By Pepper Parr
January 13th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
OPINION
What could come out of the current Liberal leadership race and the eventual federal election?
A massive Canadian flag passed from person to person during one of the Quebec referendums.
A different Canada?
A stronger Canada?
The country is at a critical fork in the road – are we going to become a country that does not provide the services that a growing country needs.
Will the programs in place: Carbon Tax; Dental program, Child Ccare that is affordable, Breakfast for Elementary Students; an Immigration Program that the country can handle and Affordable Housing?
Set aside the disappointment with the job Justin Trudeau did as Prime Minister – that part of history will be defined in the years ahead. The historians and political scientists will write books about what really took place.
There will be a new Liberal leader in March who will run against Leader of the Opposition Pierre Poilievre who has made it clear what he wants to do. No depth to what he plans – he uses a handful of short phrases to keep his base happy: “Axe the Tax”, “Build the Homes,” “Fix the Budget,” and “Stop the Crime”—
Trump wants to take back the Panama Canal partly because he thinks their transit fees are too high and because the US built it.
While all this is taking place Canadians are critically aware that the President Elect of the United States has taken on Imperial airs and talks of buying Greenland because it impacts on the strategic interests of the United States; taking over the Panama Canal and making Canada his 51 first state.
Typical blunder bust from Trump – but this is a very dangerous man who is in the process of assembling a government that is made up of a collection of people who are so unqualified that the world has yet to find a word that has a spectre of civility to it to describe the man.
That is where the American people are – they elected him and are comfortable with a convicted and sentenced criminal felon being president. The idea that no one is above the law has been badly shredded in the United States. America is not the country is was two decades ago – it is in the process of devolving from its position as the leader of the free world.
America has gobbled up everything it could – Trump wants to make America bigger.
The American Manifest Destiny approach has taken on new life; President-Elect Donald Trump wants to make America bigger and at the same time be the most powerful military force the world has ever seen.
He will want his image carved into Mount Rushmore.
The Americans have yet to come to terms with their racial issues; their treatment of women is terrible. Is there a male member of the Trump Cabinet that truly respects women as equals? We know the answer to that.
Canada needs to elect a government that can meet the needs of Canadians and at the same time struggle with huge changes taking place in the way our biggest customer wants to do business with us.
Buckle up – we are in for a hell of a ride.
Salt with Pepper is an opinion column reflecting the observations and musings of the publisher of the Gazette, an on-line newspaper that is in its 12th year as a news source in Burlington and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.
No one in the Liberal party has made any substantial suggestions about the tariff issue or much about Trumps imperialistic stance. The provincial premiers are meeting on Wednesday with the federal government and expect to be briefed on the national effort and approach. Unfortunately no one running for leadership pf the Liberal party has any opinion which means that after March 9th the country will be in a worse position than it has been with the current excuse for a PM. Any good members of cabinet that opposed his position are gone.
We need strong leadership in Ottawa and I don’t see anyone connected to the present government that is capable of this task. We need someone to stand up to the lunacy of Trump and his dangerous administration and I don’t know where we will find such a person.
Editor’s note: Chrystia Freeland will announce her intention to run for the Liberal party leadership just before the U.S. presidential inauguration, a source close to her campaign team said Monday.
The source also said Freeland’s first policy promise will be to impose dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports to match the tariffs U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has vowed to impose on Canada.
We don’t have a functioning government Graham thanks to the outgoing Prime Minister and the Liberal Party preoccupation with saving the furniture All that will come out the leadership coronation will be a fall person and an election unless of course trustworthy sellout Singh changes his mind.
Editor – Liberal Apologist in situ – I refer to your contention “the Americans have yet to come to terms with their racial issues and it is clear their take of woman as equals is terrible. Is there a male member of the Trump Cabinet that truly respects women as equals? We know the answer to that.” First, the phrase “their take of woman” suggests some ancient form of rapacious Celtic ritual. More to the point, there is a substantive difference between ‘true respect for women’ and the desire to bed them – or make them members of your Cabinet (or both). C’est une belle où Joili(e) example, n’est ce pas?
Editor’s note: There are times when you can’t win. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with the phrasing we used – but these are different times Woke indeed!
Editor – to be crystal clear, I am firmly of the belief that political correctness and/or the woke movement is the greatest existential threat to western civilization since there was such a thing as a “western civilization”. So, dem’s fightin’ words partna! There wasn’t anything wrong with the phrasing that you used; it just put me in mind of a large Celtic warrior saying “I ain’t finished, I haven’t had my take of their women yet”. 😉
And my final statement underscores my equally firm believe that our Prime Minister’s self-avowed feminism, his “respect for women” is about as genuine as his former parting words to Sophie Grégoire – “night honey, don’t wait up. I’ll be working late.”
I have yet to see any strategy from our Government that will stop the most powerful and wealthy country on earth from getting exactly what it wants.