Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s
TORONTO – What a mess!
It is a tried-and-true test of “political activism” that when the going gets tough, those without answers “wrap themselves in the flag” …in Canada, “sovereignty”. Everyone is supposed to follow the path to goodness and right “for the glory of God and love of country”. They are usually atheists and materialists who have already asked, “what’s in it for me?”
In a more polite fashion, start the obfuscation because things do not usually end well. Even as the blame game kicked in at 12:01 AM, Monday, the “news” was overwhelmed with politicos who had their own interpretation of what happened to disrupt the agreement on cross-border tariffs.
Lots of theatre and little substance as cabinet Ministers delivered the tried-and-true message: “we will not be pushed around”. Provincial Premiers scrambled to be more colourful than the previous colleague. I think Premier Ford won that contest, except that by the end of the day he tried to lead another chorus that said, “okay guys, let’s cool the rhetoric”.
And I am of the view he is correct. Air Canada is still selling American booze on its flights. Our grocery chains are still selling American agricultural products in the bins or on the shelves. By the way, the last time I checked, our local growers still provide the market with both American and Canadian product. Why are we allowing American apples – just an example – to compete with ours. Why are Canadian apples, pears, etc. more expensive that their American counterparts? How far do they have to travel before they get to our tables?
Anyone who has been reading our paper will agree the Corriere Canadese is not protectionist, quite the contrary. We want to see our federal government advance our country interests. Every other political agent can address issues more local in nature.
We have entered (in Ontario) a two-month campaign to elect local representatives for local issues. The last action we expect from them is expressions of “The Maple Leafs I Knew” (commonly referred to as TML Forever), a book written Scott Young in 1966, explaining the illogical fanatism, at the time, behind the adulation for a team that had had trouble getting off the ground.
The municipal elections cannot be about that illogic and fanaticism, but about what matters most immediately to our families and our possessions: our schools that shape our society and the local infrastructure that allows us to shape the context for our citizenship. Here we can tolerate no interference and can do something concrete about it.
In the pic below, from left: MP Mona Fortier, Minister of Finance François-Philippe Champagne, and Minister of Industry Mélanie Joly (photo: Twitter X – @FP_Champagne)
