Final Word from Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Mark Carney said in his victory speech yesterday that Canada is at a turning point. America wants Canadian land, resources, water and the entire country, he said, and Donald Trump isn't making idle threats. "President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us," Carney said. "That will never, ever happen." The Americans, he added, have form on being a hostile neighbor. Carney referred directly to Trump, but he also spoke more broadly about the Americans as a collective noun, similar to the way the Russians speak of the "collective West." It used to be that governments on both sides of the geopolitical line went out of their way to say that they opposed the government of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Iran, China or, conversely, the West, but that they had nothing against the citizens of these countries. In fact, they were trying to save the people from their tyrannical leaders. But with close to half of Americans supporting Trump, who's to say who the good neighbors are anymore? [ Czech Republic Liberal Party PM prime minister elections ]