Cuthand: Trump abandons American allies for trip back in time

According to Trump, “Liberation Day” is April 2, 2025. However, liberation day recalls a different day. May 8, 1945, is known as VE-Day for Victory in Europe and, for many others, it was Liberation Day.

Canadian troops fought alongside the Allies and liberated France, Belgium, Holland and eventually Germany. They stormed the beaches on D-Day and together with the Brits, Yanks and other Commonwealth countries liberated Europe from the tyranny of Nazism. That was a time when we were together as one.

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On April 2, or Trump’s so-called Liberation Day, events took a terrible turn. It’s the day the United States stopped being an ally and began a trip backward in time. This whole imbroglio is based on one man’s stubborn theory.

He wants to turn back the clock and bring manufacturing back to America, which is strange since the United States is now largely a service economy with an unemployment rate around four per cent.

Canada and Mexico dodged the bullet, but it’s no time to gloat. We still have tariffs on aluminum and steel as well as automobiles. The auto industry is huge in Canada and Trump wants the factories and jobs to head south, something that is not that easy.

In the future, we might be looking at a Canadian vehicle industry. Does anyone remember Ford Meteors, Monarchs and Frontenacs, or Mercury and Fargo trucks? The Canadian Pontiac used to be a Pontiac body mounted on a Chevy chassis and drive train. We could be heading back to the future.

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Of course, everyone is trying to second guess Trump’s convoluted mind and find our what the endgame is. Some think its all part of his plan to renegotiate CUSMA (Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement) or as I like to call it the YMCA (Yankee-Mexico-Canada Agreement).

Others think its Trump’s plan to come at us sector by sector and try to destroy our economy. He still harbours dreams of annexing Canada to become the 51st state. Trump is a sociopath; he lacks empathy and fails to understand right and wrong.

Who wants to renegotiate an agreement where Trumps signature isn’t worth the paper its written on? He scrapped the agreement with the phoney fentanyl emergency and can’t be trusted in the future.

But all conspiracies and master plans aside, I think Trump is the most dim-witted president in America’s history. He doesn’t understand a trade deficit no matter how often it is spelled out to him. There are no economists on his side; they have repeatedly pointed out the folly of his actions and yet he just doesn’t get it.

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In the future this will be cited as a classic example of what happens when you mix business and politics. This mistake is a serious problem in Indian Country. Businesspeople and politicians operate under two separate agendas.

Businesspeople want to build the business and strengthen its profitability; politicians see a business as short-term gain and a piggy bank when they come under financial pressure. The result is that a business operated by politicians has little chance of survival.

I operated my own business for over 30 years and the rule was to surround yourself with good people and good things happen. Meanwhile, the politicians were surrounding themselves with sycophants, needy individuals and useless relatives. I survived, they didn’t.

The role of government is to create an atmosphere where business and the workers can thrive. The Canadian automobile industry is a good example. First, there is a good supply of skilled workers; next, the plants are run on 70- to 75-cent dollars; and third we have a universal medicare system.

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In the United States, one of the largest line items in manufacturing is the medical insurance negotiated in union contracts. In Canada, the medical insurance is much less because it only includes non-insured medical care.

Creating universal medicare was a political decision and moving manufacturing to Canada was a business decision.

We live in interesting times. If we stay the course and support each other, we will not only survive but we will thrive.

Doug Cuthand is the Indigenous affairs columnist for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix and the Regina Leader-Post. He is a member of the Little Pine First Nation.

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