I had been waiting for March 4 as I mulled over my column. I wanted to see the extent of the tariffs from Donald Trump and CanadaSA国际影视传媒檚 response.

Also in the news was the increase in the NWT's federal borrowing limit from $1.8 billion to $3.1 billion, a substantial raise and a good news story, depending how it is used in the crisis situation we are now in. I will get to that later.

I was not surprised that the tariffs were now real and I was proud of the response from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. As the prime minister bluntly put it, there will be tough times ahead but we are up to the task of defending Canada from this naked aggression. The economic war is now official and underway. It is clear the U.S., under Trump, is dysfunctional and abusive and so is our relationship with him and the U.S.

The U.S.has a population of 345 million people. There are 8 billion people in the rest of the world. Since Jan. 20, Trump and his oligarchs have attacked us all, friend and foe, rich or poor, in every country and continent, seeking to impose their will and extort vast sums of money. The world, including the U.S., in now in a slow political boil as a result of this heavy-handed, callous and schizophrenic behaviour. 

Our shock and surprise is giving way to rapid, battlefield adjustments, modified strategies and quick responses to the wide array of world wide attacks by Trump and his flunkies. What I have learned to be true in my experience is that no one government or country can go it alone in this world and survive, even the U.S. There are many things in play, many things we donSA国际影视传媒檛 know and many agendas at work. 

In spite of that there will come a time in this U.S.-orchestrated conflict that they will need allies and they wonSA国际影视传媒檛 be there. Alliances will be forming to defend against the abusive U.S. conduct.

Without the U.S., NATO will be restructured. The European Union will actually unite to defend itself. The threatened circumpolar governments will tighten up their cooperation and the many Commonwealth countries will now have a strong reason to reconnect. The list goes on. If the U.S. leaves the United Nations and wants it gone, it can relocate to Toronto, just a stone's throw away from its current home of New York City. Many other possibilities will arise in the months ahead.

In Canada, we are now on a war footing and have to prepare ourselves for the hard times ahead. The 'Guns or Butter' economic concept, which I remember from my high school economics course, speaks to the tough economic trade-offs governments will be faced with: a choice to be made between national defence or domestic programs. We will all be effected by those painful trade-offs.

This gets me to the recent increase that the NWT got to its borrowing limit. This is a good news story if we remember that government does not create wealth, it spends taxpayers money - our money. A government's main job is to create the conditions for a strong economy, strong regions and communities, a healthy people and a viable land. We will need to invest in the NWT and better government. This does not mean more government. 

In the NWT, the various governments have tens of thousands of regulations, policies, directives and rules, fondly known as red tape, that governs nearly every aspect of life in the NWT. The GNWT is the largest government, so the goal is for an expeditious process to ensure that all this red tape is necessary, efficient, effective and economic. This process has to be nimble, quick and external to government or it will die aSA国际影视传媒檅orning.

Then there is the need to invest in critical, multipurpose infrastructure in the NWT that will assist in our security and be a benefit in the daily lives of Northerners. Projects such as the Mackenzie Valley Highway, a fully functional Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link with all communities up the valley on fibre reducing dependency on Elon MuskSA国际影视传媒檚 Starlink and a progressive microgrid strategy across the NWT to get communities and regions off of complete dependence on diesel.

We are on a war footing and we have to do our part. We can do our share in partnership with other governments and our government can become efficient, effective and economical in the process.