Here's an idea so crazy it just might work!

Don't pointlessly anger patriotic Canadians.

Back on April 9th, I wrote in Taki’s Magazine:

A fundamental problem with nationalism is that it tends to pit natural nationalists against each other in stupid spats, when they’d be better off forming loose coalitions against globalists.

For example, aggressive American nationalism, such as Trump’s talk about “annexing” Canada as the 51st state, annoys the Canadians we most want to be our friends: the ice hockey fans, the Norm Macdonalds, the Canucks who took Juno beach while our boys were dealing with Omaha and Utah beaches on D-Day.

Before Donald Trump returned to the White House and started free-associating about his ambitions to take over Canada and Greenland, Canada’s Conservatives, led by the talented 45-year-old professional politician Pierre Poilievre of Calgary, were 25 points up in the polls.

But now that Trump is waging a trade war on Canada with the intent of annexing the country, the Liberals, winners of the last three elections under now-unpopular former prime minister Justin Trudeau, are about five or ten points in the lead in the snap election new prime minister Mark Carney has called for April 28.

Not surprisingly, the Liberals won their fourth straight election yesterday, 169-144 over the Conservatives. This is just under the 172 needed for a majority, but they likely will find the three votes they need among the 30 seats won by small parties.

Poilievre even lost his own seat that he’d held for 20 years.

How bad was Trump’s own goal for the American right?

You could argue that the global climate at present is bad for all incumbent parties — even Modi couldn’t garner a majority in India’s latest election — so the right losing out on the poisoned chalice of power in Canada isn’t so bad.

But, in general, I think that’s cope. Nobody is smart enough to predict which elections are strategic to win and strategic to lose. Politicians should be like athletes and strive to win each time.

A series of electoral victories in multiple countries can do good things. For example, that the West would win the Cold War, and in a largely non-violent rout, was not at all obvious in, say, 1978. But then a series of elections were won by the right: Britain in 1979, America in 1980, Britain again in 1983, Italy in 1983, and West Germany in 1983 (which seemed to me at the time the most important). The left had won in France in 1981, but in 1983, sensing the tide of history, Socialist Francois Mitterand kicked his Communist allies out of his cabinet and made common cause against the Soviet Union with Thatcher and Reagan.

Victory built on victory.

In contrast, various Twitter geniuses are currently explaining how Trump angering patriotic Canadian voters was, akshually, 4-D chess that will facilitate the American conquest of Canada real soon now. And/or, that Canadians deserve to be conquered for not grasping the god-emperor’s rightful domain over their pathetic country. Or Canadians are wimps:

Here’s some advice for Trump: keep doing smart things and stop doing dumb things like saber-rattling against Canada and Denmark. You got elected because the Democrats went crazy during the Great Awokening/Racial Reckoning. So do anti-crazy stuff, not your own flavor of craziness.

For example, the New York Times published a lengthy sob story on April 20th about an ex-man college volleyball player who played on the woman team at San Jose State, causing some other college women teams to forfeit to San Jose St. It was carefully contrived to elicit maximum sympathy for the transgender individual, but the New York Times commenters were still remarkably hostile in response. The top 28 most popular comments included one that was anti-sports in general and 27 that were anti-trans … in the NYT.

Hence, the anti-crazies in the Trump administration did this yesterday. From AP:

Trump administration: Penn violated Title IX with trans swimmer

Associated Press

Apr 28, 2025, 05:28 PM ET

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- The Trump administration said Monday that the University of Pennsylvania violated laws guaranteeing women equal opportunities in athletics by letting a transgender swimmer compete on the school's women's team and into team facilities.

The administration's statement does not name Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who last competed for the Ivy League school in Philadelphia in 2022 and was the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title that year -- an award Thomas now faces losing.

But the investigation opened in February by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights focused on Thomas, who became a leading symbol of transgender athletes and a prominent political target of Republicans and President Donald Trump.

The department said Penn violated Title IX, which bars sex discrimination in schools and colleges, by "denying women equal opportunities by permitting males to compete in women's intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities." …

The department said Penn has 10 days to voluntarily resolve the violations or risk prosecution. The department wants Penn to issue a statement saying that it will comply with Title IX; effectively strip Thomas of any awards or records in Division I swimming competitions; and apologize to each female swimmer "whose individual recognition is restored expressing an apology on behalf of the university for allowing her educational experience in athletics to be marred by sex discrimination."

More of this, please, and fewer demands for lebensraum.