April 15, 2025 Crazy Days

My head spins and my stomach aches as I stare at the screen. The news keeps flowing and the world keeps spinning. I want to make sense of it all.

But I can’t.

Our neighbour to the south is now being run by what is referred to as an oligarchy. The billionaires have taken full control.

Donald J Trump continues to change the way the United States fundamentally treats its citizens and the rest of the world. The list of things that the newly elected president has done to curb the rights of its citizens is startling. It started the first day he got into office when he introduced DOGE the Department Of Government Efficiency. It sounds like a great idea. Then he put the wealthiest man in the world in charge, the same man who said that empathy is the biggest weakness mankind has. 

It soon became clear that Elon Musk has no empathy. 

Next, it was time to get rid of any form of diversity and equality programs. It was bad enough that he eliminated it from the American Government, but he has since forced it on all large corporations, universities, and colleges across the formerly great nation. He used the biggest motivator that the government has to get the universities to follow his directives – money. He cut funding unless the universities followed his new rules around these policies. But even worse he has now decided to dictate what the universities can teach.

Thankfully, some corporations and universities have resisted this newest form of autocracy. Costco has refused to obey, and Harvard has recently balked at this new policy. So, Trump’s administration has cut 2.2 billion dollars of funding from Harvard’s budget. 

This pales in comparison to how he is treating so many immigrants who have been interned and deported without trial and without respect for their basic rights. He says: “Who cares? They’re not American citizens.” Then he gets caught on a hot mic telling the president of El Salvador to build more prisons because he’s going to send American Citizens there. 

Some people say “Why should I care? I’m a Canadian.”

Yet, he’s attacked Canada and threatened our sovereignty. There is no way in hell I would ever want to become an American – especially now.

The news, social media, and YouTube are full of so many terrifying stories about how our world is changing I can’t help but be filled with anxiety. 

Amid all this chaos, Canada is having a federal election. 

Who will stand up to Trump and look after Canadians? The Liberals picked a new leader, Mark Carney, and claim he is the one to protect us, the one to save us. The Conservatives have Pierre Poliviere, who until recently, acted like he was a man who followed in Trump’s footsteps. But now he says he will protect Canadian sovereignty, he is all for Canada and nothing like the populist president to the south. Yet, Pierre has never held a real job in his adult life. He began as a young man as an MP in Stephen Harper’s government and worked his way right up to the leader of the Conservative Party. 

I find it hard to trust someone who has never worked and never had to make a payroll or scrounge to make sure everyone was taken care of. I wish I could like Pierre, but I don’t. Yet how fair is that? I’ve never met the man and when he came to Penticton I didn’t go see him. 

Then there’s Mark Carney, the newly minted leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. He has an impressive resume and has a lot of worldly experience. Yet the Liberals have been in power for the last ten years, and the country is struggling with a huge debt and increasing inequality between the rich and the poor. He’s also a central banker who has spent much of the last ten years away from Canada. How can he relate to the average Canadian?

In my riding, my vote doesn’t matter anyway. The Conservative candidate, Dan Albas, is sure to win in this ultra-conservative part of British Columbia. At least he does a good job in our riding. I hope there are more like him who end up in Ottawa.

I don’t have an answer to what may happen. 

In two weeks, we will have our answer, and we will have a new government in Ottawa. I hope it is one that can defend Canada and unite us as one.

I hope… 

It’s all I have and it is very tough to hold onto. Fear keeps gnawing inside. 

Time to turn off the news and go fishing.