Not Our Call. February 1st. 2025

        Here it is February 1st.  A day in Canadian history that will dwindle in its significance as time goes on.    With any luck, the sooner the better.    But today is THE February 1st. that only recently seemed to be so important.  I don't know what the immediate future has in store for us.  The eminent threat to my family at this time is very real if not unavoidable.   

       It seems fitting that the morning here in this corner of my home and native land the skies are grey, and the temperature is falling.   But this is a country that has seen grey skies before.  A country that has served under the grey skies of other countries on many occasions.  In Europe twice.  In Korea.  We served as peace keepers in Cypress, Africa, the former Yugoslavia.  And we did it with bravery, skill, intelligence, and benevolence.   The last time we served was in the most deadly region of Afghanistan where so many of our brave young men and women gave their lives in service to our neighbours.  Far too many young men and women have given their lives to the service of our neighbours since the conflict was left in the past.  Sadly,  such service is never in the past for those who are haunted.  I wonder what the families of those who never had their Children, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, loved ones come home from the desert operations feel about the way our neighbour has decided we are somehow the enemy.

     And for all this,  I don't really know if anyone understands why.   It certainly isn't a case of just asking for clarification.  Within minutes, the reasons, the dates, the numbers all change.  It is border security one minute,  it is unfair trade practices the next.  It's today, it's April 1st.  It's today.  It's February 18th.  It's today.   It's 25% for Canada and Mexico.  25% for Canada because of borders issues allowing Chinese made fentanyl to cross the border,  but it is 10% to China were fentanyl is produced.  It doesn't matter that less than 1% of fentanyl in America comes via Canada.   It doesn't matter that we have committed a billion and a half dollars to shoring up the border to essentially do American border security for them.  

    We have been sucked into the chaos our neighbours leader so enjoys.  And we will pay.  It doesn't matter that some,  well two, provincial leaders want to go it alone and do virtually ANYTHING our neighbours leader wants.  It only shows him we are weak.  And it makes his totally irrational policies against his neighbours and allies all the more dangerous for us,  and reenforced for him.  

    It doesn't matter that he has been told time and again that many many of the industries tied into tens of thousands of jobs of people who won him his election are in jeopardy.   In reality, there is no explanation that makes any sense.......at all.   Just like the school yard bully we all knew who decided that it was necessary to abuse a non confrontational quiet kid in his class.  It wasn't personal.  It was just a perceived notion by said bully that domination of someone else made him/her more respectable.  

     That school bully was allowed to dominate someone because the quiet victim usually remained quiet.  Hoped to in some way avoid contact.  It was allowed because the rest of us just wanted to fly under the radar.  To avoid becoming a victim ourselves.   

    Tell you what:  I wasn't the greatest cop in the world, or our country, or the provinces in which I served, or the communities in which was posted.    There were many nights I wasn't the best cop in the patrol car.  But in my life on the street I did what I could to confront the bully.   I had the power of the uniform and the letter of the law behind me.  It made it pretty easy for me to confront those who sought self satisfaction and perceived power in the abuse of those who were less likely to defend themselves.  It was a part of my career to which I felt a certain passion.

     But there were times in my career that I witnessed injustices being administered to those with whom I worked.  Yet I was careful not to get in harms way.  To become the new target of leaders who were not good, or fair, at times to the point of cruel.  While I could lecture my whole watch away to some teen who chose to flex his muscles on another less able to defend himself,  I did little for the very person whom I expected to have my back at a bar fight, or a domestic situation from an unjust supervisor who could effect my career.

     While I am not suggesting that I worked my entire life in a hostile environment there were situations as there are in most work places where authority is abused.   And I think all of us can relate to that.

     This cold grey morning,  like so many in my home and native land, I worry.   A worry that seems to be most entertaining for the leader of our neighbour,  an allie for whom many of my countries bravest have spilled blood,  our largest trading partner,  a country in which so many of us have close relatives and own property.   While there is still hope that this will somehow resolve itself as mysteriously and it came about,  the reality for the time being is that our neighbour has decided we are a target.   

     WE ARE tougher than our American neighbours think.  And we will find another way to survive this horrible unwarranted mess that is merely an entertainment for a bully.  But regardless,  the damage to this relationship is damaged to an apex from which it will never completely recover.  And Canada?  It's not your fault.  We will get through this.