As the world braces for more global freeze-outs prompted by Donald Trump, remember one thing: Canada knows how to survive the cold.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on January 27, 2025.

OTTAWA—A blanket of cold air covered the continent as the United States of America ushered in an oligarchy under the leadership of its new President Donald Trump.

It was the coldest day on record in the history of American presidential inaugurations. But the frigidity wasn’t only caused by temperature.

It reflected the mood of almost half of the nation, those dreading the return of President Trump to the White House.

Former first lady Michelle Obama expressed her disgust by simply refusing to attend the inauguration. She joined with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who posted the reasons for her boycott on Instagram: “Let me make myself clear: I don’t celebrate rapists so no, l’m not going to the inauguration.”

Others were present in strange garb or body language. Senator Bernie Sanders sat with his arms crossed, scowling at Trump.

Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, wore his customary shorts and hoodie to the event. At 6 foot 8 inches tall, Fetterman could not be missed.

Nor did anyone miss the breasts bared by Jeff Bezos’ fiancé, Lauren Sanchez. Seated in front of Robert Kennedy Jr., when Sanchez doffed her jacket, he could not keep his eyes off them. Mark Zuckerberg was caught ogling, as well.

And then there was the second-tier invitee list, including Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, whose assigned seat was so far out in the cold that she gave it up, opting instead to watch the ceremony from the warmth of the Canadian Embassy across from Capitol Hill.

Considering her claim that she saved Canada from tariffs—at least until Feb. 1—Smith should at least have been designated closer viewing.

Instead, she was forced to join the majority of 220,000 invitees who were politely disinvited when the event was moved indoors because of the cold weather warnings.

The president said he didn’t want anyone to get hurt, and encouraged those with tickets to go elsewhere.

Smith must have felt more cold air blowing at the Canadian reception, since she is the only premier to have publicly gone rogue in refusing to join all other provincial and territorial leaders in a Team Canada approach to the Trump threat of tariffs.

And while she worked with failed Conservative leadership candidate Kevin O’Leary to access the president, Arlene Dickinson joined Trudeau’s Team Canada tariff advisers, and promptly called out her Dragon’s Den foe for “negotiating against us.”

After consistently trashing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Team Canada’s approach, Smith had the nerve to suggest that we should achieve our objectives through “diplomacy rather than bravado, bluster, and escalation.”

Talk about a bull in a china shop.

Smith went on bended knee to Trump in an effort to negotiate a carve-out for her own province. She didn’t care much about what damage tariffs could do in other parts of the country.

Meanwhile, Trump marked his first day in office with executive orders on everything, including pardons for the instigators of the Jan. 6, 2021, riots that killed five police officers and injured 140 people. He also ordered that non-binary people cannot be identified as such.

Trump also plans to prevent those transitioning from one gender to another from revising their identity on official federal documents.

He also issued a slew of anti-immigrant edicts, including an unconstitutional decision to deny citizenship to American-born children of undocumented migrants.

Many of these executive orders will not pass legal muster, but they certainly sent a chill through throughout the world.

His decision to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accord were the most notable, but he also eliminated security clearances for federal investigative officers, effectively preventing them from doing their jobs.

Trump also put all diversity, equity, and inclusion federal employees on paid leave, while he tasked agencies with drawing up methods to fire them.

Most egregiously, in a speech designed to lay out his vision for the next four years, Trump was silent on housing, health care, wealth gaps and cost-of-living concerns.

In a post-Trump analysis, Sanders pointed out that three people on Trump’s inaugural guest list make more money than half of all residents in the U.S.

Sanders also said that those three invitees—Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos—saw their wealth increase by more than $233-billion since Trump’s election.

The oligarchy predicted by former president Jimmy Carter has taken root in Washington, D.C.

As the world braces for more global freeze-outs prompted by President Trump, remember one thing: Canada knows how to survive the cold.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

By SHEILA COPPS

Published first on Monday, March 26, 2018 in The Hill Times.

OTTAWA—Facebook’s global data breach is anything but surprising.

What is surprising is the sturm and drang from all corners demanding Mark Zuckerberg’s head.

Surprise: companies are mining data to sell you stuff, even get inside your head to influence your voting patterns.

Hello. Forget about Facebook. One just has to scroll the internet to be subject to the voracious marketing appetite of the euphemistically-called cookies. Looking up a recipe? You will be flooded with information on what gadget you need to create the perfect soufflé.

Checking on home décor? Expect to receive an onslaught of unwanted material on the multiple shapes and sizes of an exotic online berber rug. None of these info dumps are breaches of any code of confidentiality. To get access to the treasure trove of information available on the net, consumers have already signed away any right to privacy.

Apps are often made available at no cost, as long as we agree to subject ourselves to an onslaught of advertising in return for embedding a free scanner or a language app into our phone.

Our exact location is pinpointed in most apps, once we grant permission for Google maps or other devices to supplement our limited navigational skills.

I could go on. The bottom line is that in the past quarter century, the post-information world is full of examples where even the notion of maintaining privacy or shielding ourselves from being identified is laughable.

The raison d’etre of Facebook is to see and be seen. Kids today can even download personalized apps to drive more traffic to their Instagram accounts, where 14-year-olds pose in provocative ways to attract attention and followers.

Facebook allows you up to 5,000 “friends” before you can become a marketing machine of your own.

So as the world is marketing via the internet, politicians will obviously be doing the same thing.

And no congressional or parliamentary committee is going to be able to police the dump of information on the internet that can and will find itself in the hands of unscrupulous people.

Politicians are in the business of persuasion. They too are selling an ersatz product, themselves, and their political beliefs.

And the easiest way to recruit followers these days is via the internet.

Facebook posts are a window into the mind of every voter. They usually indicate sexual orientation, family, religious status, and attitudinal bent.

So if you want to stop your data from being mined, you have to stop offering up your life story to strangers with the intent of increasing your “likes.”

And if you want to keep your Facebook profile out of the hands of Donald Trump, you have to stop releasing personal information to apps and sites that are set up specifically for the purpose of mining your consumer habits to sell you things.

Back in the nineties, politicians were just getting started in the world of social media.

Now-deceased Winnipeg Member of Parliament Reg Alcock set up the House of Commons first eblast by enlisting thousands of constituents to sign up for regular information updates. He even offered seminars to help colleagues join the social media phenomenon.

Former U.S. president Barack Obama and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau both proved very adept at utilizing social media to grow their support base and to enlist volunteers, including many first-time voters. They turned political skeptics into believers. Both were lauded for their savvy in being able to entice new voters to the polls and the key was creative use of social media.

Canada witnessed the first criminal cases involving robo-dialler internet technology that deliberately directed opponents to the wrong poll on voting day.

Tom Flanagan, key adviser to former prime minister Stephen Harper in the early years, credits “direct voter contact” as the main reason Conservatives increased their seat count by 21 in the 2004 election.

Political machines, whether at the local, provincial, or national level, depend on massive information tools to pinpoint voter intention. They then focus on getting their own supporters to vote and discouraging opponents from doing the same.

The last American federal election witnessed targeted voter suppression based on race. Keeping blacks home became part of the Republican arsenal for success. Given that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote handily, but lost the election because of an electoral college loss of about 80,000 votes, you can understand why data mining is part of any political campaign.

Buyer beware: Facebook postings will be mined by less than honest marketers. And that includes politicians.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.