I try not to get too political on this blog, and really, if I'm going to be political, I should probably focus on my own country. However, this is I think the third time I've broken my rule, and each time it's been about the United States. If I'm being honest, each time its been for a specific politician, Donald Trump.
The first time was back in 2016 when I very mildly mentioned that I was disappointed in the outcome, that he didn't seem very professional, but I wished the US luck and hoped he would surprise me. The next time was in June of this year after he opened fire on a crowd of peaceful protesters with rubber bullets, tear gas, and flash bombs. I compared him to a demon.
So based on these two samples, you can kind of get an impression of my political leanings. I didn't like him in 2016 and he hasn't won any points with me since, to put it extremely mildly.
Even though the United States is not my country, it is very difficult to ignore its politics. Something like 75% of our exports go to the US, and we purchass more from them than any other country too. They are the current world superpower, and if they ever lost that position, we would likely remain reliant on them. It's painful to say, but a big part of Canadian identity is simply being "not American".
My lack of fondness toward President Trump is not uncommon among Canadians, although you can't really say that this is due to his lack of awareness. His "America First" policies promote a level of inward thinking that excludes nations that have historically benefited from partnering with them. This means that our growing feelings of negativity to our brother to the South is by Trump's design.
Some things that have made us salty towards Trump's presidency is that he initiated a trade war with Canada, he expressed interest in sending armed troops to our border (known as the "oldest unmilitarized border in the world") to stop Canadians from fleeing to the US during the COVID-19 pandemic (any soldier would be stopping Americans from fleeing to our country after how the US bungled their Coronavirus response). He tried to stop an estabished trade agreement of N95 masks to our country before realizing that without the pulp that we manufacture, and the nurses we send across the border, they would receive a net negative amount of N95 masks for themselves. Trump has said that our success during COVID-19 is due to US influence, and he's said that we want to open our borders but he won't allow it (we are horrified to open our borders to the US considering the infection rate over there). He's also reportedly ordered people to attack our Prime Minister on TV, referring to him as a "behind your back guy"
So despite it being the election of a foreign nation, on November 3rd I curled up with a bottle of whisky and watched the electoral vote slowly take place. I'm sure all of my viewers know this, so I'll try not to dwell on it, but things were not looking good for Biden (Trump's opposition) at the end of the night, although everything was still very much inconclusive. While Biden was ahead in electoral votes at the time, Trump was leading in swing States that were yet to be counted.
It wasn't looking hopeless for Biden though, as there had been an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots this year, and they were estimated to lean in favour of the Democrats. This is because Biden had been pressing the importance of safety measures concerning COVID-19 which included avoiding crowds, whereas Trump had been downplaying the virus and telling people that mail-in voting would cause widespread voter fraud.
So, pretty predictably, the day-of ballots were counted first and made Trump look as if he were winning, and then in subsequent days, the mail-in ballot was counted and favoured Biden well enough to earn him victory.
Trump has since refused to concede his position and has demanded recounts and has attempted to sue key States for voter fraud, despite having no evidence of this ocurring. He has neglected to provide briefings for Biden's adimistration or to support a peaceful transition of power, which is potentially dangerous to the US. Even though Trump lost, he still has power for another couple of months.
Oh well, even if he goes crazy and drops a bomb on someone and it gets returned, I just moved into a basement apartment, and if I stay underground for a few days, I've got a shot of surviving Canada's Nuclear Winter should the US ever wind up in a fight like that.
Speaking of which, I just made the big move into mine and Lee-Anne's place today. I'll update you guys on that soon.
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