Canada Deserves a Time-Out

By Walter E. Block (August 2025)

There has been a lost of ink and electricity shed over the unfairness of Trump picking on poor little (population wise, not geographically) Canada. For example, according to the Toronto Star, Trump is a “bully.” States the Kingston Whig-Standard: “Canada stands up to the American bully.” In the view of new Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney, Canada “will stand up to a bully.”

With the advent of the recent election in that country, placing Mr. Carney in power for the next few years, it is time to consider the case on the other side: Is there any argument to be made to the effect that northern country deserves at least a stern talking to out at the woodshed? There is indeed.

Donald is on the warpath against socialism, fascism, Marxism, regulationism, DEI (“Didn’t Earn It”), heavy government involvement in just about everything. This pretty much describes Canada. Why confine this eminently justified rampage of his to only the US? Why not make the entire world great again? Why not start off with America’s friendliest neighbor and greatest trading partner?

Canada richly deserves a strong reprimand for being even wokier than California or Taxachusetts, and that is saying quite a bit. Canadian universities are an intellectual cesspool. They cannot even pass the Sodom and Gemorah test, quite possibly all of them put together! For those weak on their bible, God was going to smite these towns, and an angel interceded and asked Him to spare these people if he could find ten righteous men. He failed. Are there ten professors in all Canadian universities put together who are either conservative or libertarian? Unlikely. Don’t count on Jordan Peterson who resigned from the University of Toronto on the ground that he could not in good conscience accept even one white male as a student of his. In the US, while many single universities such as in the Ivy League would fail this test, probably, each of the 50 states, every one of them counting all of their institutions of higher learning put together, would pass.

How about the media? With the exception of the National Post – Financial Post, the Sun chain, there is not a single such periodical that can count in this regard. In the US, the numbers are far higher, proportionately, if we include talk radio.

What about think tanks? Apart from the lonely Fraser Institute, there are very few (full disclosure: they fired me for being too-free enterprise oriented.) One could count in this regard the following handful: Aristotle, Frontier, Macdonald-Laurier and Montreal Economic Institutes

In the US there are literally dozens, headed by Acton, AEI, AIER, Cato, FEE, Heritage, Hoover, Independent, Liberty Fund, Manhattan, Mises, Reason, RPI. And that is in addition to the 50 free market state-oriented think tanks.

Then there is the fact that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (so called for that latter word in their title) is actually owned by the government! In western civilized countries, the press is supposed to be a check on the state apparatus. Its main role is to serve as the fourth estate. Only in totalitarian countries does the government have its own newspaper. The Great White North (this refers to snow, not skin color) joins the wrong set of counties on this issue.

Canada can also be severely scolded for having had its own governmental oil company, PetroCan (however, they are to be credited for later on privatizing it.) At one time their recent past wheat farmers were legally prohibited from selling any of their crops to you or I. Instead, they were compelled to deal with the Canadian Wheat Board, a governmental entity. Ditto for other types of farmers.

According to one study, “More than 30% of (the) Canadian economy (is) protected from foreign competition.” This includes air transport (no carrier may operate between Canadian cities). Want to buy some booze? In many provinces, you must deal with the all and ever-loving government; private enterprise is forbidden.

What about politics?  I say nothing about the present Progressive-Conservative party (note that first name! they previously gave it up, but all too often kept the game). But in the past the adherence of this group to capitalism, private property rights, etc., has been similar to that of RINOs in the US. The policies of the so called moderates, the Liberals, represent nothing as much as the left wing of the US Democratic Party. Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and Barack Obama would find a congenial home there. And don’t let me get started on the far left party of Canada, the New Democrats; this is a family newspaper after all. I must make an exception in all this for Alberta. That is the Texas or Florida of Canada; thank goodness for a little bit of sanity to the north of us.

What of the Libertarian Party? In the US, it can reliably count on, oh, 1-2% of the vote; there is an LP in Canada too, bless it, but it garners far less support than that. On the other hand, pretty much all of Mr. Trump’s recent initiatives, apart from economically, not militarily oriented tariffs, are on broad keeping with the liberty movement. “Affirmative action” still rides high in Canada, not in the (relatively speaking) land of the free and home of the brave, thanks to Mr. Trump.

Last but not least, this is something no Jew will ever forget, nor should anyone else. During the Nazi period, a minister of this country was asked how many Jews he would allowed into Canada. His never to be forgotten response: “None is too many.”

The obvious retort to all of this is, why is it any business of Trump, or indeed his entire country, if Canada goes to hell in a handbasket? The obvious response is, we are all in this together. If drug gangs percolate all throughout Mexico, this negatively effects its neighbors. Ditto for Canada remaining socialist. That, too, impinges on the country to the south of it. In any case, we are here exploring possible justifications for the Donald’s enmity, and have discovered more than just a few.

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Walter E. Block is Harold E. Wirth Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics, College of Business, Loyola University New Orleans, and senior fellow at the Mises Institute. He earned his PhD in economics at Columbia University in 1972. He has taught at Rutgers, SUNY Stony Brook, Baruch CUNY, Holy Cross and the University of Central Arkansas. He is the author of more than 600 refereed articles in professional journals, three dozen books, and thousands of op eds (including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and numerous others). He lectures widely on college campuses, delivers seminars around the world and appears regularly on television and radio shows. He is the Schlarbaum Laureate, Mises Institute, 2011; and has won the Loyola University Research Award (2005, 2008) and the Mises Institute’s Rothbard Medal of Freedom, 2005; and the Dux Academicus award, Loyola University, 2007. Prof. Block counts among his friends Ron Paul and Murray Rothbard. He was converted to libertarianism by Ayn Rand. Block is old enough to have played chess with Friedrich Hayek and once met Ludwig von Mises, and shook his hand. Block has never washed that hand since. So, if you shake his hand (it’s pretty dirty, but what the heck) you channel Mises.

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