What might change for Canadians?
uncertain
What → change → Canadians
We will still have a US president determined to bring us to our knees.
asserted
We → have → knees
And we’ll still have an American public that seemed only to really care about Trump’s threats to annex Canada, or to at least cripple its economy with tariffs, when it began to impact their own lives.
asserted
it → have → lives
But politically, everything has already changed for Canadians.
asserted
everything → change → Canadians
We have a newfound confidence and, along with it, more clarity on what we want for a sovereign Canada.
asserted
we → have → Canada
Albertans have just overwhelmingly decided to remain a part of this national experiment in pluralism and democracy just as the United States is abandoning those principals.
asserted
States → decide → principals
And there’s a new sense of what true patriot love might mean for Canadians in the third decade of the 21st century.
uncertain
love → ’ → century
Donald Trump may have thought he was being mischievous when he first challenged our right to exist as an independent nation in North America.
uncertain
he → think → America
But mischief is often bullying, and bullying can backfire.
asserted
bullying → backfire → ?
Trump’s talk of annexation forced many Canadians to focus on a difficult subject — Canadian identity.
asserted
talk → force → subject
We didn’t immediately have satisfactory answers for questions raised by Trump’s offensive jibes: What is Canada?
asserted
Canada → have → jibes
Why do we even exist?
asserted
we → exist → ?
Is it just that we’re not Americans?
asserted
we → ’re → ?
We took our sovereignty for granted even if we were unable to articulate its meaning.
asserted
we → take → meaning
The suggestion that Canadian sovereignty was basically a myth, that our nation had no inherent right to belong, was a possibility we had never really thought about.
asserted
we → belong → right
Unlike Indigenous Peoples who were driven off their land, we’ve never been forced to qualify our right to be here.
asserted
we → drive → right
But now we’re living in a new reality where we need to be able to articulate what was, until now, little more than a feeling.
asserted
what → live → feeling
As we watch the United States deteriorate, succumbing to violence at home and abroad while flirting with authoritarianism, we can see what it is we don’t want to be.
asserted
we → watch → authoritarianism
And the picture of the Canada we want to be is coming into focus.
asserted
we → want → focus
My first sense of this new Canada came in February, 2025, during the 4 Nations Face-Off hockey series.
asserted
sense → come → series
That was just a month after the inauguration of Donald Trump, at a time when he made it clear that his ambition to turn Canada into the fifty-first American state was more than just a tasteless joke.
asserted
ambition → make → joke
Those game nights had all the raw ingredients for full-on jingoism, and yet the swelling Canadian national anthem, belted out by tens of thousands of Canada jersey — wearing fans in Montreal (with Quebec nationalists likely among them), was, as the announcer said of Canada’s victory, “the tournament we didn’t know we needed.”
asserted
we → have → victory
The elegant hall was packed to the rafters with wealthy patrons of ballet.
asserted
hall → pack → ballet
Conductor David Briskin strode to his podium and raised the baton not to elicit the first chords of Tchaikovsky but to trigger the kettle-drum opening rumble of “O Canada.”
asserted
Briskin → stride → Canada
In videos of the moment, you hear a gasp from the audience and then a cheer goes up.
asserted
cheer → hear → audience
Some people leap to their feet while others don’t seem to know the drill, struggling to rise in their bespoke suits and evening dresses.
asserted
others → leap → suits
The audience clearly feels a shock of recognition and, at the same time, is somewhat dumbfounded as they are swept up into something they had likely consigned to sports arenas, not highbrow concert venues.
asserted
they → feel → arenas
Maybe they even found the anthem’s familiar words awkward in their mouths, like an old song remembered from childhood.
asserted
words → find → childhood
Conductor Briskin later said of his unannounced tribute to Canada, “This is just a straightforward moment of clarity and unity and a little bit of catharsis.”
asserted
This → say → catharsis
The singing of “O Canada,” in English and often mangled French, has since become a staple of public events as the Canadian flag has suddenly become ubiquitous.
asserted
flag → mangle → events
There’s a fine line between patriotism and tribalism, but I think we are well within the bounds of civility.
asserted
we → ’ → civility
Glimmers of civic pride now catch us unaware.
asserted
Glimmers → catch → us
It seems unlikely that we will turn away from these feelings of belonging.
asserted
we → seem → belonging
Our chances for survival as a nation now depend on our resistance.
asserted
chances → depend → resistance
The threats to our sovereignty aren’t limited to Trump.
asserted
threats → limit → Trump
But he’s planted an idea in the minds of many Americans, and once they have the taste of conquest in their mouths, it will be hard for them to forget it.
asserted
them → plant → it
How do we resist?
asserted
we → resist → ?
By decoupling as much of our economy, our security and our culture from the United States as possible, even though that won’t be easy.
asserted
that → decouple → States
Our business leaders have enjoyed the spoils of their corporate subjugation for too long.
asserted
leaders → enjoy → subjugation
Our provincial governments are clinging to their fiefdoms.
asserted
governments → cling → fiefdoms
…and 31 more, not listed.
The Aporia
