Trump floats claims for Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal (Update: Trump wants Gaza too) (1 Viewer)

Ayo said:

I have lived here in Canada for a minute now, and I have never seen anything like what I'm seeing now when it comes to anti-American sentiment. We're boycotting everything we reasonably can. Grocery stores are stacked with US goods while Canadian goods (now labelled as such) are flying off the shelves. Grocery store up here had strawberries from Mexico and the US in a couple of bins next to each other. The Mexican ones were more expensive and pretty much gone, while the US ones sat.

Airline bookings for US-bound flights out of Canada are down 75% from last April to this April.

We're also seeing the Trump effect on the Prime Minister election that was *just* called and Canadians will be voting at the end of April. The Liberals were dead in the water with the Conservatives sailing to a majority government.

Polls have gone from Conservatives +25% over the Liberals to Conservatives -25% under the Liberals. A 50 point swing! It's nuts.

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efil4 said:

Good to see you still lurking around.



And congrats to your amazing foresight to bolt the US many years ago.

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Ayo said:

hah! Thanks. Yea, back around. Trying to get my SR sea-legs again.

You know, all those years ago when Martha and I made the decision, it was based on healthcare and education and social supports and general political climate. More than once, I've thought (and we've discussed) how fortunate we are and how the decision has worked out. We're very very fortunate.

Not going to lie... I was just talking to my students today about having a version of "survivor's guilt" compared to family and friends back home, because it's going from bad to worse for many of them. So I feel bad for 'getting out' as it were

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efil4 said:

Yeah, and the "worse" is yet to come for so many. We really don't know the depths this term will take us to, but all signs are pointing way down.

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UncleTrvlingJim said:

I'm actually taking my youngest to Montreal for her 16th birthday in a couple of weeks. We had planned this before the Trump administration took office, but we're happy to spend out tourist dollars there now.

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Ayo said:

I was talking to the Robotics department at our school, and they said that the tariffs and Title 1 funds are gutting robotics programs at schools in the lower socioeconomic tiers. So when people start complaining about DEI or whatever, they don't understand that programs like this contribute to lower class students, visible minorities, vulnerable groups having less access to avenues that lead to engineering, entrepreneurial, and other such opportunities.

The gaps are already significant and only going to get worse. I agree that the reverberations are going to be felt for a lot longer and in ways that most Americans will never see in their more extreme degrees. I suspect that final point is, more or less, by design and intent.

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efil4 said:

Yeah, and the "worse" is yet to come for so many. We really don't know the depths this term will take us to, but all signs are pointing way down.

The first term had guardians/guardrails in place. This term, the safety measures were all removed.

Going to be a long 4 years.

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Ayo said:

So when people start complaining about DEI or whatever, they don't understand that programs like this contribute to lower class students, visible minorities, vulnerable groups having less access to avenues that lead to engineering, entrepreneurial, and other such opportunities.

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Ayo said:

I have lived here in Canada for a minute now, and I have never seen anything like what I'm seeing now when it comes to anti-American sentiment. We're boycotting everything we reasonably can. Grocery stores are stacked with US goods while Canadian goods (now labelled as such) are flying off the shelves. Grocery store up here had strawberries from Mexico and the US in a couple of bins next to each other. The Mexican ones were more expensive and pretty much gone, while the US ones sat.

Airline bookings for US-bound flights out of Canada are down 75% from last April to this April.

We're also seeing the Trump effect on the Prime Minister election that was *just* called and Canadians will be voting at the end of April. The Liberals were dead in the water with the Conservatives sailing to a majority government.

Polls have gone from Conservatives +25% over the Liberals to Conservatives -25% under the Liberals. A 50 point swing! It's nuts.

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Booker said:

So how hard is it to immigrate to Canada? (“Asking for a friend”)

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Ayo said:

We went through the Permanent Residency process for Martha when we lived in the US (she's Canadian) and I entered Canada on a Student Visa and then secured Permanent Residency with Martha as my sponsor.

I'm sorry to say it isn't easy. Getting her green card in the US was easier than the equivalent for me in Canada. That may have changed since, since they're putting up a wall around the country and not letting anyone else into the US while sending fathers and legal citizens to El Salvadorian torture prisons. So this is not legal advice.

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MT15 said:

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This not normal!​

1. Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, a NATO ally – Any attempt to acquire it against Denmark’s will would be an attack on a NATO country. That’s not just a real estate deal; it’s an act of aggression that could invoke Article 5, potentially pulling the U.S. into a war with its own allies.
2. It ignores the sovereignty of Greenland and Denmark – Framing it as a "purchase" rather than a violation of sovereignty normalizes the idea that powerful countries can just take what they want. That’s how empires used to operate—not how modern international law works.
3. It downplays the risk of NATO conflict – If the U.S. were to act unilaterally to seize Greenland, it would trigger one of the biggest crises in NATO history. European allies would have to choose between defending Denmark (a fellow NATO member) or siding with an aggressive U.S. That’s not just an economic matter; it’s a potential fracture of the alliance itself.

Why do The Washington Post frame it this way?​

• U.S.-centric bias – American media often presents U.S. actions as rational or strategic, even when they would be seen as hostile if done by another country.
• Desensitization to power politics – The U.S. has a history of economic diplomacy (buying Alaska, Louisiana, etc.), and some analysts may see Greenland in the same light—ignoring the 21st-century realities of alliances and sovereignty.
• Framing for domestic consumption – If the article’s target audience is American readers, it may present Greenland as an economic asset rather than addressing the full diplomatic consequences.

Ayo said:

Well, people in Canada are pleased this morning, relative to the rest of the world at least with regard to the tariffs. Trump was defeated, in embarrassing fashion, by the Senate vote which shut his Liberation Day Reciprocal Tariffs down, with a few R's voting with the D's

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Dragon said:

They may be pleased today but Trump is going to try to threaten those Rs to get them to fall in line. The US is no longer a trusted trade partner

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Ayo said:

Well, people in Canada are pleased this morning, relative to the rest of the world at least with regard to the tariffs. Trump was defeated, in embarrassing fashion, by the Senate vote which shut his Liberation Day Reciprocal Tariffs down, with a few R's voting with the D's

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