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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   792 thread views

Transnational Thursday for September 10, 2026

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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So Trump has hit back against Canadian counter-tariffs with more bans and tariffs on goods like alcohol, dairy products and so on. He's also talked about preventing Bombardier from selling in the US unless it builds there, despite Bombardier building engines there.

What's striking is that I've seen no theory of victory at all from the Canadian side. The closest I see is a sort of forlorn "midterms ?? profit". But I don't see much indication midterms will stop Trump. He's not actually going to run again. Probably.

He may legitimately TACO, but I think it doesn't seem wise to imagine that pulling back against China says much about what he'll do with Canada. A tit-for-tat tariff battle on 1% of trade likely doesn't do it, in which case Canada is being put very choppy economic waters (who wants to do business in this climate without a deal?) even before we get into potential escalations.

If Canada wants independence, they need their own nuclear weapons program and probably a command economy since North America is a natural and profitable economic unit. Mass immigration and an imperial style of citizenship so they can sidestep assimilation and just get resources from millets would help too. A nuclear powered command economy with 100 million people would definitely be independent.

Canada has no realistic path to doubling it's population and transitioning to a command economy. Might as well say 'Britain should acquire colonies, that would solve the downsides of Brexit'.

Hey, I'm game.

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