The JD Vance tweet last week called out the CBC by name. Here is the tweet in full, in case a reader has not seen it:
“And with all due respect to my Canadian friends, whose politics focus obsessively on the United States: your stagnating living standards have nothing to do with Donald Trump or whatever bogeyman the CBC tells you to blame. The fault lies with your leadership, elected by you.”
Vance correctly diagnosed Canada’s obsession with the United States. Regardless of the era or the president, Canadians have been closely following what was happening south of the border. Those mainstream media sources and the widely circulated newspapers in Toronto and other major cities have largely framed that information. The mythology of John F. Kennedy, the appeal of Bill Clinton, or the figurative worship of Barack Obama, all Democrats, is no coincidence. Our media has perpetuated the idea that Democrats reflect Canadian values better than Republicans. In effect, Democratic presidents understand Canada, and that justifies the favourable coverage. But has that been good for Canada, its economic prospects, and our ability to compete? Vance would argue against it, and this author would contend he has good reason to say the CBC and other entrenched news sources have turned Trump’s America into a bogeyman. By aligning Canada with European states, imposing regulatory overhead, and entering adjacent global agreements, we are enduring a long national decline that many would like to blame on Trump, but which originates internally.
GLOBAL OBLIGATIONS
During the budget drama earlier this month, the lone Green member, Elizabeth May, after a long torturous deliberation, supported the budget, reporting to the breathless journalists covering the budget enclave, “I heard a firm commitment we will meet our Paris targets. That requires action very soon because the first target we are going to hit is 2030, and then 2035. Legally binding treaty commitments and a commitment to do far more than we’ve heard in the budget, with funding for the kind of things like the Kunming-Montreal (Global Biodiversity Framework) commitments to stop beating up Mother Earth and start the process of CPR.”
May receives far more attention and has an exaggerated level of influence on the Ottawa press. However, it says a lot about Liberal hypocrisy that Prime Minister Mark Carney and his government would kowtow to her. On one side of his mouth, Carney wants to endorse developing our resources; on the other side, he speaks of targets from the Trudeau era that put Canada in a vulnerable economic position, which everyone agreed gave Trump leverage. Canada has every right to join whatever global organization it wants. The current administration can support policies that help the environment, safeguard wildlife, and heed the climate scientists’ urgent warnings. What the nation cannot sustain is keeping these obligations, surrendering our national sovereignty to these international bodies and then claiming that the Americans are ruining our economy. These decisions are ours alone, and the sacrifice of jobs, productivity, and partnerships with countries that want to buy our natural resources goes with it. We have not played to our strengths, and Vance pointing it out underlines the reality of our problems, not the rudeness of an American politician.
PRODUCTIVITY RATES
A quick search comparing productivity rates in Canada and the United States lists several articles about this phenomenon. A briefing paper from the University of Calgary School of Public Policy in 2024 reported that, “Canada is seriously lagging in productivity growth, which is the only means countries have to raise their citizens’ standard of living. Overall, Canadian business productivity fell by 0.6 per cent over the past five years. This is in sharp contrast to the United States, which enjoyed a 10.1 per cent increase over the same period. This trend of faster U.S. growth has held true since the mid-1990s, with Canadian productivity rising by about half as much as the American rate. In fact, Canada trails not only the U.S. but all advanced countries in Northern and Western Europe, as well as Australia.”
Should Vance be condemned for speaking what reporters ignore while trying to enrage people against Trump? Why won’t media personalities discuss RBC’s 2024 article about Canada’s economic struggles? The authors found Canada severely behind in economic growth and losing ground. “Canada is 30% less productive than the U.S. and closer to lower-income states like Alabama in terms of economic performance than tech-rich California or New York. The result: We’ve fallen from the 6th most productive economy in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1970 to the 18th as of 2022.” To put it in terms most can understand, our richest province lags behind the poorest American state economically. The ‘elbows up’ crowd doesn’t get it, but Vance does.
2025 ELECTION
Vance reported accurately about who Canadians have elected recently and over the past decade. Trump said a lot of worthless stuff about Canada being the 51st state or calling former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a governor. He trolls, he acts obnoxiously, and his tariff system may indeed create economic problems for him that cost Republicans dearly in 2026. But Canadians are misdirecting their ire when they blame Trump after re-electing a party willing to make agreements that handcuffed our nation from developing its greatest treasures or opening our borders with no regard to how it would affect housing, education, or healthcare. Instead of recognizing that we could lead the world with clean energy, we left nations less interested, a free hand to supply markets we abandoned. Our governments have partnered with a socialist party intent on economic suicide for virtue signalling Canada’s role as a friend to enthusiastic climate change regulations. Returning the Liberal Party to power signalled we had learned nothing and hardened the perception that we are not a serious economic player.
Vance has nothing to apologize for, and Canadians would do well to get off the snide and wonder why we keep settling for leadership that sells the nation short. The Vice-President was right about Canada, and if we don’t soon recognize how badly we are off course, we will turn to him and Mr. Trump for help. We had better hope that JD Vance thinks more highly of the people of Canada than he does of its leaders.
Dave Redekop is a retired elementary resource teacher who worked part-time at the St. Catharines Courthouse as a Registrar until being appointed Executive Director at Redeemer Bible Church in October 2023. He has worked on political campaigns since high school and attended university in South Carolina for five years, earning a Master’s in American History with a specialization in Civil Rights. Dave loves reading biographies.
