You make some valid points. When you stop sensationalizing your comments it is much easier to take you seriously.
Renaming the Gulf of Mexico is just a publicity stunt, nobody cares what Americans call it.
I think that you are greatly over simplifying things when you state that American dollars support their / our way of life. It is incredibly complex how international economies interact and the USA has in many cases economically raped and pillaged other countries. Economically, politically and militarily manipulating or outright taking what it wants. It's not a one sided thing at all, but the USA has certainly benefited as much as it's paid.
You are correct in that Canada has not met it's 2% commitment (keep in mind it is a target not a requirement of membership in NATO), simply because putting a lot of money into military spending isn't a priority for us. Correctly you note that the USA has a vested interest in our safety as we share the longest natural border in the world. Practically speaking that's a security risk for the USA. I can understand why Americans would want us to be more militaristic. Lets be real though, Trump isn't interested in us "pulling our fair share",.. as you so astutely point out, it's all about the money. Investment in depreciating military assets that will have to be continuously maintained and prove a drain on the economy in perpetuity. The USA is the single largest weapons manufacturer in the world and stands to profit tremendously with the billions these military spending commitments entail. I personally think that Canada should meet the target by putting the funds into Canadian arms manufacturing and ensure that Trump doesn't benefit but that wouldn't make him happy and he'd likely seek other ways to negatively affect us all.
You see advantage for the USA through Trump. I see advantage to Canada in reaction to Trump. Canada has largely kept our trade and international relationships curtailed to within a scope that the USA finds agreeable. The USA is after all our largest trading partner and our economies are inextricably intertwined. Much of the raw resources that the USA sources from Canada are provided at well below market value. Trump is enough of a bully that I expect we will end up placating him in the short term. What I hope is that it will embolden our citizens and politicians to push for greater efforts at diversifying our trade to other international destinations, over time lessening our reliance on American trade as it will have proven to be disadvantageous to us to have put most of our eggs in one basket.
To your point the USA could source the resources they get from Canada elsewhere, it will simply cost them much more for the resources and transportation of those resources.
You stay the course with a trading partner you respect. You look for other options with a trading partner you fear.
Trump will put many countries through short term pain with his policies... Individually they will all likely suffer more than the USA, but cumulatively the USA more so than any of the others. I am certain that the wealthy will profit and that will be success for Trump but the average American is in for very hard times. The long term effects of Trump won't be felt for many years. I don't have your confidence that it will be positive, but I expect that won't matter since the politicians will simply bald-faced lie about it anyway.
Whether you believe it or not Trump has negatively impacted the reputation of the USA. Many of the people that I personally know have stopped crossing the border to shop. It might be a short term reaction which is resolved when the politicians sort things out.. but I don't think so. I certainly have no intention of going down to the USA anymore. The exchange rate with the American dollar only matters domestically if you want to buy something in USD.
Not a very uplifting conversation.
