Justin Trudeau met with U.S. Vice-President JD Vance on the sidelines of an international summit in Paris and raised his concerns about the 25-per-cent tariffs on steel and aluminium announced by the Trump administration this week.
So that should do it. Perhaps Vance will report back that Trudeau is a bit miffed and the chastened Trump will cancel the tariffs.
More likely, Vance will share a good laugh with the president at the prime minister’s expense.
Both appear to believe Canada is, in Stephen Colbert’s satirical description of stereotypical liberals, a namby-pamby, quasi-socialist nation with an all-homosexual army, flamboyantly defending a citizenry sucking at the teat of government welfare.
Trudeau is straight out of central casting, the kind of privileged elitist who probably bullied a young Donald at school.
The president’s distaste for Canada’s prime minister makes it easy for him to make wild claims, such as the assertion to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday night, that “without the U.S., Canada doesn’t really have a country.”
The next day, on Fox News, he threatened to put a 50- or even 100-per-cent tariff on Canadian cars.
The president routinely asks: why should the U.S. pay a US$200 billion subsidy to Canada?
The logical response is to point out that a trade deficit of around $45 billion, largely because of strong oil prices, is not a subsidy.
But logic will get you nowhere with Trump.
You get the feeling that if Ford was to get into a room with Trump for half-an-hour, the whole thing could get sorted out to their mutual satisfaction
As the relationship guides point out, telling a disaffected partner they are wrong simply makes them feel invalidated and patronized. They need to feel affection, gratitude and admiration if you are going to win them round.
Canada is in its toughest spot in living memory. A very prescient plan to rethink this country’s national security came out in May 2022 from some of the smartest strategic thinkers in the land. It said Canada needed to pivot away from the U.S. because of an over-reliance on America for security and trade. The report said little has changed in official Ottawa since 1924 when then senator Raoul Dandurand told an international gathering that Canadians “live in a fireproof house, far from flammable materials.” But, the report concluded, our home is no longer fire-proof. Predictably, it was ignored and now it’s too late.
Dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs will inevitably hurt us more than they hurt them. So, what to do?
Canadian leaders need to park their pride and not only tell the Americans we love them but emphasize what we can do for them.
That was precisely the approach of Ontario Premier Doug Ford during a speech he gave to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington on Tuesday.
He said China is laughing at a “totally unnecessary trade war” that is being fought by two close friends.
He said his talks with congressional representatives from both sides of the aisle suggests there is no support for tariffs on Canada, and that many of them consider a trade war “the craziest thing they’ve ever heard, though they won’t say that in public.”
Ford said Ontario, America’s third largest trading partner, has a balanced relationship that supports the paycheques of nine-million American workers.
He urged Trump to join Canada in building “Fortress Am-Can,” a renewed alliance that would be a “beacon of security, long-term economic growth, and free, fair and balanced trade.”
Ford answered Trump’s question about why Canada should be indulged: the Ring of Fire region in Ontario, the world’s largest critical minerals deposit.
The premier said he wants to sell more high-quality nickel and electricity to the U.S. “I can flip the switch on, or flip it off. I prefer to flip it on,” he said, in the only veiled reference to retaliation.
He expressed his own frustrations with Ottawa’s border security and defence efforts. “Canada needs to demonstrate that we take our shared security seriously,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do.” He urged the federal government to exceed NATO’s two per cent of GDP spending target as soon as possible.
The alternative to Fortress Am-Can, he said, is a time-wasting tariff war that will only hurt working people trying to get ahead.
Ford is in the middle of an election campaign in Ontario and there’s no doubt he is vulnerable on some domestic files. But on this, he is built for purpose.
You get the feeling that if he was to get into a room with Trump for half-an-hour, the whole thing could get sorted out to their mutual satisfaction.
Nobody would mistake either man for a namby-pamby quasi-socialist. On regulation, taxes, China and so much more, Ford is speaking Republican.
Canada has been caught unprepared for a new world where the United States is a threat, not a shield. Our security and prosperity are at risk.
But this country still has cards to play and, on this evidence, Ford is the best wheeler-dealer we have. We need him to be talking to Americans at every opportunity.
National Post
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