Summary
Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to 1.5 million Americans in Minnesota, New York, and Michigan, effective Monday, in response to Trump’s trade war.
The measure will generate CA$300,000-400,000 daily to support Ontario workers and businesses, adding about CA$100 monthly to affected American bills.
Ford threatened further increases or complete shutoff if the US escalates, despite Trump’s one-month tariff reprieve.
This action supplements Canada’s CA$30 billion in federal retaliatory tariffs on various American products.
Good. We Americans need to learn the lesson that, in fact, we are not, have never been, and cannot be individualists. We are dependent on our neighbors: personally, nationally, and internationally.
We also need to learn that we cannot sustain ourselves by constantly taking: taking from each other, taking from nature, and taking from the future generations. We have become a nation of consumers, not citizens, and that is morally wrong. We expect to take with no consequences, and that’s just not how Earth works.
An American with self awareness. So glad I left corporate shithole Reddit for this place.
This isn’t directed at you specifically but at anyone who comes across these comments, and I’m including this information here because it directly influenced my initial comment above:
I’ve been doing a lot of listening to indigenous worldview and learning of indigenous values. It has really helped me identify where western civilization and culture has been lacking for millennia, but especially over the last few centuries.
I’ve come to understand that the damage starts when we are young when we learn that nature is an “it” without needs and that we cannot rely on or trust other people. We learn to either dominate or make ourselves small in our daily relationships in order to feel safe when we should be seeing the world and one another as gifts to be explored and shared.
It takes some listening and reflecting to figure out that what you’ve been taught is dangerous. I’m currently trying to figure out how I can learn more of these perspectives and also build a stable and trusting community around me.
I think that’s where we need to do the work to try and undo what’s happening both at the national level and in those who are supporting authoritarianism.
I’ll get off my soapbox now, but I wanted to share in case it resonated with anyone else.
Just a guess at previous reading material: “Ishmael” and “Story of B” by Daniel Quinn?
I haven’t heard of those! Do you recommend?
Highly recommend. The reason I thought of them is because that is where I first learned the concept of leaver and taker societies.
Awesome! I’ll add them to my list!