OHHH Canada!
- Scott Bullerwell
- Jul 1
- 16 min read
Updated: Jul 2
WARNING: Adult Content
To be blunt – I am not with the “Buy Canadian” hysteria sweeping this country, one that targets the U.S. for their recent treatment of Canuck-land. Yah, I know! I’m not much of a patriot – but I don’t care! So those of you on the band wagon, go ahead and check the beans and buns labels. If you have any American products in your pantry, be sure to toss them in the waste bucket. For the Christians who drink, stay away from the Burbon (Kentucky) and California wine. Also, stay away from Best Buy, Costco and Home Depot, even though they employ tens of thousands of Canadians. After all, these three multi-nationals alone suck some $44 billion out of Canada every year. Finally, if you are looking to buy a car, look for vehicle VINs beginning in 2 to support the Canadian production arms of American companies.
Precisely why all of this passion in Maple-Leaf land these days? Well, as you know by now, it is because the 47th President of the US of A has said he would like us to become the 51st State. AND ... he has placed tariffs on us, too! So, as the mania continues on all things Trump or Trumpian – ‘Just do it’ — buy Canadian, but without me cheering you on. I’m sitting this one out.
Yes, He Drives Me Crazy, Too!
So, let’s get to the elephant in the room.
Does the billionaire talk too much? Absolutely! But then so do the cringingly crazy ladies on ‘The View,’ called by many, “The Biggest Source of Misinformation in America” (New York Post). Anyone remember Whoopi saying “the Holocaust isn’t about race”? So, Yes. The MAGA man talks too much. I wish he would do just two or three WH media scrums a year – like Basement Joe did. I’m all for it.
Is the current guy in the Oval Office suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder? I don’t know. I am not a psychologist! If I were to hazard a guess, I would say ‘maybe’ – as do a number of political and religious actors down there ... and up here, with their inflated sense of self-importance. So, the 47th is not alone.
Does the 47th have a casual relationship with the truth? No doubt about it! It is not a good attribute to have - whoever might be in the WH. Remember the American public being told the border was secure? ... and the REALLY funny one ... that the laptop was not Hunter’s? Remember 50 intelligence officials signing a letter saying that the laptop had the “earmarks of a Russian information operation”? I would suggest they change-out those 50 ... for 50 new ‘Intelligence’ operatives.
“There’s a resounding multi-partisan consensus that
Trump’s grievances with Canada are concocted and
contrived. That’s almost where Canadian unity ends.”
National Post, January 15, 2025
Do I wish ‘the Donald’ would tone it down ... and quit saying silly things he believes? Absolutely! Then again, our former Prime Minister was certainly no better! Ruling for 9 years from his Ottawa castle, he said plenty of silly things, too – but mostly about Canadians, not others. He said unvaccinated Canadians “don’t believe in science, they are often misogynists, also often racist, too.” Oh, and when Canadian Muslim mothers in hijabs, and Sikh fathers in turbans and a host of immigrants marched (June 2024) – protesting school gender policies, Trudeau II took to X:
“Let me make one thing very clear: Transphobia, homophobia, and biphobia have no place in this country. We strongly condemn this hate and its manifestations, and we stand united in support of 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians across the country – you are valid and you are valued.”
“Canadians ... are valid ... are valued.” Apparently, this only applies if you are Trudeau’s kind-of-Canadian.
I am not here to make excuses for the MAGA man. He is clearly able to take all the body-checks corrupt media personalities dole out to protect their biased journalism. And yes, I include mother CBC here in the mix. Their mantra appears to be “There can be ‘no-win’ for Trump – ever ... Ever ... EVER!” (I wish Canadians had no tax on tips ... overtime ... or Old Age Security). So, while there can be little doubt that the 47th is most assuredly wide awake and focused, I suspect many Canadians would still prefer the 46th. - who laughingly needed a WH Easter Bunny to keep his cognitive shortfalls a deep, dark secret, while staffers and family members kept the government firing on all 1.5 cylinders.
As Canada celebrates her 158th birthday and media airwaves are consumed with all-things-tariff, this seems like a splendid opportunity for some bracing honesty: Buying Canadian and cancelling trips to the US will not get us through this current crisis. Canada has been in decline for some time ... and our long-suffered weak economy and loss of global market share in almost all of our export industries ... plus, our diminished stature within the Western alliance and beyond ... plus, poorly executed military spending and decline in defence capabilities ... plus, endless deficits [a combined $93.4 billion over the next 4 years] and money borrowing to the detriment of national finances — all demonstrate this decline and our vulnerabilities. With the federal government projected to spend $52.4 billion on debt servicing in 2024-25 alone, I foresee increasingly diminishing gains on the prosperity and well-being of our grandchildren’s future.
“Between the first quarter of 2016 and the fourth quarter of last year, inflation-adjusted per-person economic output grew by just 2.5 per cent in Canada, compared to 18.7 per cent in the U.S. This speaks ... to the economic failures of the Trudeau era ...”
Frasier Institute, May 9, 2025
Canada as the 51st State! It’s NOT the First Time, Folks!
The War of 1812 [1812-14] A war between the United States and Great Britain, Canada was caught in the middle. In an attempt to restrict American trade with France, whom Britain was at war with (Napoleonic War, 1803), Britain introduced trade restriction on the US. President James Madison, in a speech to Congress on June 1, 1812 spelled out his grievances against Britain, noting:
“... at the very moment when the public minister was holding the language of friendship and inspiring confidence in the sincerity of the negotiation with which he was charged a secret agent of his government [Britain] was employed in intrigues having for their object a subversion of our government and a dismemberment of our happy union [between USA and France].”
On June 18, 1812, the U.S. Congress declared war against “the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the dependencies thereof ..." and attempted a four-pronged invasion against Canada, with the main battlegrounds Upper and Lower Canada, the Great Lake region, Niagara Frontier [Queenston Heights], Atlantic and parts of the U.S.
Some historians maintain that annexation of the British North American colonies was the intended goal back then, a view many Canadians share to this day. However, the majority view held is that the fear surrounding this possibility was merely a bargaining chip by the Americans, a position, that in hindsight, seems most probable. It is not difficult to imagine that the same ‘annexation strategy’ is at work today.
Canadian Confederation [1867] With Germany’s defeat and dismantling of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, there were significant changes to the European map. A host of new independent states appeared, including Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia. With this redrawing of borders, England, rightfully became concerned for its own backyard – and this included its cautionary concern for this new fledgling July 1, 1867 ‘Dominion of Canada’. The last thing Britain needed was another 1812, because of some ‘incident’ along the long, indefensible Canadian border.
Lord Charles Stanley Monck, elected to the British House of Commons in July, 1852, first served as Lord of the Treasury under Prime Minister Lord Palmerston and later he recommended Monck for the position of governor of the colony of British North America in 1861. Deeply in debt, Monck agreed, because of the money. On 23 October 1861, Monck arrived in Quebec City.
Reflecting on the discussions going on between the Maritimes and representatives
of the Province of Canada in 1864 to discuss Confederation, Lord Monck wrote:
“They have not finished their deliberations, but I think it very likely they will agree to advise a union of some sort.” Lord Monck
Monck worked tirelessly to secure a federal union among the colonies in Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In fact, just as the ‘Dominion of Canada’ was being created, Monck’s term as Governor was coming to an end, leading Queen Victoria to extend his term in Canada so that he could officially become the first-ever GG of the Dominion of Canada (1867-68). Later Monck would name John A. Macdonald as Canada’s first PM.
Afterwards, when his term was up (November 14, 1868), Monck returned home. In Canada’s path to nationhood, even her ‘Mother Country,’ Britain, was not fully persuaded that she would survive. Putting on a brave face, Monck would tell the House of Lords that "it was in the interests of the Mother Country that [Canada] should be taught to look forward to independence.” This of course would not only advance Canada’s increasing independence, but serve the strategic colonial interests of Britain.1
Few people however, whether in London, New York or Washington, believed this new confederation would survive. Consider:
The Times of London: Canada lacked “the body, the vital organs, the circulation, and the muscular force to give adequate power to these wide-spread limbs.”
The New York Times: “When the experiment of the ’Dominion’ shall have failed, as fail it must, a process of peaceful absorption will give Canada her proper place in the Great North American Republic.”
Washington: Secretary of State William Henry Seward, while campaigning for Abraham Lincoln, told a crowd in St. Paul, Minnesota ... "I look on Rupert's Land [modern-day Manitoba and parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nunavut, Ontario, and Quebec] and Canada, and see how an ingenious people and a capable, enlightened government are occupied with bridging rivers and making railroads and telegraphs .... I am able to say, it is very well; you are building excellent states to be hereafter admitted into the American Union."
If the U.S. were to invade, "the country will be overrun."
Diary of Amelia Harris, London, Ont., 1864.
Miraculously, Monck’s response in the 1861 Trent Affair and the 1864 St. Albans Raid, while ‘old Abe’ was in the midst of a Civil War, significantly reduced the tension between British North America and the United States. Monck himself truly feared “an invasion of the Yankees” [Journal of Frances “Feo” Monck, Monck’s sister-in-law. 24 October, 1864].
As the Civil War drew to a close, on July 2, 1866, Congressman Nathaniel Prentice Banks from Massachusetts introduced an annexation bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, to authorize the president to annex New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Canada [Ontario and Quebec], British Columbia and Vancouver Island [39th Congress, 1st Session. H.R. 754]. Within one year, the Dominion embraced Confederation.
Even the American journalist, Horace Greeley, was not wrong when he called the Dominion “an eel-skin of a settled country” because at the time it was oddly elongated and hopelessly narrow with huge swaths of nothing-ness between its small settlements.
Manifest Destiny, a term coined in 1845 by NY city journalist John Louis Sullivan, believed America was divinely ordained to expand its territory and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent, including control
of British territory and the Province of Canada.
Yet, remarkably and contrary to natural logic, the Dominion did survive. Why? Several reasons are generally offered: (1) Canadians did not want to be Americans, (2) widespread admiration for the United Kingdom, one of the greatest empires in history, since Rome, and (3) the dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, John A. McDonald, Canada’s first Prime Minister (1867-1873 / 1878-1891).
It has become popular sport these days to shred MacDonald’s reputation, deface his statue and remove his name from public schools, all without regard to history, context, goals or ideologies at the time. Such moral judgment against him by activists only underscores their moronic understanding of Canada’s history and a failure to widen the lens when reflecting on his legacy. Say what you want about MacDonald, the leader of the federal Conservative Party, the facts are that without him, Canada would not exist. Period!
History certainly informs us here. All of this current chatter, talk and hype about annexation ... 51st State ... and the fear of invasion, by our cousins to the South ... is a road Canada has travelled down before. And yet – “Here We Are”! The Dominion of Canada remains intact! If today there is any very real and present existential danger as we celebrate our 158th Birthday – that threat is, in my view, from within, not foreign interference.
“Canada grows ever closer to failed-state status”
National Post, January 15, 2025
‘Thank You’ Mr. 47th
Despite all of the anti-Trump noise, Trumps actions are directly responsible for ...
(a) Canada’s decision to bolster and strengthen border security, finding an extra $1.3 billion, for patrol drones, new Black Hawk helicopters, additional surveillance towers, x-rays, mobile x-rays, and handheld chemical analyzers to stem drug trafficking and illegal migration and impose tighter restrictions to prevent people from going through Canada to reach the US, without permits. With the Canada-U.S. border, the world's longest undefended border, stretching almost 9,000 km across land and water, you might think border security would be a Tier 1 matter.
Maybe ... ‘fingers-crossed maybe’ ... with this increased funding and our building capacity for increased demands on our border, the government will stop the flow of illegal handguns crossing into Canada from the US, that is fueling Canada’s gun violence crisis. Thousands of guns a year are traced to the U.S. https://www.atf.gov/resource-center/firearms-trace-data-canada-2018-2023. With handguns already classified as “restricted” (or, in some cases, “prohibited”) the Feds National Handgun sales-freeze of 2022 remains a joke – with our citizens no safer.
(b) Government of Canada tabling of Bill C-2 or the Strong Borders Act (First Reading, June 2, 2025) in the public interest of combating transnational organized crime, illegal fentanyl, disruption of illicit financing and improving how asylum claims are received, processed and determined. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2025/06/the-strong-borders-act---government-of-canada-strengthens-border-security.html
When Canada tied most of its economic and
defence dependency to America, it gave up much
of its political independence as well and laid
bare the fiction of our absolute sovereignty.
(c) Provincial Premiers addressing the long standing Federal and inter-provincial trade barriers that have long existed within our country. It seems pretty hypocritical to castigate tariffs on Canadian goods crossing into the U.S. while ignoring the decades long festering, protectionist trade and mobility barriers between provinces that keep ‘Team Canada’ Canadians disadvantaged. Imagine - workers certified or licensed in one province are not permitted to work in another, unless they have permission. Thankfully, a number of provinces have begun signing free-trade deals with one another.
(d) The Government of Canada concluding that it needs to diversify its trading partners, since currently some 75.9% of all Canadian goods are sold in the US (more than $400 bn in 2024). Indeed, Canada is the largest export market for 34 U.S. states. Suddenly, there is interest in diversifying whom we sell to? Wow! Whatever happened to risk management?
(e) The Government of Canada, and other NATO nations agreeing to spend five percent of gross domestic product on defence by 2035. For Canada, who has long failed to fulfil its 2014 agreed commitment of 2% (only 1.37% in 2024), it means an extra $50 billion. It remains doubtful that our government can move from simple military commitments ... to actual, timely, effective, execution.2
It is possibly true, if not certainly true, that the 47th has played a significant role in waking Canada up from its long Rip Van Winkle stupor, pushing Canadian politicians to come to terms with our failing nation status.
Unlike our current PM, I have always had only
ONE passport, and paid ALL my taxes in Canada –
No hidden, off-shore accounts for me. I’m all in.
Meanwhile, our PM incredulously wants us
all to put on our ‘Team Canada’ sweaters.
A Boutique Military: Should We Not Be Able to Defend Ourselves?
Perhaps this Canada Day, while we are busy parading our Canadian sovereignty and bristling over ‘51st State’ comments, we should remind ourselves of the deplorable condition of our armed forces, its decades of neglect and our limited ability to extend a surveillance presence in the high Arctic.
Military Force: The Acting Chief of Military Personnel, Major-General Lise Bourgon, reports that our military is currently 16,000 members short of its authorized regular force and reserve for strength of 101,500; that is nearly 15%. One in 10 positions are unfilled.
Military Procurement: The Defence procurement governance structure is broken. It takes on average, 16 years to approve and buy new equipment, a 66% increase since 2004. A
Military Readiness: The DND tried unsuccessfully to hide the damning report, claiming it had “no such reports”, but an internal study by Postmedia revealed that 72%, of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel are classified as either overweight (44%) or obese (28%). This includes 78% of men in the military compared to 68% in the general Canadian male population; 57% of woman versus 53% in the general population. Want a sedentary life? Join the military ... and eat a bagel.
National Post, May 14, 2025 - “We are in a really sad state; we are unarmed and undefended right now.” Lt.-Gen. Michel Maisonneuve (Ret’d). He’s right! We’d be hard-pressed to hold off a scurry of chipmunks high on medical marijuana and armed with squirrel guns.
Military Operating Capability: Department of National Defence reports say that almost half of the military’s equipment cannot be deployed because it is “unavailable and unserviceable” (CBC, March 7, 2024); that’s everything from fighters and frigates, to Artic Offshore Patrol Ships and defence vessels. Amazing!
When it comes to modern military technology, Canada lags far behind. To illustrate - The CAF has said it might “sometime in the future” embrace First Person View (FPV) drone technology that allows the operator to ‘see’ in real time and is revolutionizing warfare and currently dominating battlefields in the Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon. Sure, Canada did announce (Dec. 19, 2023) that it would buy 11 General Atomics MQ-9B Reapers for $2.5 billion – but this has been delayed until 2028 and ... they will not be fully operational until 2033. Sorry – but in 8 years the technology will be obsolete!
Retired Canadian Army lieutenant-general Michel Maisonneuve, who has served as Assistant Deputy Chief of Defence staff, and Chief of Staff of NATO’s Allied Command, asks:
“Should we not be able to go up north and patrol our north correctly with submarines that actually work? Should we not be able to go destroy a balloon that China sent up by ourselves? Should we not have forward deployed bases up in our north so that we can deploy troops and aircraft and equipment up there? .... The personnel situation is horrible. The equipment situation is horrible. The training situation is horrible. When you put all these things together, that means [total lack of] readiness."
The ability to adequately defend our own skies and territorial waters, is a myth. This is not about warmongering either. It is about deterrence, sovereignty, and ensuring that Canada can defend itself and uphold international commitments in a world where threats are quickly evolving.3
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has more personnel than the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). This might give us some insight into our government’s priorities, when talking about defending our sovereignty.
The Unites States have been underwriting our security for as long as I’ve been alive! Indeed, I have yet to meet a Canadian who truthfully believes we could ever defend our sovereignty against an outside aggressor. So, annexation rhetoric aside, our military is a mess and we have only ourselves as a country to blame. We need to own up and fix it!
Did You Know?
The current government has done a fine job of adding unexpected millions to our population over the last several years, successfully straining our housing markets, medical resources and social safety net ... while simultaneously dropping Canada to the bottom of the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) economic productivity list. Quite the feat. https://www.oecd.org/en/countries/canada.html
There is no single federal organization responsible for the surveillance of Arctic waters, even though the Canadian Arctic has more than 162,000 km of coastline—75% of our total coastline. Sure, the Northern Canada Vessel Traffic Services Zone Regulations requires ships to send their sailing plans to our Coast Guard and report their positions, any deviations, plus their arrivals at their docking sites, but surely no one believes the Russians, Chinese or American nuclear sub captains faithfully report in?
Of four used submarines purchased from Britain back in 1998, at a cost of $750 million, only two of these Victoria Class submarines (HMCS Victoria – 99; Windsor – 115) have been at sea over the past four years, for a total of 214 days. Recent reports indicate maintenance costs doubled to $3 billion between 2022 and 2025. I hope you feel safer ... if not poorer!
Anyone remember back in 2022 when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz asked to buy Canadian LNG but the prime minister gave him the cold shoulder? How about 2023 when Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida came to us, hoping to secure LNG as a reliable energy source for his country – Europe’s largest economy. Same response. True, LNG Canada, located in Kitimat, British Columbia, has just opened and is up and running, but most agree that Canada will never be an LNG powerhouse – because of (1) previously missed opportunities and (2) the difficulty of building any kind of energy infrastructure here, with government regulations, activists and community groups. Bye, bye investment ... and sadly, jobs!
And finally, from the ‘You-Gotta-Be-Kidding’ department. At a time when the Feds are pushing patriotism, “elbows-up”, and Canadian sovereignty, a mere ten days (June 22) ahead of Canada Day, our government posts on its official @Canada X page a bastardized Canadian flag in Pride colours — violating its own requirement that the National Flag of Canada “must not be modified” nor “written on or marked in any way, nor be covered by other objects.” Well – at least we know what the priorities of the government are – ‘Cultural Deconstruction.’ Sorry – that’s not my flag. Never will be!
In the face of punishing tariffs, Canadians have responded with anger and dismay at the way they are being treated by what they thought was a great friendship. I get it! Our government, like many others around the globe – will need to negotiate, compromise and leverage as necessary. And yes, we need to extract ourselves to some degree, from the U.S. and diversify. My head has to admit what my heart doesn’t want to believe ... that our inept policy decisions have put us where we are today – “OHHH Canada” indeed
Under Trudeau, everything was a cockamamie catastrophe and from my vantage point, we've hit a point where pretty much everything is broken. Some reading here might offer, “Well, Carney is beginning to tackle these issues.” Fair enough! Still - he is a politician, so forgive me for being a little jaundiced. I think I’ll stay out of the cheering section until I actually see some results. Time will tell. Canadians have a pretty good idea where the politicians of the last 9 years have taken us. Not sure a few new lampshades in the cabinet room will make a difference.
Recently (June 4, 2025), our CBC announced a Leger Marketing poll result that showed that “The boost in pride in being Canadian arising from the U.S. threat of annexation appears to have worn off and returned to pre-campaign levels”4 In fact, many Canadians in the poll said they identified more strongly with their province or region than with Canada as a country. Hmm! So much for the short-lived ‘Elbows Up’ ... and ‘Team Canada’ slogans! The good news for me is that I was never on the bandwagon ... so there was never any fear of me falling off.
In 1868, Sir John A. Macdonald wrote to Nova Scotia Premier Charles Tupper, “[Monck] has managed the relations between Canada and the United States with great discretion, [when] the slightest mistake might have created a war.” Perhaps we should resurrect Monck and seek his help once again. “Only Saying ...”
1 When the British North America Act of 1867 established Canada as a dominion with its own government and parliament, the country nevertheless remained under British sovereignty until the Statute of Westminster in 1931. Such was the paternalistic guiding role Britain played.
2 During the Korean War, defence spending was 7.4% of GDP. Under former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, it sank to 4% ... Lester Pearson 3% ... Pierre Trudeau 2% ... and Jean Chretien 1%.
3 If you are looking for some fascinating summer reading, try ‘Under Assault: Interference and Espionage in China’s Secret War with Canada,’ (Random House, Sept. 2025) by former Canadian national security analyst, Dennis Molinaro (Ontario Tech University). It is a “timely, eye-opening account of a country compromised by its own illusions.”
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