CanadaPolitics

I get an impression that when hearing an accusation of someone being "fascist", some people interpret this is simply a bad word. Like we're kids on a playground, and one kid doesn't like that other kid after sand got in our eyes so they call him a poopyhead. "Ooh, Singh called America's President a fascist, how scandalous! Can you believe he said that?" "Oh, the long haired dude protesting outside the Tesla showroom has a sign that says Musk is a fascist? Such a hysterical drama queen. Kids are so naive."

This idea that fascist is a bad word is not the worst possible interpretation -- fascists were pretty bad, after all. Growing up we studied WWII and the rise of fascism in Europe, the horrors they inflicted on millions of people and the scars they left on the world, lots of bad there. The genocide they inflicted was bad, and the fascists did that because they were racist which is also bad, and so they were all around pretty bad. All of this is true. Cool dudes like Indiana Jones punched those silly nazis in the face, because he was the hero and the nazis were the bad guys who wanted to do bad things.

But this interpretation of what fascist means -- to simply conflate fascists with "bad people we really don't like" is a serious failing to learn from history. Because one thing that gets missed from the history books we read was is why was fascism. (Or, it was there and it never sunk in.) Sure, we covered the societal dissatisfaction emerging from the aftermath of WWI, but that doesn't really get to why the outcome of that was fascism. The people back then could have responded any number of ways, why did that fascism take hold?

What we failed to internalize was that the fascism of the 1930s was probably a pretty fun time for the people participating in it. It would have provided a sense of community, a nationally unified response to what could reasonably be seen as a country in decline. The fascist leaders told their people that their race and their nationality were special, and gave them easy answers and scapegoats to explain away all the problems of a complex and changing world -- this was probably reassuring. The people were told their future would be full of riches, and that the world was filled with villains and that the spoils the great leader would provide would be theirs for the taking -- this was probably inspiring. When the propagandists told them that what they were doing was good and right, and the scapegoat was up to no good, it was probably pretty neat that everyone all had the same take.

The grandiose rallies where they gathered to chant mantras and demonstrate their loyalty would have been engaging community events with audio and visual stimulation that got the blood pumping. You and your neighbours (your true neighbours, not the evil opposition lurking just behind every corner) were all in on this bold adventure together, you were working together with a common goal. You all had the same answer to the problems, there we no debates or confusion about what the truth was. The truth was what the leader said, and everyone who was anyone repeated it -- or they wouldn't be anyone anymore. No complexities, no thinking required. Young men with too much testosterone in their veins probably had a grand time beating up whoever the great leader said to scapegoat that week to help explain all the problems in their lives and to quiet their doubts.

Because what we missed and didn't sink it's way into our souls is that the Germans and Italians in those times were just people. They were farmers and factory workers and weavers and students and salespeople and scientists and teachers and tailors and bakers and longshoremen and everything in between. They were normal people, with the exact same ape brains we still have today. That when we read the pages of history we are not just reading about a record of things that happened, we are reading a script about what people do and events that could easily happen again. That we are not exceptional and our cultural differences with the people we are reading about in history books is dwarfed by the fact that we are the same people now that they were then.

So when we say fascist, it's not simply an insult. It's a cry of desperate warning, to sound an alarm that we have seen this before. We seen how this poison affects people and we have seen how it goes from here. We see it not just in the 1930s Europe but even today in very similar forms in authoritarian China and Russia, and it's been successful there too. And yes indeed, fascism has reared it's ugly head in America -- and the American people are the same flesh and blood as the people who have succumbed to this before. People with an exceptionalist mindset think it can't be happening there. Their friends and neighbours can't be fascists because fascists are the bad guys and obviously their neighbours aren't the bad guys. Their neighbours would never stand by when we lose access to ballots and scapegoats get sent to gas chambers and everyone's kids march off to die in foolish wars -- only bad guys would do that. Our neighbours are normal people, not bad guys.

Because we read the textbooks and we passed our multiple choice tests, but we didn't learn. History is an account of what normal people did.

The auto show is held every year at the Vancouver Convention Centre, and its website says it attracts over 100,000 attendees. It is operated by the New Car Dealers Association of B.C.

The border between Canada and the United States is nearly 9,000 km long without bayonets or guns.

A border where neighbours in British Columbia and Washington state, Ontario and Michigan, Quebec and Vermont, New Brunswick and Maine, cross back and forth.

A border that cuts right through a library and opera hall. What a powerful symbol of shared values and traditions.

It’s just a line between neighbours—no big deal.

But no more.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/40789849

A deeper look into Canada's long-standing high tariffs on certain US imports and why they don't actually apply to most current trade.

"If the countries took a true approach to reciprocating tariffs, then the US would simply copy Canada's tariff quota, which would mean that neither country would pay any more based on current trade balances"

Bethan Nodwell, Christine Loughead, and another unidentified Canadian joined neo-Nazi leader Chris Pohlhaus to discuss antisemitic conspiracy theories and dehumanize South Asian and Indigenous people.

[...]

Nodwell is part of Diagolon’s white supremacist network and has worked as an organizer for far-right events in Canada. She enjoyed a measure of notoriety in the media after allegedly serving as a stage manager during the 2022 “Freedom Convoy” blockade protests in Ottawa.

Nodwell has been quoted by major media outlets about the protests and appeared on the podcast of Tammy Peterson, Jordan Peterson’s wife. Once one of three owners of Trinity Productions, she helped bring the far-right Member of the European Parliament, German AfD MEP Christine Anderson, to Canada on multiple speaking tours.

She also attempted to organize a tour for UK Islamophobic activist Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson.

[...]

Loughead, better known as CandianGirl, revels in her racism, wearing it like a badge of honour. She describes herself as an “uber racist” during the interview. Arrested by Chilliwack RCMP in August 2024 after posting a series of videos showing her harassing South Asian people, typically yelling slurs and expletives at them from a vehicle.

[...]

Appearing to be a woman around middle age, [Posty's] X account is filled with praise and reposts for far-right activists in North America, Australia, and Europe. She often reposts reports of crimes committed by people who are not white, blaming Jews for their presence in the country.

During the interview with Pohlhaus, she complained that Canada had donated $5 million to the Ukrainian war effort after US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s temper tantrum in the Oval Office with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

She also added that nothing had been done to secure the Canadian border, despite the over $1 billion committed by the government to bolster border security resources, staff, and equipment.

We, the undersigned, population of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to reconsider existing and future military contracts with the United States of America, especially the acquisition of new F-35s.

Petition by Charlie Angus

CBC and other outlets are discussing how the trade war is impacting aluminum cans. This highlights the perverse way we’ve structured our economy and how the trade war — while disruptive and causing short-term harm — will help drive longer term structural improvements.

On first glance it could be seen as unexpected that American levies on Canadian-made aluminium could impact our own beer cans. Pretty weird, right?

But no. We export the raw Canadian aluminum to the US, and then re-import it here. This makes sense for the companies involved— they can take advantage of the abysmal worker and environmental protections in the US and lower tax rates to maximize profit. And Canadians buy the beer anyhow; most (including me) not even knowing that it’s happening.

This system allows Americans and American companies to reap much of the value, despite not actually being strictly necessary. Their “value-add” is entirely from being awful, yet it works because of the structure of international trade.

So this system is really good for the US business interests, but is really bad for Canada. In order to boost our economy we lower the price of our dollar — making us poorer, our imports more expensive— in order to subsidize the exports of raw materials. And many of these raw materials are not renewable — once they are gone they are gone forever.

With the trade war we have a new opportunity. We can process our raw materials here. Yes, it may be a bit more expensive because we have labour laws and make our companies pay taxes and try not to ruin the environment quite as much.

But that’s okay — because the price is going up regardless. Deciding to make this structural change was a difficult pill to swallow because there will be people negatively impacted and this can be bad politics. But an idiot with no understanding of economics made this choice for us— a painful experience but also a blessing in disguise.

So yeah let’s process our own aluminum, our own oil, our own lumber. Process it here; capture the value here for Canadian businesses paying Canadian taxes and hiring skilled Canadian workers.

This will be a difficult period of adjustment, there will be hard times ahead. But someday soon those beer cans will be made in Canada. And on that day, we win.

https://archive.is/TKm42

Former central banker will succeed PM Trudeau

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/40252574

Link to article.

While the federal government is prorogued and most of the country focuses on the ongoing trade disputes with the USA, one group is preparing itself to make its voice heard ahead of the possible upcoming federal election.

As anti-trans bills continue to be rolled out across the United States, the LGBTQ+ community in Canada is gearing up to make sure that something similar does not happen in Canada.

A Queer Mass Organizing Call connected to the group Momentum Canada has been posted all over social media.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/40141703

Green Party of Canada🟢 on Bluesky

The Green Party of Canada is calling on progressive Canadian parties to set aside partisan differences and unite in addressing the issues that matter most to Canadians. We're ready to discuss building a more democratic future, let's make it happen. #CommonGround

[Elizabeth May] Hey it's Elizabeth May. Co-leader of the Green Party of Canada. Here with Jonathan Pedneault, co-leader of the Green Party of Canada.

We've just come from a press conference where we have made a public challenge to the other leaders of the parties that call themselves progressives.

If you want to cooperate before the next election, we're ready. We wanna sit down and talk about it.

We need to give Canadians a parliament that speaks to your values and your concerns.

[Jonathan Pedneault] The answer to what's happening in the US is not less democracy, it's more democracy.

We've been asking for electoral reform for so many years. Trudeau let us down, but quite frankly, this election we need to collaborate strong progressive voices, and more democracy in Ottawa would do us wonders.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/40140742

Fair Vote Canada on Bluesky

What’s more chilling than Trump’s presidency? The fact that we use the same system that just handed him total control.

First-past-the-post fuels a hyper-partisan two-party system.

If we want to protect democracy in Canada, we need proportional representation.

#cdnpoli

Cult MTL on Bluesky

As the Conservatives blow a 30-point lead in the polls, we remind you that Canada’s mainstream media still chooses not to fact-check Pierre Poilievre.

“Poilievre has benefitted immensely from legacy media’s inability to challenge conservative bullies.”