Eh, this isn’t an issue exclusive to Doug Ford. And honestly, the rhetoric of our Government doesn’t really match their actions.

Last week we saw headlines about our biggest banks selling their payment network, moneris, to US Private Equity in San Fran for $450 mil – something that’d no doubt first get the green light from Canadian regulators before being announced. Media generally cheers, business communities cheer, politicians collect their pay cheques, everyone’s ok with it. Banks are federally regulated critical infrastructure, so Carney’s busy selling off/permitting to be sold off, our critical industries/infrastructure, while he’s also out there feigning to be ‘elbows up’.

David Eby too, in BC, for similar reasons. Credit Unions are provincially regulated, and the province has shrugged as US companies took over critical roles in that space – with all ‘larger’ credit unions, and the regulators that oversee them, completely reliant on US backend support companies to function. Using cheques to try and avoid US dependent payment networks? Too bad, those get scanned in to a US Cloud to get processed by most orgs! So even if you’re in a small town, banking with a local “community” credit union, you’re reliant on the US for your day to day payment services.

Most of our government agencies are absolutely dependent on US tech giants: if the US/Trump were to enact something like a 1 week, or 1 month ban on Microsoft/Amazon etc providing service to Canada, our gov would practically shut down. Canadian businesses would squeal, but practically all of Microsoft terms say they’ll hear disputes in US Courts, who would support MS complying with US trade requirements to absolve any liability claims for losses They’re not claiming Canada’s their bitch without some justification. That sort of ‘embargo’ stupidity is the sort of shit someone like Trump may decide to do (Cuba, for example). And as the media’s noted, if/when Canada retaliates the US response is totally up to the s(h)itting president.

Sorry that leopard is eating your faces, CUPE.