Opinion piece by David McLaughlin. a former clerk of the executive council and cabinet secretary in the Manitoba government.
It’s time to embrace “peace, order and good government” as the governing leitmotif for the turbulent year ahead.
It was the British Empire of the day that granted us this phrase. Today we are confronted by three contemporary strands of imperialism that threaten this notion for Canada in the form of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping. Their imperialistic grasps are purveying intercontinental economic and military insecurity and disruption to friends and enemies alike.
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In the narcissistic personality cult [Trump] inhabits, compromise is impossible. The man who names a class of naval warship after himself while attaching his own name to garner the lustre of a beloved president’s cultural icon, is not one to go quietly into the night.
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Putin faces literally deadly choices in his war against Ukraine next year. Does he continue to try to grind Ukraine down at extraordinary costs to his people and economy or does he settle for a ceasefire and perhaps even a U.S.-imposed peace agreement?
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Xi Jinping shows no signs of abating his own ‘China Shock’ [as he] is relentlessly pursuing state-sponsored dominance in the domains of advanced technology, AI, patents, biotechnology, batteries, and critical minerals. Leveraging a deliberately undervalued Yuan currency, Chinese exports continue to grow at the expense of domestic manufacturing in the U.S., Europe and Canada. Xi keeps investing heavily in the People’s Liberation Army, building its capacity and lethality. He has refused to moderate China’s military posture against Taiwan and other nations in the South China Sea.
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Canada has its own share of bellicose politicians. They are not imperialists trying to grow their country but separatists trying to shrink theirs. The threat is no less potent, though. There will be a Quebec election in 2026 with a resurgent Parti Québécois likely to win. It is led by a hardliner committed to a flat-out independence referendum.
In Alberta, a citizens-initiated referendum question on secession has been approved by Elections Alberta, asking, “Do you agree that the province of Alberta should cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state?” It now moves to the next step of gathering sufficient signatures to become official, all but guaranteeing a separation referendum in the province.
The coming year offers too many inflection points for things to go wrong, for Canadians to be complacent or comfortable. Secessionist referendums will sap our internal strength. Trade wars will sap our economic strength. Military threats will sap our financial strength. We are not suitably prepared for any.
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A middle power caught in the middle, Canada cannot acquire the resilience it needs to persevere by indulging in political games abetting more economic risk and social upheaval. Yet, we are inviting just that. Steadiness of purpose — national purpose — is required to get us through this moment. Take the temperature down and lift the country up is what Canada needs. Citizens need to ask this of their governments and leaders and, frankly, of each other.
We could do worse than demand a little more “peace, order and good government” in these troubling times and embrace the new year in true Canadian style.
[Edit for adding "Opinion" to the headline.]
Sure. I just feel somehow that at least here in the Lemmyverse the fringe groups supporting China are more widespread.
Src
It's not some groups in the Lemmyverse. Canada has had a long standing relationship with China. Even through the Cold War. That changed on the surface during the Trump-Biden's reorientation. Now that we're getting heavily fucked by the US, people are reassessing. So by all accounts the Canada-China relationship is strengthening. We'll have to manage it.
Nice framing. Read the entire survey.
And across the Lemmyverse there are many supporting China and Russia, including both countries' warfare and aggression. I just read here on Lemmy about a study about Lemmygrad/.ml and the so-called "tankies" which says,
Source
Emphasis mine.
Views of China may be warmer amid tensions with the U.S., but that does not mean it is a reliable partner. It's a dictatorship with no real allies.
I have read the entire survey. There's no contradiction. I'm showing there's an obvious reversal of the negative trend and that having a positive opinion of China isn't a fringe opinion in real life in Canada today. Just in case people thought positive attitudes towards China are some terminally-online Lemmy phenomenon. That's it. There's plenty other insight in it.
Well, there might be lots of usernames, but there aren’t that many people… if you get my meaning.
Scotty has about 3-5 accounts. They often show up down/upvoting together when there's no movement on an item or to counterbalance when the majority votes the other way. They have nearly identical style of posting and engagement. Some are created at almost the same time on differrent instances. It's quite easy to spot the pattern if you pay attention.
Which account(s)?
Pretty sure about these - Scotty@scribe.disroot.org, Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.org, randomname@scribe.disroot.org. The second and third were created within about 6 minutes from each other. I think this one too - Sepia@mander.xyz. There are some others that seem to not be in use anymore.
Oh this one seems to be new - tardigrade@scribe.disroot.org.
Yep. They're best laughed off. It's a tiny little conspiracy community, basically, and even when it's true "we're the baddies" has the opposite of popular appeal.
The weird thing is they have to know they're a tiny minority, but they often act shocked we don't all agree with them.
Well, they all sound exactly the same. They go through the same sort of back and forth, link pasting, never answering any question you ask, huge posts with a bunch of nonsense rambling, and then inevitable personal insults trying to shame you for your views. It’s a script followed almost exactly. Back in the “genocide Joe” campaign, they were everywhere.
I found it fun to get them to say the words “Tiananmen Square” because they would flat out refuse and go into a manic spiral.
Where did they come from? I dunno for sure, but I’ve got some thoughts.
I'm afraid it's not fabricated, they exist in real life too. Same sociology as the next conspiracy group, basically, although they recruit from the left and let queer people in. And as a result it's heavily gay/trans/furry.
There seems to be an idea that the more words you use, the more smarter you are.
Yeah, the China propaganda is widespread, but possibly by users with several alt accounts (if I get your point right). I am quite new here on Lemmy, still learning.
Maybe it's just me but I feel there are not many discussions on any topic, it's more a link builder. But maybe I am mistaken.