Why Canada's election doesn't matter to America

I'm so sorry, Canada, but it really isn't important. Plus: there's more to that arrested judge

So, Canada, you elected a guy from your Liberal Party. Quick, what is the Liberal Party of Canada’s main platform slogan—without Googling. You don’t know, do you? I certainly didn’t. It’s “Canada Strong,” like “Boston Strong” after the Marathon bombing. Unfortunately, America’s slogan under Trump is “America Smash!” as in The Incredible Hulk.

Image source: Flikr

Mark Carney is a banker, so he sees things through the lens of balance sheets and fiscal plans. No big ideas come from such people, unless they are radical economists, like Argentina’s Javier Milei. Milei’s slogan is ¡Viva la libertad, carajo!, loosely translated as “Long Live Freedom, G*ddamnit!” Spicy. That should be Canada’s slogan, or at least, “We’re not America, hoser!”

Now don’t get all on me about Canada. I like the place. I like the people. I used to work for a Canadian company. Way back in the day, when my manager at the place I worked (not the Canadian firm) realized I spoke reasonable Canadian French, they used to send me up to Quebec in the winter. They hated me (my employer, not the Quebecois, who called me “Le gars des États”). But Canada, and who leads the place, is not really that important to Americans. It never has been, except maybe as the butt of jokes, which just makes certain self-important Canadians more frustrated.

It matters far more to the U.S. who is the governor or California, or Texas, or New York, than who is the Prime Minister of Canada. The main reason is those three states GDPs individually exceed Canada’s. The U.S. economy is roughly 14 times as large as Canada’s, and our population is 8 times as large. Math tells us that per capita, American workers are able to way out produce our Canadian neighbors. And that’s just fine—it’s okay—really it is. We like Canada the way it is. But that doesn’t make Canada matter more.

I suppose if Mark Carney wanted to make a splash, he could change his slogan to “Make Canada Matter” and set his agenda to do exactly that. The first step would be to ban all maple syrup sales to America. The second would be to subsidize all Tom Horton stores such that they can sell at 50% of the price of a Dunkin’ Donuts, with the goal to put DD out of business. The third would be to prohibit Canadians from playing for American NHL teams, at pain of losing their citizenship. The fourth would be to ban American film companies from using Canadian land or studios to make movies. Those things would hurt—mostly Canadians—but they would make Canada matter, for sure.

Those four steps would hurt so much that it might provoke President Trump to take some form of military action to restore the balance of respect. Perhaps annexing Vancouver or something.

Canadians are a bit of a paradox, politically. They believe in rugged independence, because they’ve got all this wilderness, and lots of bears, moose, mountains, and stuff. But they mostly live in big cities and increasingly, suburbs and exurbs. So most Canadians are urban people, with urban, even cosmopolitan, lifestyles. But Canadians are also fiscally cautious planners. They don’t like it when housing is super expensive (which it is). So when Canada puts a “liberal” in Ottawa, it’s not the kind of “liberal” that America thinks—Bernie Sanders. It’s more a person who would pick the slogan “Canada Strong.”

I am glad Canadians got the prime minister they wanted. I am glad they got rid of Justin Trudeau, who was insufferable, which is unfit for a Canadian to be. But who runs Canada is generally not important to Americans. I can’t change that fact.

The judge who broke the law. If you want the skinny on Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan’s arrest for obstruction, read Jim Geraghty’s very complete piece over at National Review. In short, prima facie Dugan is guilty of what she’s charged with. She broke the law to improperly adjourn a criminal case against a person who has been on the “deport me” list since 2013, so that ICE and the FBI could not take that person into custody and deport them. This was not a matter of due process—the illegal immigrant’s removal order was administrative because the status had already been determined.

Eduardo Flores-Ruiz was also charged with three counts of battery, domestic abuse, and “infliction of physical pain or injury” when he appeared in Dugan’s court. Dugan confronted the federal officers who arrived to take custody of Flores Ruiz, and were in possession of an I-860 Notice and Order of Expedited Removal (issued in 2013). No further court hearing is necessary to deport such an individual. The agents did everything they were asked (ordered) to do by Dugan and by the county court’s chief judge. But Dugan cheated and snuck Flores-Ruiz out a back door to avoid the agents, and further, adjourned his case without informing the prosecuting attorney.

The agents nabbed Flores-Ruiz on the street outside the courthouse when he tried to run. And I’m sure Dugan is proud she broke the law in order to stand up to President Donald Trump. That’s the part I want to comment on.

If any other person (and I mean that, in a reasonable sense of who could actually win) was president, I am sure Dugan would not have broken the law to prevent a person accused of battery from being deported under a valid order. Perhaps it would still have been Milwaukee County’s policy not to cooperate with ICE on detainers, but in this case, that would not apply. The agents were in a public place, ready to execute a legal order. It would be a matter of routine and Flores-Ruiz would have been taken into custody and deported, no fuss.

But because Trump is president, judges and others in responsible positions feel it necessary to commit acts of civil disobedience, including breaking laws they are sworn to uphold, in order to oppose him. This is something like what we saw among certain Christians who refused to issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples, even when gay marriage was made legal in the U.S. People felt compelled to violate the law to make a point.

And that is the point here. Trump’s actions, the extra-legal ones, are provoking a whole cast of people to commit illegal acts to stand up to him, and to make their own point. In this case, it was less important that Flores-Ruiz absolutely and legally deserved to be taken into custody and deported. It was more important that the judge who broke the law make her point that she will not comply with Trump’s agenda even when it’s done legally.

If you want to call that TDS, that’s your choice. But it’s also an indictment of how Trump and his tribe are doing things. Following due process and institutions is more important than we think. Lawlessness breeds lawless acts in defiance. None of that is helpful to our nation.

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