Unapologetically Canadian

[Oscar]

Unapologetically Canadian - On being the anti-America

[ https://ryanmeili.substack.com/p/unapol ... irect=true ]

- Dr. Ryan Meili - January 25, 2025

EXCERPT: "Ten Ways to be the Anti-America"

1. Be the myth. Emphasize, above all, an image of Canada as welcoming and kind to our friends and civil but resolute with our adversaries. As we witness human rights being trampled, government services being dismantled and hate being sown in every direction, we must not only refuse to mimic but also offer an alternative to that destructive approach.

2. Celebrate Canada. We must acknowledge the wrongs in Canada’s past and present, but as a springboard for improvement, not as perpetual shame. At a time like this, we need to find pride in and be inspired by the remarkable in our history, by the challenges overcome and the marvels achieved.

3. Don’t allow identities to divide us. Policies must respond to the different needs of different groups, but we can’t fall for the culture war bait. The source of unity, and the strengths of universality in public programs, is that everyone feels included. The more our terminology or our policies divide us along the lines of class, gender, language, ethnicity etc., the more that feeling and the commitment to a common project are lost.

4. Strengthen the federation. With the Parti Québecois leading in the polls, we once again face the question of Quebec independence. There are no easy answers to this, but sleepwalking into another referendum will play right into the hands of those who would see us weaken. Any thought that anything resembling Canada survives separation, or that Trump would be any gentler with an independent Quebec, is purely delusional.

5. Minimize the damage done by our own politics. The opposition parties have promised to force an election the next chance they get. I understand that, I’ve been an opposition politician. You always want your shot at replacing your rivals. I’m also no apologist for the frequently feckless LPC. The fact is, there is a real crisis and important work to be done. It’s no time for a prorogued parliament, and cooler heads should be asking whether it’s time for a rushed election.

6. Fix primary health care. People are mocking Trump for saying Canadians would have better health care if we joined the US, and rightly so, but for a lot of people anything would seem better than what we’re dealing with today. Scenes of patients lined up overnight for a chance at a family doctor reveal a growing sense of desperation and defeat. Accessible, quality care is always important. It’s now a national emergency. How can we point to shared values when the value proposition is coming up so short? The work of Jane Philpott on access to primary care in Ontario may provide some guidance for how to get this done. It needs to move quickly and effectively to give people the access they need and a chance to once again feel proud of the Canadian health care.

7. Keep people whole. With trade wars will come economic hardship. We learned during the pandemic that it is possible to quickly mobilize social supports. We also saw how quickly political and social instability can rise when tens of thousands of people suddenly find themselves without work at the same time as prices rise. Leadership needs to be looking to ways to facilitate growth in Canadian-owned industry, seek new export markets, and be ready to support people who find themselves out of work.

8. Keep a channel open for the facts. Despite the railing against legacy media as fake news, the rise of the MAGAverse is a symbiotic relationship between far-right politics and far-right media outlets that are unmoored from the truth. Having some degree of shared knowledge informed by professional, ethical journalism is an essential antidote to this poisoning of our information ecosystem. The CBC is an underappreciated social program, a factual safety net that Max Fawcett calls “a deliberate instrument of national unity.” The crucial role of the CBC can’t be underestimated in a time of plummeting news quality and national crisis. See A Modest Proposal for the Mother Corp in my previous series on trust for a novel idea on widening its reach and impact.

9. Strengthen the public service. Donald Trump is freezing, firing and otherwise effing the functions of government at all levels. Health, justice, the military, regulations, fiscal policy, social services; the chaos of his disruption will impact tens of millions people. This is unlikely to produce an enviable experience. A country that works is something to be proud of; a commitment to an efficient, reliable and functional government is worth the effort. This strengthening must also include finally taking seriously the decline of Canada’s military to better secure of our own borders and be a better partner to allies in a time of mutual need.

10. Be the Canada the world needs. Economist recently Paul Krugman warned that “Donald Trump wants you to die.” Trump appears hell-bent on undermining public health in his own country through the crippling of the NIH and the CDC and putting vaccine cynic RFK Jr. in charge of the country’s health. On the global scale, he plans to freeze foreign aid and pull the US out of the World Health Organization. US foreign aid has been instrumental in tackling disease around the world. For example, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), started under George W. Bush, pays for the bulk of anti-retroviral treatment in Africa and has been credited with saving 26 million lives. A ninety-day freeze will cause enough damage, but if this program is ended it will mean the repeat of a humanitarian catastrophe. In this environment, rather than cutting foreign aid as Pierre Poilievre has promised to do, Canada will need to an active part of international efforts to fill the gap left by Trump’s abandonment of the world’s richest nation’s commitments to the world.

So much of what we thought we knew about the world has been upended by the rise of Trump and those who share his worldview. For Canadians, this has moved from a worrisome and disorienting spectacle to real danger to our continued existence. To chart a path to an independent future, we need to look back to what has made us a proud and connected nation in the past.