I have to admit to deep ambivalence in hearing the news that Team Trudeau jetted off to Mar a Lago to have dinner with the incoming American president. My mental images included exaggerated genuflection, followed by a kissing of Don Trump's ring. Sometimes hyperbole helps clarify my thinking. Not so much this time, however.
On the one hand, my sense of national pride is deeply hurt at the thought of our prime minister and his entourage jumping to the beat of a madman. On the other hand, I wonder how much choice we really have in the matter, well aware that the consequences of the visit, both good and bad, may be long lasting.
Some are applauding the pilgrimage.
“I’m surprised and impressed,” said Flavio Volpe, head of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, that the Canadian leader was meeting with the president-elect, adding that kind of personal facetime with the former and future president is invaluable for Trudeau, and for Canada in the months ahead.
“The PM is demonstrating the humility that’s required (by) going to the source. Also the prime minister is demonstrating to the contrary of all the predictions (the idea) that Donald Trump wouldn’t want to work with him is untrue.”
Others, however, are not as sanguine. Of our country's snap-to-it reaction to Trump's threat of tarifffs, Bruce Arthur writes:
Canada’s reaction, though, showed a country ripe for the picking, smelling of panic and surrender. There are facts, of course. The two borders are incredibly different; barely any fentanyl is caught coming from Canada to the U.S., though it’s rising slightly. The same is true of irregular crossings, on a border than spans nearly 9,000 kilometres.
Still, many Canadian politicians didn’t just accept Trump’s bark-at-the-waiter framing, but hopped to attention, ready to serve. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, predictably, put out a statement asking Trump to exclude oil from tariffs, and pledged to send extra patrols to the Alberta border, which is, uh, not a hotspot. One supposes she is already familiar with the crossing at Coutts.
A similar reaction came from Quebec premier Francois Legualt as he called for increased border security, and Ontario's Doug Ford even
met with Canada Border Services Agency and the U.S.‘s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to find out “what needs to happen to secure our border.”
Of PP's response I will not speak, except to say that from his perspective, it can all be blamed on Trudeau's incompetence, a refrain that must be growing tiresome to even his most ardent supporters.
As well, there are darker implications to the visit.
[Timothy]Snyder’s first rule of tyrants is simple: do not obey in advance, and too many seem ready to forget that rule, in a vulnerable country.
