“Pretty fancy entrance, eh?” Trump told Carney, after the prime minister drove up to the White House, with the driveway flanked by flag-carrying guards.
“It’s amazing,” Carney replied, beaming. “I wore red for you,” the prime minister added, stroking his tie.
But it didn't stop there:
Sitting next to Trump, Carney once again praised him as a “transformative” president. He said he’d transformed the U.S. economy, got unprecedented commitments from NATO partners on defence spending, praised him for getting “peace” between Pakistan and India, and between Azerbaijan and Armenia, for “disabling Iran as a force of terror,” and for making the prospect of peace possible in the Middle East.
Maybe I'm just getting old, and the world has moved on, but I find Carney's latest visit, which saw both leaders lavish praise upon each other, off-putting, to put it diplomatically. And given that the times spent ego-stroking yielded no tangible results, it is right that the Prime Minister's behaviour toward the fascist Trump was not well-received by many.
In the Commons, the opposition spent the day noting that the Liberals had campaigned on ‘elbows up’ but backed down on reciprocal tariffs, the digital services tax, and appeared to be willing to trade away dairy concessions, too. For all of Carney’s efforts to strike a deal, the Conservatives charged, all Canada has gotten in return are more tariffs.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford urged Carney to take a tougher stand. But the prime minister doesn’t have Ford’s luxury. He has repeatedly told Canadians he’d rather sign no deal than a bad deal.
“We can’t just keep rolling over to President Trump. As he strengthens his case, we seem to be weakening our case by continuously pulling off tariffs,” Ford said.
Later, United Steelworkers’ national director Marty Warren said the lack of tangible progress on Tuesday was a “big letdown” for the sector struggling under 50 per cent import duties into the U.S.
“The last time Trump said what good friends we are, a week later he increased the steel tariffs,” Warren said.
The union head added that the chummy atmosphere in the Oval Office also rubbed him the wrong way. “I know that’s a strategy, but as a Canadian, it disgusted me,” he said.
Since nothing was resolved in the tariff war, Canadians are right to be disappointed in the lack of results from this 'charm offensive.' The only thing, perhaps, that might have turned the tide in Canada's favour was chocolates and flowers. Oh well, perhaps the next time Mr. Trump summons Mr. Carney to Washington, they will be included to bookend what will likely be another visit marked by obsequious deference to the 'leader' of the free world.
Sooner or later Carney will have to tread on Trumps toes.
ReplyDeleteWe cannot be nice Canadians forever.
TB
That does seem inevitable, TB. Many will not be sorry when that day comes.
DeleteIt strikes me that countervailing tariffs cost Canadian companies and citizens in general if we cannot find alternatives in other countries. Sharp, nasty, targetted countervailing tariffs desighed to put political pressure on Trump seem to make sense but Trump appears completely oblivious to any internal political pressure with the exception of China's embargo on rare earth metals. That seemed to sent every oligarch and senior military officer in the USA into a panic.
ReplyDeleteIt may not make a lot of sense to penalize Canadians when our actions don't seem to be having the slightest effect on Trump.
Everyone from brewers to Boeing must be having fits at the aluminum tariff but I have not seen anything about Trump rethinking it.
I don't have a lot of confidence in Doug Ford's diplomatic skills. IIRC, at the start of this tariff mess, I believe he was suggesting throwing Mexico under the bus and renegotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the USA.
Ignoring our shared interests of the USA's two largest trading partners(I think Mexico is a bit ahead of us at the moment) did not strike me as an astute move when we should have been in fevered consultations with Mexico from day one of the tariffs.
You make some excellent points here, Anon. Tariffs do increase costs for businesses, since they are the ones paying for them, and those costs are passed along to the customers. Perhaps our hope can only reside in the American people becoming so upset by increased costs of living that they will see Trump as the source of their woes. A tall order, I know.
Delete"“It’s amazing,” Carney replied, beaming. “I wore red for you,” the prime minister added, stroking his tie."
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you noticed but Carney was mocking Trump. Back in the 1990's all good, loyal male Liberal apparatchiks wore a red tie. David Peterson and his Ontario crew probably wiped out the entire red tie stock in Toronto in one day after the Liberals won the provincial election.
Of course, in the USA the Democratic Party's colour is blue. Trump is unlikely to realize that the "left wing" (cough, cough) in Canada is "red". If he could manage the language he probably would endorse the old Québec political slogan, "Le ciel est bleu, l'enfer est rouge" Reportedly used by a lot of the clergy in the late 19th century.
I honestly had not thought of that as an alternative explanation for Carney's comment, Anon.
DeleteYou need to watch the "Due South" reruns. The mockery that I suspect most people in the USA don't get is hilarious.
DeleteThanks for the suggestion, Anon. It is a show I never really watched.
ReplyDelete