By Ray Rivers
September 4th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
It was an interesting development this week as India’s Modi, Russia’s Putin and North Korea’s Kim exchanged hugs and kisses with China’s president Xi.
This unlikely group of (mostly) autocrats represents almost half of the world’s population, rapidly increasing economic power, and an enormous collection of massive war machines, collectively surpassing that of the USA, the G7 and NATO. Only Donald Trump was missing.
For the first time in five generations, America is no longer the global leader which can command the respect of the global community. And the prognosis is sadly negative for the western coalition of the democratically minded – as third world nations look to China for leadership and support in their development aspirations. Trump cancelling US AID may have been the icing on the cake.
It’s only been a few months since the US presidency changed, but America has already changed more than anyone could have imagined. Trump has broken with tradition and the inviolable US Constitution to put American armed soldiers on America’s streets.
Masked police officers on the Street of America arresting people.
Masked police officers are detaining people until they can be deported.
His deportation policy echos the early days of the third Reich, as even legal immigrants are snatched from their homes, workplaces and the streets to be sent to concentration camps at home and abroad. He has raged Putin-like revenge on his political opponents, though apparently not assassinated any yet.
The Gaza Strip left in ruins by the Israelis with almost complete support from President Trump.
Trump stupidly attacked America’s neighbours, friends and historical allies in a unilateral and unprovoked economic war. And his abandonment of what little the US was doing to curb Russian aggression in eastern Europe has branded him as an unreliable security partner. And finally his support for the ethnic cleansing ambitions of the Israeli fascist leadership reveals a man whose moral status is bankrupt, which should not be a surprise to anyone.
This should all be very troubling to us in Canada, who have long felt secure in the belief that America was a like-minded adult in a world that occasionally goes berserk. It is clear Canada should no longer rely on the US to help us defend our homeland. In the end, we’re on our own.
In that vein, we should argue for America, Hungary and Slovakia, to leave NATO unless they change their perspectives. Canada needs to seriously rethink all of its policies regarding American military supplies and defensive arrangements, including NORAD. We need to build and buy Canadian.
We must learn to defend ourselves. There will be a significant cost – and we are going to have to find a way to pay for it. It may require military conscription of some sort, a discussion we need to have. And we need to face the global confrontations sooner, including Ukraine. The lessons of the Second World War are there to instruct us. We should look to Scandinavia and Poland, of late, for inspiration. They know that good fences make better neighbours.
Ray Rivers, a Gazette Contributing Editor, writes regularly applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was once a candidate for provincial office in Burlington. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Ray has a post graduate degree in economics that he earned at the University of Ottawa. Tweet @rayzrivers
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Anyone that believes that the fundamental changes happening in America will end with President 47 regardless of which political stripe follow him are delusional.
America has supplied billions to the Ukraine cause. If western democracy is at risk, it is due to the inaction of Europe and to a lesser extent Canada with our national embarrassment our armed forces neglected for decades.
I won’t dignify the authors’ obscene comments on Israel or reference to the third Reich with any rebuttal words.
I can’t wait though to see the so-called austerity/investment budget from the messiah, TFW Carney promising to quadruple defence spending four-fold by 2030 with a predicted $93 billion deficit, falling tax revenues, shoulders down on counter tariffs and 7.1 percent unemployment.
My expectation is creative accounting, operating vs investment ie shifting of budget lines to BS the masses through their bought media.
Mostly agree Ray. I would add calling the Epstein situation a hoax is just one more reason to distance ourselves from Potus 47.
I take great exception to your phrase “the ethnic cleansing ambitions of the Israeli fascist leadership”. Have you totally bought into the Iranian driven propaganda coming out of Gaza (read Hamas)? I thought you were smarter than that. Please don’t spread their bullsh*t.
Seems to be both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ news; it’s good news for U.S. nationalism/exceptionalism (the geo-political fuel for bad foreign relations and ‘nation-building’ failures); bad in that it signals the rise of China (a dictatorship) in global influence/control. In any event, it signals a radical realignment of the geo-political map (beyond renaming the Gulf of Mexico).
But I think Canada and other allies should take heart knowing there is a growing resistance to the authoritarian and fascist policies of President 47. Unless, the GOP successfully redraws the voting district maps (well beyond Texas) under its control and/or succeeds in its State-level voter suppression tactics/laws, we should see a return to power of the Democrats (who do have a Democratic voter registration problem) and a ‘mitigating force’ from Congress. The Dems are unpopular right now, but so is Trump. Best thing Canadians can do to help America: encourage their American friends to support and vote for liberal-democratic candidates in 2026.
But if that (democratic) effort fails, all bets are off.
Maybe. It’s a crazy world (and getting crazier all the time).
Well said, and yes China is making huge inroads…