New vulnerabilities are surfacing. While most polls suggest the vast majority of Canadian adults are resolute in resisting any such takeover, the younger generation (18-35) is much more inclined – given certain favourable terms – to join the United States. The younger you are, the more likely you are to be susceptible to Trump and his appeals.
One of the most unacknowledged reasons is the failure of our school systems to teach the current generation about historic Canadian resistance to U.S. threats, incursions and trade sanctions going back to the American Revolution.
The result that alarmed Colin MacEachern, a former Halifax high school history educator now teaching in Australia, was the susceptibility of today’s students and their teachers to Trump’s bluster and blandishments.
MacEachern wrote on social media that his students would likely have no comprehension of the U.S. doctrine of “Manifest Destiny” or the American threat to Canada that was a major factor in nudging us toward Confederation.
It’s also fair to assume they have little or no knowledge of critical events of U.S. pressure on Canada such as the American invasion of Quebec in 1775, the War of 1812, the 1911 election reciprocity debate, the nuclear warheads controversy of the 1960s or American pressure to join the Iraq War in 2003.
Teach them about the cost of health care and that should make them think twice
One would hope so, but I think people who find Trump alluring tend to vote (and think about politics) like sports fans as opposed to rational or self-interested actors. For them, feelings and fiction are more important than policy, facts, etc.
One of them told me that they learned that the price you pay a hospital is paid by insurance and that the price you actually pay is a lot lower. So they’re not bothered. Like, seriously.
Yeah i could get it for free from the government if i need it, but wouldn’t it be better if i constantly pay a fee even if i use no health services then get denied when i do need them and have to pay out of pocket?
Yeah, I suspect ignorance of the situation is what’s driving the trend, which must not be very significant because the CBC article cited barely mentions it.
These people see themselves as destined to be upper class so they imagine their future as covered by good insurance plus investments that would easily absorb any emergency. So they vote for the interests of the rich, because in their fantasy that’s also their long term best interests.
Tragically, this lack of class consciousness makes them vote for narrowing the path of social mobility that they’re counting on.