When Trump talks about the 51st state or ‘jokes’ about a merger, most people think of a territorial invasion. Meanwhile, what we’ve missed is the ongoing erosion of our economic sovereignty that’s been happening under our noses.
Without re-litigating NAFTA and the USMCA — simultaneously the best and worst trade deals ever, depending on when you’re asking the man who spearheaded it — these choices and the neoliberal political order that created them are part of the trend that brought us here. Deep integration with the U.S., the takeover of Canadian firms by American corporations, and the outsized influence of American multinationals on Canada’s economy and government may feel like new problems in this moment, but they have been growing for years.
Unfortunately I don’t know if there’s a way to kick em out (e.g. by forcing them to sell) without getting ourselves kicked in the gut by the gorilla. We may be forced to create public alternatives to compete with them instead, where appropriate.