First off, hope all is well with you as we are seeing\hearing about deadly storms down south...might even affect Tony more than you...hope he is OK.

Marty that division is scary as ^*& and MAGA and REPs are actively demonizing the DEMs..and visa versa......setting one part off against the other means government can't work.
One example....Recent committee meeting the REP chair called a transgender House member "Mr" and was asked to retract. Instead he adjourned the meeting and told everyone he does not have to indulge in "his" (The member's) fantasy.

And Trump is tearing down more than your bureaucracy and creating instability...the anathema of business. Political and\or economic Instability does not promote investment

Problem is, he has no working brain and runs on emotion...his handlers have told us as much as have you. Don't listen to what Trump says is your message to me..it will all work out.
But he is surrounded by yes men and toadies and his recent address to your Justice Department is chilling. "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest" comes to mind.

News here...not fake. https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/articl...p-said-inside-the-us-justice-department/

As for your question about bureaucrats who don't come to work and collect paycheques...well I could not agree with you more. If that was the cause of the federal employee slash and burn....then that would make sense. Funny that first mass firings were in Veterans Affairs, Education and Social Security but hey, guess you have to start somewhere. May just have been a "political blunder"??? ...bad news reporting to single out worst effect of the most vulnerable???

Good article here I think.... https://www.opb.org/article/2025/03/15/here-s-what-s-ahead-with-mass-layoffs-at-federal-agencies/

Finally Canada is not so badly split or splittable as you may think. Our Conservative Party was actually running a similar style campain as Trump...lying, polymic....and doing what he could to tear down Trudeau. He made his mission to topple Trudeau. Now there is no Trudeau but instead he is having to go after a highly accomplished former Central Bank governor of both Canada and England...steered that country through Brexit...highly respected internationally and our newest Prime Minister. All Poilievre can do is continue to lie and say he totally mismanaged Brexit. He knows Canadians know he did a good job for us...and AT THE TIME..he was recruited by the UK BECAUSE of that record... but hey London is far away so say what you want, lie as you will. Oh and his previous overt support and tadying up to Trump will hurt him

But our system simply cannot accomodate someone like Trump with his autocratic views. You thought that with that wonderful separation of powers you were immune. But with Citizens United ....allowed Musk to buy Trump for a measly 250 million before the elction and more for his inauguration.....Mitch McConnell stacking the your Supreme Court with politicized judges who say anything Trump does in his role as President is legal.......and a majority in both Congress and Senate which is now so incredibly dysfunctional and is not really needed by Trump and his executive order style of government.

Our tradition of democracy allows countervailing ideas to come to the forefront very quickly, and non confidence motions that allow Members of Parliament to take down a Prime Minister and their government...at any time.

It is not a coup, just a legal, practical way to as soon as possible get rid of someone who does things like suppress free speech and cultural expression and wants his toadies to go out and punish his political opponents and those who say bad things about him. His mental state would be questioned and a non confidence motion (we have a long history of those BTW) gets rid of the problem. There is simply no way out.

We have a Governor General...ceremonial post that represents the English Crown ....and closest I can say to the post of President in a Republic that is effectively run by a parliament and Prime Minister. She is our current Head of State. .
We put forward a name to the English Crown who makes it official. Now they have no "real power" in the sense that they cannot enact or support or do anything NOT impartial, but they do "accept" the resignations and swear in new PMs. That alone gives (her, Currently Her Excellency Mary Simon ...Indigenous person BTW ) enormous ceremonial power and the force of moral suasion plus the force of tradition. So I think we are pretty safe.

In the end though, quis sais?

If writing ever becomes work I think I'm going to have to stop