Trump Midterm Crush, Carney’s Transatlantic Romance, Smith UCP Manoeuvres

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By Gabriel Haythornthwaite, The DNA Report

In this post, The DNA Report resumes its recurring segment This Week In Annexation to consider recent developments on the American Annexation question in Canada. We have been privileged to endure four elections in 30 days that have an important bearing on this existential matter—the Quebec general election on October 5, the Alberta pre-annexation referendum on October 19, the October 24 surprise self-immolation of the BCNDP and the November 3 midterms in the heart of Empire.

This journal will start its recent events rundown with the Yanqui Blue Release Valve, followed by a look at the transatlantic romance being cooked up with the European Union by Head Chef Mark Carney and the latest gerrymandering manoeuvres of the Smith UCP regime in Alberta.

Trump Midterm Crush

The Earth continued to revolve the day after the US 2026 mid-terms and almost all non-Nazis have taken a moment of satisfaction at the unequivocal quasi-referendum rejection of Trump 2.0 rule. With two Senate races left to finalize and 25 House contests still up in the air, the current tallies denote clear Democrat majorities in both legislative bodies. This development, we are told by our social betters, means some kind of liberal counter-balance to the hyper-regressive power of the Ogre Office.

There will be much establishment sifting through the entrails of this outcome for political meaning before the swearing in of the new Congress in January. Canadian pundits are understandably focused on the fallout as it affects relations with the Empire down south, particularly the US-Canada trade war. The incoming Democrat House Speaker, Hakeem Jeffries, has placed challenging the Trump tariffs on his first hundred days’ priority list and that is music to the ears of Canadian business.

Such good cheer is bound to disappoint as Herr Trump has quickly affirmed that the midterm results will have no impact on the US hard line at the trade deal table and Democrat legislation around tariffs has little chance of overcoming the powerful Presidential veto.

On the other hand, Trump was giving signals in recent days that a deal was within reach while Carney has suggested the Americans are backing off on their most egregiously subordinating demands. There are also warnings from previously Trump-cowed GOP leaders that the triggering of 50% tariffs on automobiles on January 1 spell both economic and political disaster. That all said, Canadians should be clear that we are being prepared by Camp Carney for a corporate trade scheme which will include wide-ranging tariffs (as in the case of concessionary deals with the EU and Japan) as well as appeasement towards American interests.

What does this outcome mean for the larger question of American Annexation? Firstly, The DNA Report is moderately optimistic that this stinging political rebuke of Trump further shrinks options for his Manifest Destiny ambitions, especially in light of his losing war with Iran. We would be fools to think that the matter is permanently closed and will not being explored through a more circuitous route but relief from an imminent threat should be welcomed by all democratically minded people. This does mean that anti-democratic threats in Canada over the short and medium term are more squarely coming from the Canadian establishment itself.

Following on the last point, this journal is not merely against annexation but seeks to contribute to a genuine democratic politics in Canada. With that guiding perspective in mind, it should be clear that the current political situation here remains dire as democratic resistance to rightwing establishment moves, on behalf of corporate power and against national freedoms, remains very weak.

A basic comparison of the US midterms with our recent elections in Canada reveals the ice-water sobering fact that the level of political debate among the not-overly brilliant denizens of the Empire is markedly higher than in English Canada, where the working majority appears to be in perpetual political slumber. Such a dismal state of political hibernation negates any collective ability to engage anti-democratic threats, be they from within or without.

Carney’s Transatlantic Romance

Speaking of Canadian establishment threats to democracy, CEO Mark Carney’s continuing love affair with his old Eurotrash friends is something we need to size up and oppose. We are told that formalizing alliances with the sinking continent across the pond will help us against Trump USA but even the EU has decided that creating a new form of ‘associate’ membership on the fly is off the table, after protests from the leading member states of Germany, France and Italy.

Instead, transatlantic flirtation is being pursued with billions of working class tax dollars funnelled towards Euro murderware like the Swedish Gripon jets which were tested in 2011 through 650 search and destroy missions in Libya. “Economic co-operation” will be ramped up in true Canadian style through ‘critical minerals’ and other ‘competitive’ (read: cheap) resource commodities. The Euro-Carney partnership is also looking towards strong-arming EU nations who are holding up the implementation of the EU-Canada corporate free trade deal (CETA, Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) legally affirmed by Ottawa in 2017.

Meanwhile, Canadians are being encouraged to participate in what may well be the world greatest ‘democratic’ farce—voting in the tacky cultural swill of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), which will have a Canadian entry for the first time next May. This journal is not normally concerned with cultural events but given the ESC’s propaganda role in whitewashing the obscenity of Canada’s pandering to imperial Europe, this author will consider support for any entry designed around the theme of ‘Our Lovely Farce’.

What does the Carney Canada obsession with Europe signify? Why would the Canadian establishment not instead prioritize defensive relations with other states under threat right here in the Americas? The answer to these questions lies in a remarkable retro-colonial orientation on the part of ‘our’ rulers, mirrored nationally in rising regressive assaults against First Nations’ political rights and social provision.

Smith UCP Manoeuvres

Governor Smith certainly suffered a serious setback with the Albertan electorate’s firm rejection of separation and constitutional change on October 19 but the UCP regime is not out of initiative and also is not nearly stupid enough to call an early election as the NDP inflicted upon BC. In fact, the Smith UCP is pushing for a redrawing of the province’s electoral map less than a year from next October’s fixed date election—which Elections Alberta has warned can not be accommodated logistically, especially in the wake of the $84m cabinet referendum dropped on the province this year.

Now to be fair, Governor Smith has directly said that the redrawing of riding boundaries was recommended by a completely impartial panel headed up by a retired judge. But ANDP leader Naheed Nenshi alleges that the redraw report points to the panel receiving government instructions which invalidate that claim.

What is more, the official opposition contends that this electoral review is setting the stage for cheating in the next election through the gerrymandering of battleground Calgary ridings to benefit the ruling UCP. The NDP is preparing a constitutional challenge to the election legislation which is currently making its way through the legislature.

Though gerrymandering has a long dishonourable tradition in Canada, something about both the timing and the comprehensive nature of riding changes do seem to owe something to perennial US Republican party tactics which were being used by the Trump cabal in advance of the midterms—though to little apparent avail.

The Smith UCP has also been busy cleaning its internal Augean Stables. Jeff Rath, the far Right cowboy lawyer who co-founded the annexationist Alberta Prosperity Project (APP), has been purged by the ruling party—a move that he is vowing to challenge.

This is the latest in a series of misfortunes which Rath has suffered over the past four months, including: facing litigation from three plaintiffs pursuing a grand total of $160m in the alleged corrupt management of First Nations trust funds (see https://dnareport.substack.com/p/top-quisling-faces-legal-music-over); being dumped by the APP itself in September (but continuing to speak for the outfit anyway); and, finally, getting tragically crushed underfoot by 75% of voters in the October ‘separation’ vote. The DNA Report will continue to follow this popcorn-worthy story.

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Gabriel Haythornthwaite is a former labour-allied school board trustee in BC and currently advises First Nations around political and intergovernmental relations. He is also a leftwing writer and political organizer.