I usually avoid politics here on Boomer Eco Crusader, but the conversation dominating Canadian news this week is too important to ignore. Canada is a sovereign country and, for the good of its people, needs to stay that way. Canada is not the 51^st state.

Welcome to the 96^th edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a simple living challenge for the week. In addition to thoughts on the 51^st state conversation, this week I look at ladder safety, renewable energy wins, and tracking progress on goals.

On my mind this week: Canada as the 51^st state? Not a fan!

Since the birth of Canada as a nation in 1867, we have enjoyed a friendly, productive, and peaceful relationship with our neighbours to the south. Canada has been an unwavering ally to the United States through two world wars. We gave food and shelter to stranded Americans after the closure of U.S. airspace on 9/11. And, just this week, Canadian firefighters travelled to California to help battle the wildfires.

We don’t ask anything in return. We do these things because they are the right thing to do. In short, it’s what friends and neighbours do.

That’s why I find it distressing that, everywhere I look this week, people are talking about the U.S. President-elect’s threat of using “economic force” to push Canada to become the 51^st state. This conversation has gone beyond a mere discussion of trade and tariffs. The incoming President is now threatening our sovereignty as a country, even going as far as to suggest who he’d like to see as the Governor of the “State of Canada”.

This whole conversation makes me sad and angry all at the same time. Is this any way to treat a long-time ally and trusted friend?

Bullying, lies, and ignorance

The President-elect is a bully, and his position is based on half-truths, blatant lies, and ignorance.

First, he has stated that “a lot of Canadians” want to be Americans. Yet, a poll done just last week showed only 13% of Canadians like the idea. (It’s no surprise that males, Albertans, and those likely to vote for right wing parties are more likely to be in favour of Canada becoming the 51^st state.)

As for the U.S. “subsidizing Canada”, the comments show the President-elect is ignorant of the basic laws of economics. Economics wasn’t my best subject in school, but I learned enough to know that trade benefits everyone. The economic ties between our two countries have been established over many decades. Restricting the flow of goods across our borders would hurt as many large American companies, and ultimately American consumers, as it would Canadians.

The President-elect is standing firm on his threat to impose a 25% tariff on all imports from Canada. His statement that the United States “doesn’t need anything Canada has to offer”, including lumber, dairy or automobiles has been refuted by many economists. The U.S. cannot quickly or easily ramp up production to meet its oversized demand for consumption.

Interestingly, he didn’t include oil, gas, or electricity on his list of things Americans don’t need from Canada. More than half of U.S. oil imports—4.4 million barrels of crude oil a day—come from Canada. Almost all of their natural gas imports come from Canada, and Canadian electricity flows to 30 U.S. states.

The bottom line here is that any kind of trade war will cause immediate economic hardship for both Canada and the United States.

We are stronger when we stand together

These threats of the U.S. using force of any kind to take over Canada and make us the 51^st state are demeaning and distressing. And with our government in a state of turmoil following the resignation of Prime Minister Trudeau this week, I fear very rough seas ahead.

A good friend of mine this week reminded me the current shenanigans are just as unsettling for her and the close to half of Americans who are not on board with the far-right agenda of the incoming government.

History has shown we are stronger when we stand together. I hope we can return to harmonious and productive relations soon so we can focus on the bigger issues threatening our society and our planet.

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Three highlights of the week

It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:

• I started a part-time job doing curriculum development at our local community college. I’ll be working three to five hours a week until the end of June.
• Despite the very cold temperatures this week, I’ve been working hard to get back into my routine of a daily walk. The sun has been shining, which helps a lot.
• On Friday, my husband and I went to the Kitchener Rangers game. Unfortunately, the Rangers waited until the middle of the first period to show up and, by that time, the score was 4-0. They ended up losing 5-2. On a positive note, the Beaver Tails were delicious.

Things I learned this week

Life is all about learning. Here are three things I learned this week:

Ladder safety

As part of my orientation training for my new job, I had to do a ladder safety course. (Not sure why as I’ll be working remotely, and my job doesn’t involve ladders of any kind.) In any case, here are some tidbits I picked up.

• Metal and aluminum conduct electricity, so ladders used in electrical work should be made from fibreglass or wood.
• When using an extension ladder, use the 3:1 or 4:1 ratio for stability. The ladder should be angled at a distance of 1 rung for every 3 or 4 rungs of height.
• And always maintain 3 points of contact when using a ladder: two feet and one hand, or two hands and one foot.

One-third of Americans don’t drive

In a country fuelled by car culture, I was surprised to learn this week that one-third of Americans don’t drive, either by choice or due to age, disability, or economic ability. Yet another reason we need to invest in transit infrastructure.

(Source: Yale Climate Connections)

Renewable energy wins in 2024

Amid all the doom and gloom and the horrifying images of wildfires in Los Angeles, there was a lot of great news on the renewable energy front in 2024.

• Solar power is growing faster than any other energy source. It generated about 20% of the world’s energy during midday peaks on the summer solstice. And 34 economies around the world generated over 10% of their power from solar energy.
• Wind and solar energy overtook fossil fuels in the E.U. in the first half of the year, with 30% of electricity generated from these clean sources.
• And in the USA, wind and solar energy provided 17% of electricity, overtaking coal for the first time.

Learn more about these wins at The Progress Playbook.

This week’s simple living challenge – Track progress on your goals

Simplifying life is a big part of living more intentionally. With that in mind, I kicked off the year with 52 ways to simplify your life this year, including a downloadable checklist of weekly tasks.

This week’s challenge is to find an easy and consistent way to track progress on your goals. Don’t overcomplicate things. It can be as simple as a notebook, a journal, or a spreadsheet.

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I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.