The Friday Flashpoint: January 30, AD 2026
Goodwill is an asset
Canada
Canadian provinces have their own prime ministers, called premiers. Similarly just as the US has a president, the states have their governors. David Eby the premier of British Columbia, the Canadian province north of the State of Washington, has accused a group in the Province of Alberta of treason. This organization the Alberta Prosperity Project has met at least three times US administration officials to seek some sort of support for their movement to break Alberta away from Canada. The exposure of these meetings has only made Canadians more distrustful of the United States and looks to many like a conspiracy against Canada.
Legally speaking High Treason would be a threat against the King of Canada, His Majesty Charles III, or levying “war against Canada” or doing “any act preparatory thereto” or assisting “an enemy at war with Canada, or any armed forces against whom Canadian Forces are engaged in hostilities, whether or not a state of war exists between Canada and the country whose forces they are.”
Simple treason would be the “use force or violence for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Canada or a province.” Or, communicating or making available without lawful authority to a foreign agent any “military or scientific information or any sketch, plan, model, article, note or document of a military or scientific character that he knows or ought to know may be used by that state for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or defence of Canada.”
And conspiring to do any of the above is also treason.
Is seeking US support for your plan to break up Canada treason? That depends on how loosely one wants to treat “prejudicial to the safety of Canada,” “plan,” or “overthrow the government.”
UK and China
Sir Keir Starmer, the British Prime Minister visited President Xi Jinping of China in Beijing this week to seek new and better trade relations. The message is clear after Mark Carney the Canadian Prime Minister hosted the Chinese foreign minister two weeks ago: the democracies that the share the most history and kinship with the United States of America see China as more trustworthy and less threatening than the USA. Actions of the US administration are putting China in a better position, just as Kaiser Wilhelm II threw away all the hard work of Bismarck.
India and Europe
As I said last week, India’s government is very disappointed in how it has been treated. Many in India wanted to align with the US administration, but now the opinion is spreading that under 45/47 there is no such thing as being an American friend. Consequently India has made a big show of their new ties with the European Union, and even Canada. The strategy behind this is to lower barriers to trade between one another so that if new American tariffs hit their markets, the pain will mostly be felt by Americans. Indians and Europeans hope the ability to shift their trade from the US to one another will cushion the impact of lost trade with the USA.
Tesla
Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal just published an article titled “I Test Drove a Chinese EV. Now I Don’t Want to Buy American Cars Anymore.”1 I covered this threat to America before in my New Year’s post on the problem of wishcasting. People who claim that the problem is EVs themselves are not looking at the Chinese success and surge in the global market.
Here is the reality, American car companies, and especially Tesla—which has lost a lot of goodwill due to the behavior of its CEO—are facing competition like they never have before. The period of European dominance that began in 1836 is over and did not last even two centuries. The world is competitive and wishing that fact away will not make it so. Furthermore, insulting people will only drive partners away. America and its companies need to mature and do the things that made them strong before: honing discipline, diligence, thrift, and seriousness.
The world is not going to wait for American to get its act together.
