Frank Green Reports: Charlie Angus and “Elbows Up!”

By Frank Green (Retired Fanshawe College faculty member, former Local President of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 110)

At 6:00pm Thursday March 13, 2025 Lindsay Mathyssen, MP for London Fanshawe sponsored a Rally at Earl Nichols Arena with Charlie Angus the NDP MP for Timmins-James Bay as the speaker. A capacity
crowd of more that 200 people attended. Charlie’s topic was the threat facing Canada from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Charlie spoke for about a half hour with frequent applause indicating the strong agreement of the audience. Then he responded to written questions from audience members read by Ms. Mathyssen for another half hour. After that there was ample opportunity for individuals to speak to Charlie and have pictures taken with him.

Charlie explained that when he realized just how serious Trump’s attacks on Canada are, how he really wants to weaken our country economically to the point where he can annex it, Charlie simply didn’t know how to respond. Then his wife Brit phoned him and said, “Why have you not responded?” He said, “Because I don’t know what to say.” She said, “Well, you have to say something, because people are frantic!”

Very quickly Charlie concluded that the threat was so immanent and dangerous that the only thing to do was to oppose it strongly and condemn it immediately. He thought that a great metaphor for what was
needed was the way a Canadian hockey team responds when they see an opponent make a very dirty play on one of their teammates. Immediately it’s OVER THE BOARDS and ELBOWS UP!

Recently Charlie was at a meeting with representatives of several countries in Europe. When he talked about Trump’s gross threats to Canada, instead of giving any support, the other attendees scolded him for being impolite. This made him speak up even stronger. When the other representatives said, “What gives you the right to tell us what we should do?”

Charlie said, “What gives me the right is the fact that when your countries were facing Hitler’s threat, my uncles came here and fought for you. And if you want to come 30 miles down the road with me, I’ll show you where one of them is buried!”

Only one other representative at the meeting expressed support for Canada against Trump – he was from Latvia near Russia.

Two different times in the course of his remarks, Charlie said that obviously Ukraine is the country in the most peril at this time. “After Ukraine, Canada is next!” he said.

When asked a question about the new leader of the Liberal Party, Charlie refrained from direct comment, but he made it very clear that he thought that the possibility of a Conservative victory should be avoided
at all cost in the coming election.

That evening Premier Ford had said that he had had a very good meeting with officials in Washington that day about Trump’s tariffs and Charlie said simply he was hoping that Ford’s optimism was justified.

Charlie stressed that prompt action by Canada was necessary because, “we certainly don’t want a long drawn out fight.”

He asked, “where are the Democrats?” And he praised Bernie Sanders for his rallies in many different states.

Both Charlie and Ms. Mathyssen stressed the need for preparedness by the Canadian Defense Department.

The topic of what individual Canadians can do came up. Very careful shopping for Canadian-made products was obvious. Also mutual help, encouragement and tangible support in family, work and church groups. Charlie stressed the advantage of live, in person discussions over computer meetings. “Even if you don’t agree with someone in a group, you may end up going for a beer and find something you do agree on.”

Those so inclined may wish to support the petition to have Elon Musk’s Canadian citizenship revoked. It can be easily found on the computer. Charlie said it is already the biggest petition on record.

It seemed to me that Ms. Mathyssen and her organizers and Charlie Angus delivered a great service to Londoners with this rally.