i say be polite. you don’t have to be super friendly or anything
being a “homewrecker” is bad, but sometimes there’s more context you don’t know about. i tend to give people the benefit of doubt and give them an opportunity to show who they are before I make assumptions.
i do this because in the past i have judged too quickly and been wrong about people- in both directions
American trade is nearly worth half of Canada’s total GDP. something like 75~80% of total Canadian exports go to the US. if they actually retaliate in force they could be dooming their country to an economic crisis if Trump is spiteful enough. so far the Canadian tariffs have only touched about $30B worth of goods, or 7% of the total trade.
What do you think it’s platform should be?
If the name was “Tax the Rich” then I would assume the platform should be a tax on the rich. Either land or capital gains. I think increasing income tax on the rich is meaningless.
Would it need a social agenda?
I don’t think so. In our polarized environment, any social agenda you set will turn someone off. If this party were to succeed, theoretically, it would have to get elements from both the right and the left. And there are many on the right who are anti-establishment and upset with the current economic situation. I feel like if you put other issues like “pro-abortion” or what have you, you will dramatically shrink your base.
What conditions would be necessary for you to vote for it?
I would realistically never vote for a third party unless it had some serious momentum. For example during the 1912 election cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_United_States_presidential_election
I would have voted for a third party. Teddy Roosevelt got 27% of the vote and he ran as a “Progressive” party candidate. Eugene Debbs got 6% (almost 1 million votes) as a candidate of the “Socialist” party.
But really, these elections are like once in a century type of event. Where a 3rd party actually has a chance in hell of winning.
But for reference with Eugene Debbs… 1 million votes in 1921 is like 3.2 million votes today. For reference the Green party got like 800k votes in 2024
no. not many people spoke my native tongue.
when i finally did move and found more people speaking the language, we would speak our language not to hide from the teacher but just because it was more comfortable
sounds nice in theory but i don’t think people realize just how integrated their economy is to the US
entire industries are completely dependent on US trade. they traded large swathes of their economic autonomy away for easy access to the US market. prosperity was deemed more important than sovereignty
it’s a decision that was decades in the making and it will likely take decades to reverse.
and if we’re being honest it shouldn’t have exactly taken Trump to make Canada realize the US acts in its own interests. Look at NAFTA signed by Bill Clinton. We pressured Canada into accepting a deal that forced them to maintain a certain level of oil export to the US even if there were domestic shortages.
It’s not the type of agreement equal parties or allies come to. It’s a relationship of domination. Always has been