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It must be nice having a competent, serious, intelligent leader represent your country to the world. Americans wouldn't know what that feels like.

Could Canada Win a Trade War?\n Trump has waged Economic War on Canada in order to bring us to our knees so that we will eventually capitulate to become the 51st state.\n\n Had he come in a nice way, as a friend verses a foe, he would have had a lot more interest, especially from Alberta. \n\n Now that we are here, the question has to be asked, can we actually win a trade war that has probably been extensively war-gamed by the U.S.?\n\n Our politicians want us to go toe to toe with a 900 lb gorilla. The U.S. economy is at least 10 times our size and are less dependent on our trade than we are. We may give them a black eye but they could rip our arms and legs off. \n\n Retaliatory tariffs play into their hands. It’s the perfect excuse to increase the tax to 50 or 100%. So will we do the same? This would devastate us, achieving their goals.\n\n Canadians are already fighting back without the government making things worse. People are boycotting U.S. goods en masse and cancelling travel plans, etc. and this is already having a strong effect.\n\n Some say turn off the electricity and oil, but who will pay price? It will be the businesses and employees, not the politicians who are now trying to act tough. If we want this to turn into a real kinetic war, then turning off the taps may do it. \n\n We have seen countless times where politicians tell us what we want to hear, making us think they are heading is a certain direction, only to find they do the exact opposite. This proves you can not believe what career politicians say and have to go by what they do, or don’t do, instead. Yet now, they confidently declare that Canada will never become the 51st state. This should raise eyebrows. \n\n Almost all of the MPs and Premiers are unanimous in entering into a trade war we can not win. After tariffs go ballistic, our dollar drops to .35 cents, and we get utterly crushed, I can see them say, “in order to save what’s left of our economy and society we must reluctantly join the U.S. or face certain destruction”. \n\n Not only would the decades old goal of a North American Union be accomplished, but we would take a large step towards the video statement that the World Economic Forum - WEF posted on their website. “By 2030, you will own nothing and be happy”. \n\n The WEF is working with the UN to achieve their Agenda 2030 goals and is what Pierre Poilievre and the “Conservatives” signed Canada onto Sept. 27, 2015. This is what Trudeau has been implementing. Mark Carnie, Pierre, and Jagmeet Singh would finish off the job. Read the redistribution of wealth goal #10. Are you feeling poorer yet? Remember, one has to dig deeper to see through the document’s ultimate double speak written for public consumption. \n\n There is much more going on than meets the eye. Our best defence is to not play into their hands. A much better plan needs to be developed by minds who see the big picture for creative solutions, and it does not seem to be those in office now

My thoughts? Sure, why not, you're welcome. My thoughts are that you actually may be the master of suspense. That said, those remarks of yours on the state of your home country sound valuable to me. But then again, wouldn't it be nice if could give us a bit more than just anecdotal evidence? Just saying, no worries. (Although, having skimmed now a lot of the comments, I must say they are quite overwhelming.)

I worked in the mines of Northern Ontario have had two wives and six children payed high child support and spousal support. But just before I was ready to retire I had no more responsibilities and I got to keep my pension. I brought a house twenty years ago in Newfoundland where I am from and put it in my Mother's name. I am now retired with a payed for home which I heat with a wood cook stove, electric base boards but never need them and have solar panels and wind turbines but I am still hooked up to the grid but my bill is 40 dollars.I don't have internet or Netflix only a cell phone with a 100 gigabytes download.I run my tv off solar power that charges golf cart batteries also have a generator to charge the battery bank .I download off of YouTube and other places to a 1 terabyte hard drive that run thru my laptop and have that backuped . I have a ham radio. 250 gallon water tank just in case the village I live in the water goes out. I have a water flush toilet and a compost toilet. My property has apple trees and very productive raised beds to grow food, I also fish and hunt small game but I buy beef and pork that is free range and grass fed from a local butcher. There are many ATV trails around here, we have a gas station and small grocery store which I try to buy as much as possible from to support local employment. I have a side by side ATV with a nice back box , insurance and gas cost nothing. I used to have a truck but got rid of it because I didn't need it to get around plus I enjoy the ride in the side by side. The only draw back is to many people drink and drive around here and young people on drugs who steal.. I have pension and benefits and traveled for five years before I came back here. I get restless for excitement but remember it's a time to be quiet. Don't crave others company and I am pretty healthy, the only stress I have is to figure out what I am going to do that day. Yes I have to work to get wood and grow food but I could sit on my ass all day if I felt like it but you got to keep yourself in shape. I watch a lot documentaries and read e books but have my favorite books in paper. It does get boring but boring is good and you must be happy with what you got and no I don't need a partner remember I was married twice and everything was about what they wanted and not me.. I have gotten used to not answering to anyone or having to meet their needs and wants.. yes I am happy and don't have to struggle

As someone from Belgium that now lives in Columbus OH because of marriage, you're spot on with everything. Safety? Limited. Sprawl? Terrible. Rent? Eh it's not that bad. I make a base salary of $82.5k and my wife makes $50k. Our 2br 1ba apartment's rent is about $1000. It's a nice place, but it has some flaws. Our next place will be around $1500. I've told my wife I don't like the sprawl and lack of public transport here and I want to move to a place where that is less of an issue: Chicago, NYC or Boston. However, the latter two have crazy high rent.\n\nI must add, the terribly unsupported public education system in Columbus is by far the worst reason. My wife is a teacher at a Columbus City School that's almost 100% black. White families put their kids through private schools. The rest of the kids have terrible home lives and are therefore incredibly ill-behaved and under-educated. So much so that the teachers just CANNOT keep up with Ohio's learning standards. By the time these kids graduate (and that's a big IF), they would have learned about 20% of what a regular 18-year old would have learned in most of the world. This is in part due to:\n1. Parents that do not involve themselves in what their children do, and therefore do not discipline appropriately.\n2. Terrible school admins that force teachers to lower their standards to have a high passing rate for the school (otherwise it gets shut down). Also, due to the No Child Left Behind Act, admins also force teachers to teach how to pass state tests (repetitive bullshit) instead of important learning materials and/or critical thinking skills.\n3. A lot of these students are pushed into the gang lifestyle and see no future in their education. They don't even try.\n4. Burned out teachers that grew tired of the negative ROI and start giving out poor and inadequate work packets. However, I don't like blaming teachers, especially because my wife is the hardest working person I know.\n\nIt's hard to see my wife come back every day, exhausted. It pains me both for her and her kids. America doesn't give a fuck about education. The big theory is that they're purposely not giving public schools attention so they can be phased out and private education becomes the norm. And if you can't afford it? That's great, we need factory workers.\n\n\nI might convince my wife to move to Europe eventually (luckily a European marriage visa isn't as stupidly hard to obtain as it was for me to get here). Having kids in America is not something I'd like to think about. For now, I'm taking advantage of this high salary to save as much as I can and focus on advancing in my career. Sadly, that's really the only thing America is good for...