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The Niagara Independent, June 26, 2020 \u2013 <\/em>Back in October 2015, the newly-elected Justin Trudeau\u2019s seemingly obtuse comments on the country he was about to lead are now understood as a foreshadowing of his debasement of \u201cCanada\u201d as Canadians once knew it. In the now infamous\u00a0New York Times Magazine<\/em>\u00a0interview, Canada\u2019s new PM declared \u201cThere is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada\u201d and he speculated that the country could become the \u201cfirst postnational state.\u201d At the time nobody thought the advance of postnationalism would be a governing imperative. Now nearly five years later, Canadians have come to recognize it as the hallmark of Justin Trudeau\u2019s time in office.<\/p>\n By definition \u201cpostnationalism\u201d is pertaining to a time or mindset in which the identity of a nation is no longer important. Wikipedia concisely describes postnationalism: \u201cthe process or trend by which nation states\u00a0and national identities lose their importance relative to cross-nation and self-organized or supranational and global entities as well as local entities.\u201d It continues to list a variety of factors constituting the postnational process: shifting national economies to global ones, increasingly referencing global identities and beliefs, and transferring national authorities to multinational corporations and the United Nations.<\/p>\n By looking at Canada through Justin Trudeau\u2019s postnational lens, Canadians can better understand what is happening in the country. For example, Canadians learned this week that Canada has lost its AAA credit rating. Canada\u2019s indebtedness has risen from 88 to 115 percent of the country\u2019s GDP. This is being explained away as a result of necessary government spending to support Canadians through the pandemic. However, Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre critiques the country\u2019s financial state: \u201cThe Liberal government has destabilized our finances and downgraded our debt, through over four years of reckless deficit spending. The United States, the European Union, Germany, Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Singapore, Luxembourg and the Netherlands have all retained AAA debt ratings with Fitch. All of these countries have had to contend with COVID-19, but Fitch\u00a0has downgraded none.\u201d<\/p>\n MP Poilievre assesses the Trudeau Government\u2019s fiscal record: \u201cGoing into the pandemic Trudeau gave us $80 billion in debt, growth of 0.3%, half of Canadians $200 from insolvency, higher unemployment than the United States, United Kingdom, Japan and Germany and the second highest total public and private debt\/GDP in the G7. All of this occurred before the first COVID-19 case.\u201d<\/p>\n With the additional pandemic spending, Canada\u2019s national debt is now nearly $1 trillion. The country\u2019s weakened economic state and loss of credit rating puts Canadians in a more vulnerable position in international markets, increasing the cost of borrowing and our burden of debt payments for years.<\/p>\n Across the land, the Nation seems to be splintering. Saskatchewan news columnist and former federal MP John Gormley this week surmised \u201cIn Trudeau-land, maybe this really is post-national Canada.\u201d Gormley is very critical of PM Trudeau\u2019s devaluing of a core Canadian identity \u2013 particularly in Western Canada and states that now there is \u201cnothing that anchors us \u2014 from longtime to new Canadians \u2014 to a common purpose or strives to unify us behind an ideal.\u201d He cities the PM as being responsible for the rising civil disobedience that has resulted in growing activism, barricades and contempt for the law. Gorley writes: \u201cHis non-stop campaign of piety, virtue signalling, grandstanding and lecturing us on the holy troika of Indigenous reconciliation and \u201cbalancing the economy with the environment,\u201d has been a green light for many activists to stop all oil and gas.\u201d<\/p>\n National Post<\/em>\u00a0columnist Jonathan Kay went further to suggest the PM has desecrated the country\u2019s history, its builders and past leaders. Kay argues that Canada\u2019s identity has transformed to a country convinced that we are \u201ca genocide state.\u201d Canadian media, academic and political elites are obsessed with the narrative that we are \u201can ugly scar on traditional Indigenous lands,\u201d and the \u201cwhole vocabulary \u2014 settler, neo-colonial, appropriation \u2014 declares that Canada is garbage, hoping that an attitude of self-abasement would somehow lead us to \u201creconciliation.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n Donna Kennedy-Glans, former Albertan MLA, and former CBC broadcaster Don Hill coauthored an editorial that also voiced frustration with Trudeau\u2019s vision of the country. \u201cOur prime minister is focused on a global agenda. Meanwhile, he and his team are setting Canada against itself\u2026. Our prime minister\u2019s neglect, even callousness, is driving a wedge between regions and igniting Western alienation. He\u2019s playing with fire. Trudeau and his cabinet have been preoccupied with their global vision of how things ought to be at the expense of how things are in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n The Trudeau Liberals\u2019 disregard for the country\u2019s diverse national interests has resulted in a new separatist Party to take western Provinces from Confederation. This week Wexit Canada Party leader Jay Hill stated, \u201c\u2026in the end, [federal] governments have to cater to the golden triangle of Toronto-Montreal-Ottawa and the West will never get a fair deal.\u201d In previous interview, Hill pulls no punches: \u201cI\u2019m saying that this is an illegitimate government. It was elected by Ontario. Ontarians decided to re-elect Mr. Dressup despite his clear disdain for Western Canada and for our resource industries. And we just simply cannot take it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n In a 2019\u00a0Sun Media<\/em>\u00a0editorial Candice Malcolm dissected the PM\u2019s rejection of Canadian nationalism arguing he has devalued Canada\u2019s racially diverse and pluralistic society for undefined globalism. Malcolm states, \u201cTrudeau has engineered these changes and created a toxic brew in Canada: lax integration policies juxtaposed with a forced multiculturalism that downplays Canadian values and divisive identity politics that demonizes Canadian heritage and identity.\u201d<\/p>\n So if Malcolm, Kay, Gormley and others are correct with their assessments of what is left of our country, it is a vast land devoid of national identifiers. Justin Trudeau\u2019s Canada defies unifying definitions: with our embarrassing history, there are no acceptable norms or politically correct culture, no respected traditions, no legitimate mythos. We are but a mass of cosmopolitan people, gasping at some notion of globalism, without a grounding in a Nation\u2019s past or its peoples\u2019 efforts to get us to where we enjoy one of the best standards of living on the planet.<\/p>\n Oh (what once was) Canada! Enjoy your\u00a0postnational Wednesday<\/em>.<\/p>\n Chris George<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is an Ottawa-based government affairs advisor and wordsmith, president of\u00a0CG&A COMMUNICATIONS<\/a>. Contact:\u00a0ChrisG.George@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n