Evan Saugstad: Oh Canada! A point of view from a small town guy living in rural Canada (part 5 as the Canadian takeover saga continues)

43 days and counting.  Is he doing a good job for America?  The rest of the world? Is he only doing what he said he would do, only doing what the people elected him to do and in that, is representing the will of the people?

Is he believable, or not?

As each day passes, it is becoming harder and harder to find anyone who doesn’t have an opinion between a hard dislike or outright love. That being said, I am one of those who sits somewhere in between.  Not everything Donald does is wrong, not everything is right. 

But think, what if he actually did all of what he says or believes, and if he did, would that be the people’s will?  Maybe for some in the U.S. but not for many in Canada, Ukraine and not for many other counties as the master of disinformation spreads his own version of reality and world events.

The bad news is that the world must listen when Donald talks and then try to figure fact from fiction.  The good news is that when Donald talks, the world still listens, but sadly, fewer and fewer believe what comes out of his mouth as anything close to reality. 

Are those who are less than satisfied with Donald’s performance correct in how they portray him, or are they just part of another Democratic party smear campaign?

I thought I should go online and find out, so I searched “Donald’s lies”, “Donald’s mistruths” and “Donald’s disinformation” to see what pops up.  Not so coincidentally, not much came from FOX News. It has moved to being the one lonely organization that sees Donald as the saint about to save the U.S. and the world, and in doing that, can either do no wrong or when he does wrong, the end justifies the means.

A digression.  I used to listen to CNN a lot before Obama was elected and when CNN was considered one of the world’s leading source of news.  I believe it slowly changed and lost many of its listeners/viewers.  More recently it has begun a transformation and now presents a more balanced view of U.S. politics and how the U.S. views the world.

I now switch back and forth between the two, but my Fox time is diminishing as it continues to reduce itself to being the mouthpiece for Donald, with very few stories making its headlines that cast Donald in anything but a shining light.

That said, to get the balance, one needs to watch and listen to a variety of sources as most of our news organizations still present their own slant to their stories instead of letting the readers come to their own conclusions.  Canada is no different.

Back to my column, with a few of Donald’s lies, mistruths, disinformation or whatever you wish to call it, followed by the facts. And for those who now are shouting at me for not saying anything about all the “nice” things Donald is doing, this isn’t about those nice things.  In my world, we are defined by the “not so nice” things we do and how we treat others. 

1 – Donald: “I called him Governor Trudeau because they should be the 51^st state, really. It would make a great state. And the people of Canada like it.” 

Fact-check, CNN: “Trump’s categorical claim that “the people of Canada like it” is false. Though it’s certainly possible to find Canadians who support the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state, the idea is overwhelmingly unpopular with the Canadian public as a whole. A December poll by the firm Leger found that 82 per cent of Canadians said they didn’t like the idea and just 13 per cent said they liked it.  The idea has been denounced by federal and provincial Canadian leaders from left to right.” 

2 – Donald: The U.S. has a “$200 billion” trade deficit with Canada.

Fact-check, CNN: “The U.S. goods and services trade deficit with Canada was about $40.6 billion in 2023, according to U.S. government figures; even if you only consider trade in goods and ignore the services trade at which the U.S. excels, the U.S. deficit with Canada was about $72.3 billion, still far shy of Trump’s figure. And it’s worth noting that the deficit is overwhelmingly caused by the U.S. importing a large quantity of inexpensive Canadian oil, which helps keep Americans’ gas prices down.”

3 – Donald: “Canada… have virtually no military. They have a very small military.” 

Fact-check, CNN: “Canadian defense experts and the Canadian government itself have raised concerns about the size and readiness of Canada’s military, but that military very much exists – with more than 63,000 regular servicemembers as of fall 2024, plus more than 20,000 reservists”. 

4 – Donald: If Canada “merged” with the U.S., Canada would, among other things, “be totally secure from the threat of the Russian and Chinese ships that are constantly surrounding them.” 

Fact-check, CNN: “Trump’s claim is false. Canada, which has the world’s largest coastline, has never been surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships, let alone been “constantly” surrounded. In fact, a smattering of Russian and Chinese military ships and jets, as well as Chinese research vessels, viewed with suspicion by Canada and the U.S., have been occasionally spotted in recent years in the vicinity of Alaska – and have been monitored or intercepted by the Canadian and U.S. militaries.”

5 – Donald: “They pay less than one per cent. They’re about the lowest payer in NATO. They’re supposed to pay much more. They haven’t been paying.”

Fact-check, CNN: “Trump was wrong when he said Canada spends “less than one per cent” of GDP on defense, though it’s true that Canada has consistently fallen short of the two per cent target. Official NATO figures show Canada spent an estimated 1.37 per cent of GDP on defense in 2024, up from an estimated 1.31 per cent in 2023. Canada was above one per cent for the entirety of Trump’s first presidency, ranging from 1.44 per cent in 2017 to 1.29 per cent in 2019”.

6 – Donald: “Canada does not allow American banks into the country.”

Fact-check, CNN: “U.S. banks do operate in Canada, making up half of the country’s foreign banking assets”.

7 – Donald: “We’ve been having massive deficits with China. Biden allowed it to get out of hand. He’s – $1.1 trillion deficits; ridiculous, and it’s just an unfair relationship.”

Fact-check, CNN: “This is misleading at best. The record U.S. goods and services trade deficit with China, about $378 billion, was actually set during Trump’s first presidency in 2018. It has bounced around under Biden, but it has been lower than $378 billion every year, and the last available full-year figure, for 2023, was about $252 billion – lower than in any year of Trump’s presidency. The Trump-era low was about $282 billion in 2020.” 

8 – Donald: Accused the Ukrainian leader of being a “dictator without elections”. 

Fact-check, BBC: “Zelensky’s first five-year term of office was due to come to an end in May 2024. However, Ukraine has been under martial law since the Russian invasion in February 2022, which means elections are suspended.”

9 – Donald: “I hate to say it, but he’s [Zelensky] down at four per cent approval rating”. 

Fact-check, BBC: “It’s unclear what source the president was citing as he didn’t provide evidence. We have asked the White House to clarify this.  Official polling is limited and it is extremely difficult to carry out accurate surveys during a time of war. Millions of Ukrainians have fled and Russia has occupied around a fifth of the country.”

“However, some polling has been possible to carry out by telephone. A survey conducted this month found that 57 per cent of Ukrainians said they trusted the president, according to the Ukraine-based Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.  However, that was down from 77 per cent at the end of 2023, and 90 per cent in May 2022 – suggesting that the president has suffered a drop-off in his popularity.” 

10   Donald: Ukraine “should have never started it”.

Fact-check, BBC: ” Ukraine didn’t start the war. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, having annexed Crimea in 2014.”

With this comment, Donald was parroting Putin on a U.S. talk show: “It was they who started the war in 2014. Our goal is to stop this war. And we did not start this war in 2022.”

11 Donald: Zelensky “talked the United States of America into spending $350 billion dollars” to “go into” an unwinnable war.

Fact-check, CNN: “The $350 billion figure, too, is far from reality.

“According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German think tank that closely tracks wartime aid to Ukraine, the U.S. had committed a total of about $124 billion in military, financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine between late January 2022, just before the Russian invasion, and the end of December 2024; the think tank found the U.S. had actually allocated about $119 billion.

“It’s possible to arrive at different totals using different counting methodologies, but there is no apparent basis for Trump’s ‘$350 billion’ figure. The U.S. government inspector general overseeing the Ukraine response has said on its website that ‘as of September 30, 2024, the U.S. Ukraine response funding totals nearly $183 billion, with $130.1 billion obligated and $86.7 billion disbursed’ – and that includes funding spent in the U.S. or sent to countries other than Ukraine.”

12 – Donald: “I think Europe has given $100 billion and we’ve given, let’s say, $300-plus (billion).”

Fact-check, CNN: “According to the Kiel Institute’s data, Europe – the European Union plus individual European countries – had collectively committed far more total wartime military, financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine through December (about $258 billion) than the U.S. committed (about $124 billion). Europe had also allocated more military, financial and humanitarian aid (about $138 billion) than the U.S. allocated (about $119 billion).

“The U.S. did have a slim lead in one particular category, military aid allocated, providing about $67 billion to about $65 billion for Europe. But even that was nowhere close to the giant gulf Trump described.”

13 – Donald:  Zelensky “admits that half of the money we sent him is ‘missing.’” 

Fact-check, CNN: “Zelensky has made no such admission. Rather, he has taken issue with inflated claims about how much U.S. cash Ukraine has received.

“He said in a February 1 interview with the Associated Press that although people talk about Ukraine getting as much as $200 billion in U.S. aid, Ukraine had received about $76 billion, largely in the form of weapons.

“Zelensky said he doesn’t know where all the professed additional money has gone and that perhaps these higher figures are correct ‘on paper,’ according to a translation by the news outlet Ukrainska Pravda.” 

14 – Donald: Zelenskyy accused Trump of living in a “disinformation bubble” and pushing Kremlin talking points. Trump then called Zelenskyy a “dictator” and a “modestly successful comedian.” 

Evan: This response from Zelensky tipped Donald over the edge and his response skipped his talking points.

Donald got lost in his haste to disparage Zelensky and he made the statements about Zelensky being a “dictator” and then began parroting Putin’s talking points on who started the war. Donald eventually, well sort of, retracted this statement on who started the war.

15 – Donald: – “Our country’s doing really well, and today, I was just thinking, that the company building the Keystone XL Pipeline that was viciously jettisoned by the incompetent Biden Administration should come back to America, and get it built — NOW! I know they were treated very badly by sleepy Joe Biden, but the Trump administration is very different — easy approvals, almost immediate start! If not them, perhaps another pipeline company. We want the Keystone XL Pipeline built!”

Evan: – This was Donald’s response to hearing that Canada is promoting east/west pipelines to export our oil to other countries that will diversify our customer base, reduce our reliance on the U.S., reduce any potential for increases to our U.S. trade deficit and get as far away from Donald and his erratic trade principles and disregard for trade agreements as we can. Canada should be smart enough to not be sucked in by Donald and if Donald wishes for more pipeline, Donald should build such pipeline with no firm commitments from Canada that it will ever be filled.

15 – Donald: Referring to USMCA – the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement he signed – he asked: “‘who would ever sign a thing like this?”. Trump praised the USMCA in 2020 as the “best agreement we’ve ever made” and lauded it for replacing the “nightmare” North American Free Trade Agreement ratified under former President Bill Clinton.

Evan: Donald admits he is a fool, so why would we think of him as anything otherwise?  Unless, of course, “fool” is much too nice and we should be using words to describe him based on his threats, lies, disinformation and other such negative attributes.

And for the record, here is part of what Donald said at the USMCA signing in January 2020 that he helped negotiate.

“The USMCA is the largest, fairest, most balanced, and modern trade agreement ever achieved.  There’s never been anything like it.  Other countries are now looking at it, but there can’t be a border like that because, believe it or not, that is by far the biggest border anywhere in the world, in terms of economy, in terms of people.  There’s nothing even close.

“This is a colossal victory for our farmers, ranchers, energy workers, factory workers, and American workers in all 50 states and…The USMCA is estimated to add another 1.2 percent to our GDP and create countless new American jobs.  It will make our blue-collar boom — which is beyond anybody’s expectation — even bigger, stronger, and more extraordinary, delivering massive gains for the loyal citizens of our nation.

“For the first time in American history, we have replaced a disastrous trade deal that rewarded outsourcing with a truly fair and reciprocal trade deal that will keep jobs, wealth, and growth right here in America.  And, in a true sense, it’s also a partnership with Mexico and Canada and ourselves against the world.  It’s really a trade partnership, if you look at it that way.  And it’s a day of great celebration in all three countries.”

16 – Donald: Putin will “keep his word”: “I’ve known him for a long time now, and I think he will. I don’t believe he’s going to violate his word. I don’t think he’ll be back when we make a deal. I think the deal is going to hold now.”

Evan: That makes two world leaders who do not keep their word when it is convenient to do so.  See #15 – Donald does not wish to follow an agreement he signed.

So what, who cares, anyone can mix up a few facts or say the wrong things when upset. We all do, and with that, what comes next?  

Is Donald serious about annexing Canada? Will he unleash an economic war on our country until we surrender and give him whatever it is that he has on his mind that will make him happy?

Tim Kenyon, professor in the Faculty of Humanities at Brock Universiy, said: “What makes Trump’s [expletive] so dangerous is that it rarely reflects fixed, coherent meanings or convictions. It lurches from triviality to deadly seriousness, depending on how his various audiences provide the approval and the outrage Trump seeks for his performances of strength.”

More to come.

Evan

Part 1 – President Trump’s wish to annex Canada
Part 2 – Canada’s response, so far
Part 3 – Canada’s options
Part 4 – Canada’s reaction