Thanks for many things
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KAMLOOPS — This Thanksgiving weekend, I am thankful for much. I have been blessed with many good things. Good friends, a great family, great parents, and a pretty good life. It has not been without its trials and tribulations, but life always doesn’t go the way you planned. And you have to move beyond the valleys and climb toward the next mountaintop.
One thing I have felt more blessed about recently is the decision of my grandfather and great grandfather to stay in Canada, and not move, like many of their relatives, south of the border. I have many friends and some relatives in the U.S. My wife’s mom was an American, and my brief sojourns to the U.S. have been enjoyable. But with the state of the country as it is now, and the incoherent diatribe that is not only coming from the Head of State, but the Congress, Senate and State governments, it amazes me that the U.S. can continue to stay intact. Donald Trump has brought the state of the Presidency to a new low. He has no vision for the future; he is reactive instead of proactive; he does not understand diplomacy; despite his forays into the business world, he seems to have little understanding of how business really works; with the obvious confusion in the White House, he has little inter-personal skill. I could go on, but you get my drift. It astounds me that so many Americans still think he is doing a good job, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
I look at the history of America and I see a host of visionaries, from Washington and Jefferson, on through to the Roosevelts, and modern day Presidents including even Richard Nixon, whose legacy on world relations and breaking new ground with China was overshadowed by his troubles at home. Martin Luther King was a visionary, the list goes on. But Donald Trump’s campaign slogans, such as making America great again, were based on false logic, or in some cases, no logic. Many, desperate for change and improvement, bought into the slogans, thinking the Donald would instantly make things better again. He hasn’t, and he won’t. His view of making America great again is to put together a protectionist country that has no hope of working in today’s world. If you examine the renegotiation of the NAFTA agreement, the duties places on companies like Bombardier, you see that these ideas are relics of a bygone era. If you shut out other countries, you limit your marketplace, and without a marketplace, there are no jobs. You can’t sell all your goods in your own country. You need outside markets. And if you hurt the outside marketplace, they can’t and won’t buy your products. Then what do you do?
You may criticise Trudeau, you may criticise Clark or Horgan, criticise whoever you want, but the least of these are more visionary, in my opinion, than the U.S. President. I will take any of our national leaders any day. I celebrate this Thanksgiving thankful I am in a country where we are trying to foster new relationships, new hope and new opportunities, than one where they seem to be backsliding into chaos.
