocide by Myanmar’s military.

The Justin Trudeau punching bag will soon be gone…but the damage is long done. So many Canadians are conditioned to hate Trudeau that Poilievre gained momentum over the last year by simply saying he was against anything Trudeau was for. Remember the U.S. Republican mantra: tell the lie, tell it loudly…tell it often. It’s alive and well in Conservative Canada.

I’m bemused when my Canadian friends assert, “What happened in the U.S. can’t happen here?” Look around…even as your read this…Canadians are embracing a Right Wing extremism that first took seed in the U.S.

And why would Poilievre change tactics that work? The news media in Canada increasingly is following exactly what most news media did in the U.S. White House reporters rarely held Trump accountable…never took the gloves off. “That’s just Trump being Trump,” we heard as the Fourth Estate’s defence. No one…not even Nixon got such tender treatment from the press. I hear Canadians that should know better, defend Poilievre the same way…“That’s just Poilievre being Poilievre.”  Hmmm.

Let me disabuse the thought that Canadians are somehow smarter than their American cousins. Bullshit. Millions of Canadians are feeding at the Conservative trough…hungry to vent their anger…exactly like millions of Americans last November.

Poilievre is stealing a page from Trump…simply saying things are broken. How did things get this way…then blame Liberals, NDPers, Green Partiers for the mess without offering an idea of a single program, policy or plan that approaches problem solving? To be fair, maybe he has a concept of a plan.

What’s missing is something called governing…and rather than actual governance, Poilievre and Conservatives are playing Three-Card-Monte with Canada’s voters. Sadly, too many Canadians have their money ready to bet in a con game they can never win.

I shake my head when I hear someone repeat Poilievre’s insistence that there’s so much waste… cut taxes is always his answer. Oddly, I hear the same folks complain about housing costs…how bad the roads are…a crumbling healthcare system…as though those issues can be solved without taxes.

Poilievre’s solution to the housing crisis…build more homes. Why didn’t we think of that? In a highly un-Conservative move, he suggests canceling GST for new houses under $1 million.

This from the same guy who voted against giving Canadians a two-month respite from GST last year…because it was inflationary and would increase national debt. Earth to Poilievre…getting rid of  GST for homes under $1 million would dwarf the two-month pause in GST.

Despite it making sense and actually working, Poilievre avoids any embrace of B.C.’s density rules for housing…not his or his party’s idea maybe?

Poilievre for some reason avoids getting a security clearance…what reasonable people might believe necessary for a Prime Minister. Taking a page from Trump, maybe Canadians should just trust him…and believe he has nothing in his background that might compromise Canada’s security. Does he “owe” China and/or India anything? Perhaps yet another case of Poilievre just being Poilievre?

The man’s record on protecting the environment and recognizing climate change as a real threat…are laughable. Out of 413 environmental measures to protect our planet…Poilievre voted for 13.

Like Trump, he embraces facts only if it supports his reasoning. No to carbon tax because it’s too costly at $10 billion…but ignore the $101 billion impact of climate change on Canada’s GDP. Poilievre’s healthcare solutions are no better. He voted to cut funding for surgery and emergency room wait time by $196 million in 2023.

Canadians should not get their news off Facebook and X. Do the not-so-difficult job of looking deeper into the qualifications of this man who wants desperately to be Canada’s leader. I’ve heard Americans say, “Conservative…that’s got to be good, right?”

Now, I hear Canadians saying the same thing. In a few months Justin Trudeau won’t be there to blame…even though Conservatives will try. When the “F*** Trudeau” posts on Facebook no longer seem relevant…and rage no longer satisfies…what then?

Learn a lesson from America…Trump gave Poilievre his playbook. Expecting a different result might be…well beyond foolish.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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