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Implications of a Trump Presidency on Canada

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Toronto chapter.

So Trump won the election. Whatever your opinions on it, it happened. President Obama has met with Trump who is now making his transition into the Whitehouse. Now, no matter what way you look at this, the election of Trump has, and will, affect the world in a significant way.  There are many things that have happened, so I’m going to break down a few of the things and what they could mean for the future. This is by no means what will happen in the future, only what I think could happen. Here some concerns according to The Independent that I will try to break down:

Shares in renewable energy companies declined significantly

So part of Donald Trump on his road to the presidency claimed that climate change was a plot created by the Chinese to cripple American industry, so it is safe to assume that he is a climate change denialist. If he is a climate change denialist, then it is safe to assume that he doesn’t think the use of fossil fuels are detrimental to human life, and if anything improve it. So why would he want something like a renewable energy source to stop the profits the US can make off fossil fuels and oil? This is why the stocks have gone down. However the problem with this, is that it may lead to something that Trump supporters hated Hillary for: the way she acted in the Middle East. Much of the oil that is used in the US comes from the Middle East, so by increasing the amount of fossil fuels used increases the amount of US involvement in the Middle East, and US motivated in the region. This could lead to wars and we could have something that looks like the US driven wars in the Middle East that we have seen before. Now this is quite a simplification of the history of the US and the Middle East, but it is a possibility for the future.

Shares in BAE industries, a massive international producer of arms, skyrocketed

Do I need to explain this? If the shares of a company go up, the company gets more money and so is able to produce more. So there will be more guns introduced into the market, which means there is a greater risk of gun related incidents domestically as well as internationally. Not only this, but BAE industries is connected to the NRA (the National Rifle Association) which is a powerful lobbyist for pro-gun rights in the US. If BAE industries has more money to produce more guns, they would theoretically get the NRA to lobby for more lax gun laws so more people can buy guns. Because of this, people who normally shouldn’t have guns can get them, and that can only lead to bad things.

Canada’s immigration site crashing

So this is funny on a surface level, but if you think about it is a symptom of a bigger problem. The fact that so many Americans are looking to Canada as a solution creates an uneven power balance if they do start to move here. Trump says that he wants to re-evaluate the terms of NAFTA – which is the trading agreement between Canada, the US and Mexico – which would drastically change the way Canada’s economy works. This could make Canada’s economy fall, and what would all the Americans who moved here to get away from Trump say? They would not be pleased and this would impact negatively on Canada as a country. I’m not saying don’t take the Americans who want to live here, but beware of the circumstances no matter what. These Americans aren’t exactly refugees like Canada has taken in before.

The world is ever changing, often times we are so caught up in our own bubbles we fail to see the ripples of the actions we take. This is also true for actions in the media. Although I have provided some ideas, I encourage you to think on these actions yourself and prepare yourself for the conclusions you come to. Good luck to you all in the coming days, I fear that they will be tumultuous.

 

 

 

Image Source

http://media.salon.com/2016/03/trump_lisa_simpson.jpg

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Jina Aryaan is one of the Co-Editors-in-Chief of Her Campus UToronto. She is a fourth year student pursuing a major in Sociology, and a double minor in French and Latin American Studies at the University of Toronto. She has been working with Her Campus since her first year of University, and she is also highly involved on campus through various other leadership positions. When she's not busy studying, you can catch her running around campus to get to her next class or meeting. When she has some spare time, she's likely busy writing, discussing politics, or spending quality time with friends and family.