“Perceptions” by Gerry Warner

Op-Ed commentary

“April is the cruelest month,” said poet Ezra Pound. But Pound said this long before the autumn of 2024 and the momentous election to follow.

Yes, I was just as amazed as the rest of you when President Joe Biden said he wasn’t going to run again and broke a log jam that was threatening to bring democracy to an end in the USA and ignite a political pandemic of authoritarianism around the world, including Canada.

Yes, Canada.

We’re Uncle Sam’s closest neighbour, biggest trade partner and cultural avatar. We look like Americans, talk like Americans and spend much of our time watching American TV as well as American movies and American sports.

We also spend lots of time vacationing in the warmer climes of the US and often choose to retire there. Like it or not, we’re America’s kid sister or brother and when the American elephant rolls over in bed we get crushed as former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau said famously in 1969 during a meeting with US President Richard Nixon.

In other words, Canada would be the first country in the world to be adversely affected by the election of a born-again bully and authoritarian like Donald Trump. If Canada’s best hockey team can’t beat the Americans, who can?

But only a few short weeks ago, Trump’s ascension to the Oval Office looked like a slam dunk. With the convicted felon calling the shots, NAFTA would be hit with higher tariffs on Canadian exports to the US totaling more than $400 billion annually according to figures from the latest Canada Trade & Investment Summary. Imagine the effect that would have on the Canadian economy. It would be catastrophic!

But bashing Canada and many other countries is stock-in-trade for how Trump does business. However, with Canada he does it with particular zeal. According to a Washington Post article, Trump hasn’t just dissed Canada, he lied to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and boasted about it. “At a fundraiser meeting March 15, 2018, Trump bragged that he deliberately made-up statistics about America’s trade deficit with Canada in a conversation with Trudeau, even though he had no idea if they were true.” That’s just one example. A quick Google search reveals many more.

So, aren’t you glad that from now on it will be the energized duo of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz that will face the compulsive liar Donald J. Trump instead of a clearly worn-out Joe Biden to head the world’s struggling but still greatest democracy? If not, you haven’t been paying attention.

Like many others, I now think the race to the White House is going to be close. But not that close. With Trump now facing a far younger, more experienced, ethnically-diverse female candidate, I’m confident all the planets are aligned for a Harris victory.

Biden quitting the race wasn’t in the Republican play book. Now that he’s gone, the Grand Old Party is clearly panicking. Millions in donations have been pouring into Democratic coffers ever since and Trump’s believers need to develop a new strategy other than Biden-bashing and that’s not easily done overnight.

Instead, they’re resorting to brazen personal attacks on Harris and Walz and that’s not working with most decent voters either, including some Republicans. Or as Michelle Obama put it: “When they go low, we go high.”

High as in high to victory!

– Gerry Warner is a retired journalist, who’s sleeping a lot better these days

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