That was a surprise, wasn’t it? I don’t think even Republican voters in America expected the popular vote to swing to Mr. Trump. I certainly didn’t predict it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as much of a surprise as I expected it to be.
What remains, however, will be the results, some of which are happening already as the stock market set new records with investors understanding that Mr. Trump will reduce legislative and tax burdens on corporations. I expect it will come back just as quickly when those same investors understand what Mr. Trumps proposed tariffs will do to the spending power of the American people. But I’m not a professional stock advisor, so don’t take my advice (and, of course, never invest money you’re not prepared to lose).
Personally, I expect America to suffer what the UK is suffering now as the reality of Brexit overwhelms the ideology of it. I also expect concentration camps to emerge in the United States, as I can’t see any other way that 11 million undocumented immigrants, 3% of the United States’ population, can be rounded up to be deported. Even though some of them have only lived in the United States throughout their lives.
What that means for Canada is that we can probably expect another swell of refugees to be coming from the United States. But if you’re in the U.S. reading this, I’d advise you to get started now, because the internal political tides in Canada currently look like the conservatives will get elected here next year, which means we can expect our border to become less welcoming for refugees and immigrants as well. We can also expect Alberta to be hit extremely hard, I think, not only through any tariffs applied or by Mr. Trump’s stated aims to assist domestic oil production, but because if he ends the war in the Ukraine by ensuring they do not have the resources to protect their territory, the reason for the Russian sanctions will lift, and Russia, desperate for money, will flood the market with their oil and gas.
My biggest worry then isn’t what will happen down south, it’s what will happen right here as the Take Back Alberta party UCP comes to the realization that their forecasts and budgets are hugely unrealistic. We’ve been through a time before when oil prices crashed so far that the NDP government of the time had to step in and put limits on the industry so that the price had a chance to recover before more companies went bankrupt. We can already be assured that the UCP would make no such moves, not only because it’d be going against their own funders, but because the NDP already did it. On top of that, we also now have a law that prevents the province from putting forward a deficit budget. If the Alberta government’s primary funding source drowns itself, and they can’t run deficits, all that remains is eliminating services.
All of which means I expect the range of courses we can take will get smaller, the support services we use take longer, and the costs we personally pay to get much higher as post-secondary institutions try to find ways to stave off collapse.
But then again, I’m a horrible cynic, and we’re fortunate that I have a lousy track record when it comes to predicting things. All of which means maybe things will be just fine. So until we find out for sure, why not check out our latest student interview, or take a look at the first music review by our newest Voice writer. In any event, enjoy the read!
