Canada is taking an outsized role in the construction of the post-American world • Hacker News Board

Re: Canada is taking an outsized role in the construction of the post-American world

#11

Post by TMWNN » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 7:55 PM UTC

bulbar wrote: post #9

TMWNN wrote: post #6

>we are attempting to redirect some of our trade to other nations besides the U.S., including by a series of sweeping free trade agreements Canada sells $450 billion to the US annually, out of total exports of $550 billion. Let's say Carney is able to, through herculean effort, replace $100 billion of exports to the US—an immense amount, equal to Canada's entire current non-US exports—with an equal amount of trade to…

> As another Redditor put it, the first time Canadians would notice a difference in their lives is when they vote for said representatives. A country doesn't get attacked and invaded to change basically nothing or increase the life of the foreign population. It's done to exercise sustained power. Who do you think would Canadians vote for after Trump starts a war, kills hundreds or more Canadians, etc.? So, for sure t…

>A country doesn't get attacked and invaded

It's as if you blithely ignored my

>Even (again) setting aside Trump explicitly ruling out invasion

in the sentence before the one you quoted.

As for

>Who do you think would Canadians vote for after Trump starts a war, kills hundreds or more Canadians, etc.? So, for sure they wouldn't get voting rights, for example.

First, let me (again) point you to what I wrote above.

Second, let's address the question of Canadians voting after annexation in general. Americans on either side of politics think that Canada is full of super-leftists (and there is no shortage), and Canadians love repeating the "Canadian Conservatives are more leftist than American Democrats" nonsense. But were Canada a part of the US in 2016, Trump would have won AB, SK, and quite possibly enough of the GTA (the parts that loved Rob Ford, and as "Ford Country" has repeatedly won the province for Doug Ford) to win ON, the province most resembling MI/WI/PA, the three states that Trump unexpectedly won the election with. 2024? Very good chance he also takes some/all of BC, MB, NS, and NL.

Re: Canada is taking an outsized role in the construction of the post-American world

#12

Post by TMWNN » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 7:58 PM UTC

bulbar wrote: post #9

TMWNN wrote: post #6

>we are attempting to redirect some of our trade to other nations besides the U.S., including by a series of sweeping free trade agreements Canada sells $450 billion to the US annually, out of total exports of $550 billion. Let's say Carney is able to, through herculean effort, replace $100 billion of exports to the US—an immense amount, equal to Canada's entire current non-US exports—with an equal amount of trade to…

> As another Redditor put it, the first time Canadians would notice a difference in their lives is when they vote for said representatives. A country doesn't get attacked and invaded to change basically nothing or increase the life of the foreign population. It's done to exercise sustained power. Who do you think would Canadians vote for after Trump starts a war, kills hundreds or more Canadians, etc.? So, for sure t…

>Or when they can't afford health care anymore

Ah yes, the so-effective Canadian system.

Context for others: An amazingly high portion of Canadians don't have a family doctor https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/article/health-care-on-the-bri...>. In Atlantic Canada (the four easternmost provinces) it is impossible, repeat impossible, to get a family doctor if you don't have one https://web.archive.org/web/20190226051406/https://www.thete...>. It's one thing to have shortages in rural areas—that happens in the US too—but Halifax?!? I've heard the same occurs in Vancouver too, and am hearing more reports of the same in Ontario.

Re: Canada is taking an outsized role in the construction of the post-American world

#13

Post by TMWNN » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 8:11 PM UTC

jleyank wrote: post #10

TMWNN wrote: post #6

>we are attempting to redirect some of our trade to other nations besides the U.S., including by a series of sweeping free trade agreements Canada sells $450 billion to the US annually, out of total exports of $550 billion. Let's say Carney is able to, through herculean effort, replace $100 billion of exports to the US—an immense amount, equal to Canada's entire current non-US exports—with an equal amount of trade to…

Some things that are shipped from the us to foreign lands could be shipped from Canada for similar costs. Food, for example, or minerals or oil. These are things shipped in bulk “elsewhere”. Canada, as far as I can tell, has lots of such stuff. If they can somehow manufacture things of high value (electronics, pharmaceuticals) then a cargo plane or two is sufficient. If wfh is allowed, then work can be done separatel…

> Some things that are shipped from the us to foreign lands could be shipped from Canada for similar costs. Food, for example, or minerals or oil. These are things shipped in bulk “elsewhere”. Canada, as far as I can tell, has lots of such stuff.

As of 2025, 90% of Canadian crude and 100% of natural gas goes to the US. https://www.cer-rec.gc.ca/en/data-analysis/energy-markets/ma...> Carney has talked a lot about new pipelines, but so did Trudeau and absolutely nothing has actually happened, because BC and Ontario are 100% dead-set against them.

>If they can somehow manufacture things of high value (electronics, pharmaceuticals)

Canada has, to a first degree of approximation, no electronics manufacturing. Its COVID vaccines were 100% manufactured elsewhere.

>Australia and New Zealand manage to support technological states.

New Zealand is seeing a brain drain that makes Canada's to the US look like nothing.

Australia is a better example. But stating that another similar resource-based Anglosphere country has not gone bankrupt without a US-like next-door neighbor is not necessarily the compelling counterexample that you think it is.

>Hell, they can join the EU as their products complement European states.

Read again what I wrote about how trade cannot be so easily substituted.

>And you assume the us won’t fracture.

Sorry to shatter (ahem) your illusions, but Canada is the one with Quebec and Alberta (and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_alienation> in general). Americans see themselves as Americans first and foremost.

Re: Canada is taking an outsized role in the construction of the post-American world

#14

Post by Teever » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 8:50 PM UTC

thegrim33 wrote: post #8

billfor wrote: post #3

What to Submit On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably of…

Just flag it, scan through the poster's other submissions/comments and flag all similarly rule breaking posts, and move on.

There's nothing wrong with the links that I post here.

Here are links to many posts throughout the years posted by others with similar content that weren't flagged and that generated a tremendous amount of conversation with many insights to be had from reading them:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16996420

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18613124

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42070946

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42396733

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46648778

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22232036

Re: Canada is taking an outsized role in the construction of the post-American world

#15

Post by jleyank » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 9:03 PM UTC

TMWNN wrote: post #13

jleyank wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some things that are shipped from the us to foreign lands could be shipped from Canada for similar costs. Food, for example, or minerals or oil. These are things shipped in bulk “elsewhere”. Canada, as far as I can tell, has lots of such stuff. If they can somehow manufacture things of high value (electronics, pharmaceuticals) then a cargo plane or two is sufficient. If wfh is allowed, then work can be done separatel…

> Some things that are shipped from the us to foreign lands could be shipped from Canada for similar costs. Food, for example, or minerals or oil. These are things shipped in bulk “elsewhere”. Canada, as far as I can tell, has lots of such stuff. As of 2025, 90% of Canadian crude and 100% of natural gas goes to the US. https://www.cer-rec.gc.ca/en/data-analysis/energy-markets/ma... > Carney has talked a lot about new…

Puerto Rico makes pharmaceuticals, so if it can be built there it can be built in Canada or wherever. No high-tech workforce in PR, and tax games can be played anywhere. And Trudeau, to many people's annoyance, bought Alberta a pipeline. More can be built. This sh*t isn't going to change in a year and the problem(s) aren't going away either.

A key questions, which I lack the data to answer, is what products of the US can be substituted by Canada or other countries. Much/most of the tech manufacture isn't in the US, and neither is the pharmaceutical manufacturing. There are drug/biotech companies all over the world. The only thing that comes to mind as a US big win is the VC business. And money is horribly mobile and fickle.

Google's AI says airplanes and their engines are a US export. And Boeing has its competition along with Pratt & Whitney.

Re: Canada is taking an outsized role in the construction of the post-American world

#16

Post by SpecialistK » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 9:03 PM UTC

TMWNN wrote: post #12

bulbar wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As another Redditor put it, the first time Canadians would notice a difference in their lives is when they vote for said representatives. A country doesn't get attacked and invaded to change basically nothing or increase the life of the foreign population. It's done to exercise sustained power. Who do you think would Canadians vote for after Trump starts a war, kills hundreds or more Canadians, etc.? So, for sure t…

>Or when they can't afford health care anymore Ah yes, the so-effective Canadian system. Context for others: An amazingly high portion of Canadians don't have a family doctor https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/article/health-care-on-the-bri... >. In Atlantic Canada (the four easternmost provinces) it is impossible, repeat impossible , to get a family doctor if you don't have one https://web.archive.org/web/20190226051406/…

At least two hospitals in the Greater Vancouver area have had weekend ER closures this year. Kelowna is having their own issues, mostly maternity.

Re: Canada is taking an outsized role in the construction of the post-American world

#17

Post by rjrjrjrj » Sun, Jul 26, 2026, 4:26 AM UTC

TMWNN wrote: post #11

bulbar wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As another Redditor put it, the first time Canadians would notice a difference in their lives is when they vote for said representatives. A country doesn't get attacked and invaded to change basically nothing or increase the life of the foreign population. It's done to exercise sustained power. Who do you think would Canadians vote for after Trump starts a war, kills hundreds or more Canadians, etc.? So, for sure t…

>A country doesn't get attacked and invaded It's as if you blithely ignored my >Even (again) setting aside Trump explicitly ruling out invasion in the sentence before the one you quoted. As for >Who do you think would Canadians vote for after Trump starts a war, kills hundreds or more Canadians, etc.? So, for sure they wouldn't get voting rights, for example. First, let me (again) point you to what I wrote above. Sec…

Congrats, dumbest thing I've read on the Internet today.

Have you ever actually looked at the 2015 Federal Election results. SMH.

Re: Canada is taking an outsized role in the construction of the post-American world

#18

Post by bulbar » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 6:31 AM UTC

TMWNN wrote: post #12

bulbar wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As another Redditor put it, the first time Canadians would notice a difference in their lives is when they vote for said representatives. A country doesn't get attacked and invaded to change basically nothing or increase the life of the foreign population. It's done to exercise sustained power. Who do you think would Canadians vote for after Trump starts a war, kills hundreds or more Canadians, etc.? So, for sure t…

>Or when they can't afford health care anymore Ah yes, the so-effective Canadian system. Context for others: An amazingly high portion of Canadians don't have a family doctor https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/article/health-care-on-the-bri... >. In Atlantic Canada (the four easternmost provinces) it is impossible, repeat impossible , to get a family doctor if you don't have one https://web.archive.org/web/20190226051406/…

Meanwhile, in the US people can't afford to become sick or just go bankrupt over it.

Do you want to argue that both systems suck? I don't know enough about the Canadian system to judge on that, as long as we can agree that the US system is completely broken we agree.

Re: Canada is taking an outsized role in the construction of the post-American world

#19

Post by bulbar » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 6:34 AM UTC

TMWNN wrote: post #11

bulbar wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As another Redditor put it, the first time Canadians would notice a difference in their lives is when they vote for said representatives. A country doesn't get attacked and invaded to change basically nothing or increase the life of the foreign population. It's done to exercise sustained power. Who do you think would Canadians vote for after Trump starts a war, kills hundreds or more Canadians, etc.? So, for sure t…

>A country doesn't get attacked and invaded It's as if you blithely ignored my >Even (again) setting aside Trump explicitly ruling out invasion in the sentence before the one you quoted. As for >Who do you think would Canadians vote for after Trump starts a war, kills hundreds or more Canadians, etc.? So, for sure they wouldn't get voting rights, for example. First, let me (again) point you to what I wrote above. Sec…

Not sure what you are arguing about then. That generally Canada works be better off of they joined the US? As already stated, I don't think Canadian population agrees on that.

I'm addition, most of what you mentioned can be achieved without merging two countries, just by trade agreements.

Re: Canada is taking an outsized role in the construction of the post-American world

#20

Post by Zigurd » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 3:47 PM UTC

Calling this off-topic is willfully ignoring the damage trumpism causes the tech industry. It's a safe bet that we will see posts lamenting how US technology is no longer trusted and therefore software economics doesn't work as well as it used to. Historically about half of sales for US software companies have been outside the US. It's delusional to think that will continue.