Over the weekend I was having an online chat with a long-time friend, who shared with me that they are feeling like ‘the world is going a little crazy’, and I must admit it can certainly feel that way.
My friend said that all of the at times chaotic news over the past few months has raised their anxiety, and they are constantly feeling on edge, as if awaiting yet another shoe to drop, and fearing what that shoe might be.
While it might feel like every time we turn around there is another crazy and unexpected world event, I am sure that things are no more bonkers than they have been at many points in history. In today’s world however, we can quickly be overloaded with news and information as with no other time in history, leaving us little time to catch our breath before the next major news story, often thousands of kilometres away, floods our news feeds. Even minor events can be blown out of proportion in our 24 hour per day news feed world.
On any given day, a simple scan of the headlines can raise one’s anxiety level. As I type this column in the early hours of Tuesday morning, I pulled up a major news website to scan the headlines. Trump’s Tariffs Roil U.S. Markets, Ford Doubles Down on Threat to Cut Off Energy to U.S., Trump Pausing U.S. Military Aid to Ukraine, Multiple Earthquakes in a Short Time, Should You be Worried? Asteroid’s Chance of Hitting Earth in 2032 Not High at All. These are just a few of the headlines that caught my eye with a quick early morning scan of one news website. Things are crazy at the moment indeed.
With President Trump now apparently following through on his threat to impose a 25 percent tariff on any goods entering the United States from Canada, and with Canada set to impose retaliatory tariffs, life is likely to get a little more expensive in the near future, perhaps significantly more expensive.
Added to the mix are the constant statements from President Trump informing the world that he feels that Canada should become the 51st state, while referring to our Prime Minister as ‘Governor’, and he has suggested that the tariffs would go away if Canada would only join the good ole USA.
We Canadians have rightly objected to that offensive suggestion, and many have been boycotting American-produced goods, and we have seen hockey fans booing the U.S. national anthem at hockey games, which has in turn caused American hockey fans to boo the Canadian national anthem, perhaps not even understanding why Canadians are so outraged in the first place.
A trade war, along with threats to our sovereignty from our closest neighbour, trading partner and ally, is certainly not something that any of us would have ever predicted. It is a mind-boggling development.
One bright light to be found amidst all of this chaos is that in recent months Canadians have been united in a way that we have not seen in decades. Across party lines, our elected officials and regular Canadians have found some common ground, as despite our differences of opinions on a range of issues, one thing most of us can agree on is that Canada the nation is worth defending, and our sovereignty is important to us.
While Canada is now in the midst of a trade war, there are of course ‘real’ wars taking place around the globe as you read this column.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine might seem like a recent event but the invasion happened three years ago on February 24, 2022, and the two nations have been locked into an all out war ever since. Ukraine is an ally to western nations, including of course Canada, which itself has a healthy Ukrainian population. Ukraine is also an ally to the United States, however as we all witnessed last week, long-standing alliances can mean little in this strange new world, as President Trump made clear to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a bombastic Oval Office meeting.
Nations around the globe are now re-thinking their relationship with the United States, and the leaders of several countries have issued public rebukes of Trump and the actions of his administration.
The tariff threat from the United States extends beyond Canada, with Mexico and China also subject to new tariffs, and the European Union is likely to be the president’s next economic target.
So a global trade war is beginning, and tensions are growing internationally, and that certainly is not ideal.
Closer to home, we have a number of issues that have taken up much headline space in recent months, from the lack of affordable housing to fears for the future of our healthcare system.
As for affordable housing, a major issue facing many, the solutions are unclear, but the cause seems pretty clear to me. As I read in an article recently, “In the 40 years between 1980 and 2020, the average home price increased by about 746%, while the median household income rose by just 295%.” A major problem indeed, and one that is destined to be with us for a long time to come.
So, adding to our collective stress is the clear reality that we are living in an era where it is tougher than ever for regular, hard-working people to simply survive, let alone thrive.
After a long hard winter as we have just experienced, I think most of us are wanting calm, refreshing spring and summer seasons, but the global craziness is showing no sign of abating. Some are even predicting that a full on global armed conflict, a world war, is in our future, perhaps our near future. Let’s hope not, but the way things have been going, we certainly can’t rule anything out.
The world has of course not gone bonkers, and there have certainly been crazier times in history. We’re simply experiencing life, in this modern, globally connected world. And where 40 years ago we had our daily newspapers and our hour-long evening news broadcast to inform us, today, thanks to social media and online news platforms, we are bombarded with news around the clock, 365 days per year, and the craziest news always seems to rise to the top of our feeds, heightening our anxiety.
