Conrad Black @ConradMBlack — craft rewrite

Voice: Black 101 (craft) Original: Conrad Black @ConradMBlack

The trade imbroglio with the United States is escalating and ramifying in ways that are potentially dangerous. The Carney government refuses to release the final offer or produce the conclusive evidence that would settle whether the prime minister was reacting to provocative American attempts to change the deal at the last minute. As long as that doubt exists, it is going to be difficult to conduct the war that Mr. Carney has instigated.

Juvenile acts such as booing and shouting down the American national anthem are stirring up unprecedented hostility toward Canada in a country of 350 million people with a GDP of US$32 trillion. There has never been one word of justification for breaking off negotiations that still offered this country unequalled access to by far the greatest and most swiftly growing market in the world. Of course we must pursue our national interest, but with this uneven correlation of forces it is poor tactics to escalate the disagreement.

Mr. Carney seems to take himself for the global David firing his slingshot at the orange-tufted Goliath, overtly trying to hurt Trump in the midterm elections while bandying recondite asides about the ancient Greeks. This is not Finland resisting Russia in 1940; it is more like Romania declaring war on Germany in 1915.

Canada is completely dependent on the United States for almost 70 percent of its exports and for its military security. Leaping into the arms of the Chinese who conducted a form of genocide on the Uighurs, meddled in Canadian elections, and proudly continue the legacy of Mao Tse-tung is not an acceptable answer. Nor is continuing the helter-skelter policies that have put terrible pressure on housing costs, produced a fertility rate of 1.25, and made us the suicide capital of the world. If our cause is righteous, this could be a chance for Canada to demonstrate moral strength and a mature nationality. Self-impoverishment and primal-scream therapy will not achieve it.

—Conrad Black