i just want to remind mr carney that, while capitalist analyses of venezuela as being wealthy and safe in the 80s are outside of the realm of facts (venezuela was one of the most dangerous and corrupt places in the world in the bad old days of unrestrained capitalism, with a murder rate that makes dc look like ottawa), it took a turn near the end of chavez towards a very bad economic policy that included pricing itself out of the market to sell oil to the united states, destroying it's substantive agriculture sector and embracing the disastrous policy of "socialism in one country", which you'd probably rather refer to via it's nazi name of autarky. this trio of bad decisions worked to undo the positive components of bolivarianism, including it's focus on grassroots democracy and it's legitimate progress in redistributing wealth from the country's obscenely rich to it's desperately poor. the middle class might have tolerated the wealth redistribution, otherwise, but it couldn't deal with the social changes. chavez' successor could not break the impasse and probably didn't legitimately want to. and he sleeps in a cell in new york, now, as outrageously illegal as that is.

canada might want to make an effort not to repeat those mistakes.

it's going to cost a lot to redevelop the oil industry in venezuela and it's not going to pose a threat to canada for a while still. but trump got what he wanted, which was a massive pile of oil. and we may even find he leaves us alone for a bit.

it's not clear why he thinks stealing something is better than buying it. i don't imagine he intends to sell it. i don't expect his successor will have the same views.