Funnier is this thing called “reality.”

You see, between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie there is a precipitous plunge in height. Niagara Falls lives at that intersection, so you can envision in your mind’s eye how much vertical drop there is. For shipping to make it from the Midwest to the Atlantic, to get wheat and corn and soybeans from farmers to market, to get finished production goods from Midwest factories to the open seas, you need to get around that drop. How to do that? A thing called The Welland Canal which is a series of locks which, ans it turns out, are entirely within the boundary of Canada.

Going through the Panama Canal takes 3 locks to get to the new height. The Welland Canal takes 8. It’s a really big deal.

So yes, Canada could, if it chose, simply decide to “charge admission” to use the locks and the US would have no recourse, as we have no other way to traverse that section of the route. Oh, I suppose we could go over the American side of the Falls, but I think that’s been tried once or twice over the years with less than good results.

en.wikipedia.org - Welland Canal

Strait of Hormuz? Who knew? Vulnerable bases all across the Middle East now in ashes? Who knew?

Now the Welland Canal. Who could have predicted?