By now, everyone knows we’ve taken a 25% tariff hit from our erstwhile friends and compadres the Americans for the sole reason of, well, I don’t know because they make no sense to me. That puts me roughly on par with all the economists and tariff experts out there who are pretty-much all saying the same thing.
There’s no doubt that there’s something afoot about what Trump and his acolytes are up to something nefarious., including the possibility that he and they are all Russian puppets bent on weakening America and its western alliances, which if true, would mean they’re doing nothing less that one hell of a job.
I think that, as Canadians, we’ve also done one hell of a job of absorbing these hits to our economy and our sovereignty. Yes, we’re mad, in fact mad as hell. But I still hold on to the belief that what we’re seeing is another example of that famously stereotypical Canadian restraint. But our restraint is nothing compared to that shown by the inhabitants of Heard and McDonald Islands. Sure, they were only hit with 10% tariffs from the Trumpers, but still they’ve been victimized like seemingly everywhere else, and one would think that they’d show some sort of disinclination, disappointment, or outright rage. But they don’t.
Because they’re penguins.
Those two islands are Australian possessions a rock throw away from Antartica, and feature absolutely zero humans and absolutely zero economy. But America zinged them anyways, right along with Norfolk Island, to the north of New Zealand, where the population contains mostly cattle and the odd fellow moving them along. Norfolk got hit with a 29% tariff, because, well, you know, why not? That cattle guy on Norfolk? The poor bastard probably can’t even read and probably has no idea he’s been tariffed. It’s probably the most attention he’s received in his entire life, and so, in a way, he’s living his fifteen minutes of fame right now courtesy of The Donald.
But the Gringos aren’t just going after Australian islands, they went after Norwegian ones as well, including Jan Mayen Island, featuring an old whaling station and an old outhouse with a creaking, rusting door swinging open on one hinge. The U.S. just smacked them with a 10% tariff as well. And finally, the French, as in the owners of St. Pierre and Miquelon, two small islands off the coast of Newfoundland that got hammered with no less than a 50% tariff. Serves them right, I guess.
On a stranger note, there’s actually been some positive developments that have arisen in Canada as a direct result of the tariffs, DOGE, and the heating up of the American political environment.
It’s become apparent that American doctors are actively seeking to move here from their own home country, to escape what’s being done to the medical system that they’re intricately part of. This is a terrific development since we just happen to have a shortage of doctors and other health-related professionals, and apparently the authorities responsible for accreditation of foreign doctors are intending to put away their training requirements for these physicians coming form the United States.
Interestingly, I’m not talking about Canadian doctors working in the U.S. and returning home, but rather American doctors, born, raised, and trained in America, some of the best doctors you’re going to find anywhere. And those Canadian-born doctors? A lot of them are coming home too in the face of an inexplicable hostility being shown to Canadians by Americans, as if all this shit was our fault. All I can say is “Welcome Home.”
It’s not just doctors and the broader field of medicine and health care, it’s also academia as well, where prominent university professors, department heads, and program chairs have started to move north to take up positions at Canadian universities. It’s like a reverse brain-drain, and this time we’re the beneficiaries. I guess the Red Hats never thought about that, but I may be giving them an awful lot of credit by assuming that they can think at all.
I’ve been a client of the Ottawa Heart Institute, and can say there is no place on Earth that does what they do any better than they do. They sit atop the world in their field. Yet, on top of this, they’ve just added one of the pre-eminent heart surgeons in the world. Guess where from? An American citizen horrified by what’s happening in his own country. And he’s not alone.
The American health care system is the greatest of American dichotomies. They have the best doctors, best nurses, best surgeons, and best hospitals in the world, which is definitely no slight on our Canadian doctors, nurses, surgeons and hospitals, which are all top rate, and one of the reasons the Americans lure them south of the border with greater pay envelopes, quality of life perks, and impressive titles. But now, they’re either staying here or coming back, and joined by American-trained doctors.
In the U.S., a general practitioner lives or dies by the number of patients they have, same as here and I guess anywhere else. But with Medicaid in existential peril, and 40 million Americans without health insurance, that pool of clients may realistically decline in number. In the States, If you can’t afford to go to a doctor, the decision is an easy one. You simply just don’t go to the doctor.
A health care system where a nation has the best of everything, but that most of its citizens can’t afford to participate in.
All men are created equal, just like the Declaration of Independence said. But in all honesty, that statement meant exactly that. All men, not women, not Blacks, not Native Americans, just men, and rich, white ones to boot. That sentiment has percolated all the way through time to 2025, where in America, you have to be a freaking millionaire to see a doctor, go to a hospital, or receive a procedure.
In other words, you need money, and lots of it, to survive. To save your life. To save the life of your spouse or children.
And that’s when times were good.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 