Here There Be Monsters

Canadian MP Charlie Angus has become something of a celebrity for being outspoken on the political upheaval in the USA and how it impacts on Canada. In a short speech in Parliament on 2024 Nov 8, he said, “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters.” He went on to say, “A new world is being born. Our job is to birth that world into a better place. To step up and resist the monsters.” It was quite moving and rousing. He was not clear, however, on the nature of that new world.

A Challenge to the "Rules-Based International Order"

Since the Second World War, the world has been shaped by the "Rules-Based International Order." That order is maintained by the will of countries participating under their own resolve. A key feature of this order is free elections for governments. The alternative type of order is rule by “Strongmen.” Current Strongmen include Putin (Russia), Xi (China) and Kim (North Korea), among many. The acknowledged leader of the Rules-Based International Order (RBIO) is currently the USA.

With the advent of Trump as president of the USA, the RBIO is in jeopardy. Trump wants to be a Strongman. He aligns strongly with Putin and favours Russia, long an enemy of the RBIO. Trump has attacked (economically) both Canada and Mexico, with whom the USA has international trade agreements (signed by Trump). Apparently signed agreements are not binding on everyone, something to remember if future agreements are negotiated. The sovereignty of Canada is being challenged with a takeover based on economic pressure (for now).

Trump is pushing hard for Ukraine to surrender to Russia and become part of the Russian Empire. Ukraine is an open and free democracy. To surrender to Russia would end that. It would also validate the use of unprovoked attacks by world powers on peaceful countries they want to control.

The world is now seeing the nature of the monsters and getting a glimpse of the new world order.

Sir Alexander Younger was Chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service MI6 from 2014 to 2020. He was a career intelligence officer for 30 years. His assessment is that the world will not be ruled by multilateral institutions, it will be ruled by Strongmen and with deals enacted between them. Younger claims that this is the world we are going into, and we will not go back to the one we had before. 

In this new world order, Canada’s role is very uncertain. If you hold a world globe in your hands with Canada centred in your view, Russia is above us, USA is below us and there is an ocean on each side of us. The only other thing between the US and Russia is Greenland. No matter how much Denmark and Europe might complain about it, if the US wants to take Greenland, who is there to stop them? If Russia and the USA are aligned and they both want Canada’s natural resources, the only thing left is for them to decide how to divide them up. It will be done with a deal between the presidents of Russia and the USA. Canada will have no say in it.

The Weeks When Decades Happen

The rhetoric that Canada would be the 51^st state is just rhetoric. Puerto Rico remains a territory of the United States with no representation in the US government. This is the very condition that triggered the American Revolution and the split between the thirteen Colonies and Great Britain. There is no guarantee that Canada would be any better off than Puerto Rico. Canadian culture would disappear. Quebec would cease to be a separate culture. No more French on the cereal box. If anything, maybe Spanish. 

Europe’s role right now is not clear, but it is not a dominant world power in its current form. The 28 countries that make up the European Union are loosely bound. The UK left in a huff, although it is not clear to me what that huff was about. Although the countries in the EU have armies, the EU itself does not have an army under a central command. According to Alexander Younger, the United Kingdom is irrelevant in Europe, let alone the world order, since Brexit. 

The time may soon come when we look back at the days when we checked product labels to be sure they weren’t from the US and think, “How quaint and naïve.” Bows and arrows against the lightning. Lenin said, “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen.” We might be in one of those “weeks” scenarios.

So, as Charlie Angus said, here there be monsters. Charlie seems to be positive on Canada’s role in the new world order. Maybe Charlie is naturally optimistic. Experts on world politics and security are much less optimistic.

For those familiar with Murphy’s Laws (nothing is as easy as it looks, everything takes longer than you think, and if something can go wrong it will), I am still reminded of O’Toole’s Commentary on Murphy’s Laws…Murphy was an optimist. Optimism is good but remember, hope is not a plan.

Perhaps the final word goes to Kurt Vonnegut when he said to the 1970 graduating class of Bennington College, “Everything is going to become unimaginably worse and never get better again.”