Nodding to the “Fortress North America” concept floated by Ontario Premier Doug Ford and some U.S. interests, which prioritizes continental co-operation in the face of Chinese economic threats, Carney said this new relationship would “re-imagine co-operation in specific sectors deeply challenged by global competition.”
Carney said the U.S. is dependent on Canadian oil, natural gas, electricity, aluminum, potash, nickel, copper and industrial components, and the two sides should do more business together in these sectors, not less.
“That is mutual strength. Canada Strong will help make America great again. The examples are legion where we should work together and compete with the world together,” he said.
I get that the headline is triggering (intentionally so), but the reality is that he is talking to US business people, speaking their language, and telling them that working with Canada is better for them than working with the guy who is threatening Canada.
If he can nudge them to be less supportive of Trump’s bullshit, it is better for Canada.
Even better if he can convince some of them can use their bought-and-paid-for influence on the US government to get them to back off on attacking Canada, it can be a win.
MAGA is quite literally a white supremacist phrase. It is part of the fascist project to invoke an idealised nationalist nostalgia for a supposed “better time” when there was segregation and/or slavery. (For Black or Indigenous Americans, has America ever been “great”?)
That is what the phrase means. There is quite simply no excuse to invoke it in a positive light.
If they can co-opt things for their agenda, why can’t we?
Sorry, but there is no conceivable scenario in which adopting the language of white supremacy makes the world a better place.
“Adopt” and “co-opt” are very different things.
Co-opting takes control of that language away and re-defines it.
He’s not co-opting it though. He’s just using that language. It’s not really a co-optable phrase, for the reasons I have already described