

I hear you. It’s absolutely insane how fast the Republicans morphed into what I now know are called vatniks. Including, unbelievably, support for Putin. I think conditions are different in the USA (for instance a lot of traditional and online media being very critical of Trump’s moves) than Russia, but it remains to be seen how all this plays out. I fear autocracy is on the rise in many countries and definitely in the US.
As far as morality go, the entire world has problems demanding ethical treatment for people far away. Products of all kinds are made in terrible conditions, and even I’m not innocent as I own things like mobile phones. I admittedly don’t know a ton about ethical guards, but I do know that even in the EU you still have companies like Nestle doing business in spite of clear exploitation. I think that is very much a humanity problem as opposed to just a US problem, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t call it out in North America or that you’re wrong.
Most of Canada’s oil is heavy oil that doesn’t compete well with the lighter oil on international markets due to difficulty in transportation and refining. It is shipped to the US by train, and refined in the US which has costs associated with it. I couldn’t find a source saying that Canada would be 20% better off shipping to our other export targets like the EU. I’m willing to be taught a lesson by such sources.
I’m guessing you’re arguing that trade with the US makes drugs expensive. Canada protects drug prices as part of our single-payer system. We negotiate prices nationally and thus pay close to what other OECD nations pay. Re: patents - I could very well be missing something, but wouldn’t such patents exist regardless of trade agreements? If we could buy generic analogs of patented drugs then surely we can regardless of patents. If we can’t get generic analogs then how does cancelling trade agreements make patented drugs cheaper? If you are just saying that US big pharma sucks then I totally agree, but I don’t see how ending our agreements fixes that.
Americanization of media and culture isn’t just a Canadian problem that stems from our close relationship to the US. Things like radicalization and swings towards autocracy are happening in democracies (and other systems) all around the world regardless of level of direct US influence. I don’t think it’s fair at all to say that if we didn’t associate with the US that our society would be free from US-style problems.
I can see that NAFTA has caused instances of ignoring environmental damage. I will say that as far as I can tell by looking it up, the Lone Pine Resources v. Canada case was decided against the corporation, in which case the destruction you mention was not allowed. “On November 21, 2022, the NAFTA tribunal found that revocation of mining rights around the St. Lawrence river did not amount to an expropriation, considering that Claimant retained other mining rights. Tribunal majority also dismisses MST claim.” Unless I’m reading that wrong (definitely a possibility) in that case NAFTA officials actually stopped environmental damage. Plus let’s face it, provinces like Alberta and Ontario do not need NAFTA pressure at all to make large-scale environmentally harmful choices. I’m not convinced Canada would have refused to exploit resources if free trade wasn’t a thing.
As far as the relationship being shit, there’s a lot of experts who say it’s beneficial. If nothing else it has created TONS of jobs for Canadians and been a bedrock of our economy across many sectors.