When your best friend turns against you
What do you do when your best friend of many years turns against you abruptly and unexpectedly? He/she suddenly changes from being supportive, encouraging and loyal to uncaring, aggressive and threatening? Your first reaction may be surprised and unbelief. You attempt to discuss... talk ... dialog ... hoping your friend changes behavior ... apologizes or at least respond to your peace offering. To your disappointment you discover he/she is convinced that you have abused of the many years of friendship and continues with more persistent harsh attacks ... your disappointment may turn to anger and now you are in a serious conflict reacting with tit-for-tat.
This scenario is not unique and happens between best friends, family members, parents and children, husbands and wives and between countries. We often think that we have no choice in how to respond. The road of he/she started it ... he/she said... he/she did ... rarely leads to a happy destination.
The reality though, is that we always have a choice in life. An unforeseen accident, a serious illness, a betrayal, a wrong dismissal or a major misunderstanding; we always have a choice. We can chose to fight with an attitude of “an eye for an eye” which reminds me of Mahatma Ghandi famous quote “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind”, or we can chose to research what caused the change. Once we know the cause or what triggered it, we are better positioned to respond and resolve the issue.
While the recent change of the US conduct and direction vs Canada was not a total surprise, its rapidity and intensity are. Canada should have been better prepared on January 20, 2025. Alas, we cannot change the past but we can work on changing the future. While the change of direction is widely attributed to the second tenure of Donald Trump to the US Presidency, I prefer to look at the present threat as US and Canada rather than Trump and Trudeau/Carney.
Focusing on people often leads to likes and dislikes on a personal level and forgetting the big picture. What is the big picture? Our country’s sovereignty, the national economy including employment and wellbeing of million of Canadians, the rule of law and actually lots of other national issues and priorities including democracy, human rights, freedom, global consequences and other core values on both sides of the border.
The next history phase for Canada needs fresh and strong leadership at the top to build wise strategies, assemble the right team and execute with excellence and courage. Turning crisis into opportunities is not simple but doable! Here are some numbers that may shed some lights on the challenges facing both Canada and the US.
Most of us know that the US economy is substantially larger than Canada's with US GDP being roughly more than 10 times that of Canada's. Canada National Debt is 1.5 trillion dollars. The US is 35 Trillion dollars. That is 23 times bigger ... not 10 times! Our Deficit is 1.6% of GDP. The US deficit is 7% of GDP. That is 300% worse. Needless to say that both countries need to put their budgetary and fiscal house in order with urgency, but the US has a much bigger challenge.
On the global front, Canada is the smallest G7 country while the US is the largest and is the undisputed Global Leader and “World Policeman“. The US spends an enormous $1 Trillion yearly on its military which represents 3.4% of GDP. Three times more proportionally than Canada defense budget of $40 B which is 1.4% of GDP. Our $40B by the way are less than one-month sales of WALMART! (no offense intended)These numbers clearly show that both, the US and Canada need to work on their defense budget but in opposite direction.
A key point to remember is that if the US runs out of steam or fail, the world economy will be enormously hurt and if the US retreat from its global policeman role, world leadership will be quickly filled by others. China, Russia and Iran would quickly fill the blanks. Here is an example to illustrate the importance of our strategic direction. Would you rather be stopped for speeding by a Texan County Sheriff or by a CRINK Policeman? I am not making this up. CRINK is a new acronym for China, Russia, Iran and North Korea which are forming stronger alliances to challenge Western dominance.
The US and Canada need to urgently renew their partnership and work seriously together to reverse the wrong direction they have been on for some time. Our last government is reported to have spent more in the last ten years than all our past governments combined spent over the years. We discouraged investments, taxed Canadians heavily, lost productivity, built trade barriers between provinces, allowed 50’000 Canadians mainly youth to die of opioid-related deaths, weakened our army, disallowed harvesting our incredible resources and let ourselves be completely reliant on our US neighbours. It is regrettably a long list but we can turn-around crisis into opportunities.
The new US administration with all its imperfection and frustrating style of “how to’s” and our upcoming Federal election represent a unique and timely opportunity for a historical and positive turning point for both our countries.
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