Trudeau And Trump

Justin Trudeau has made his feelings about a second Trump presidency pretty clear. Susan Delcourt writes:

On the one hand, it isn’t surprising that Trudeau would be open about his views on Trump, who came to office determined to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement and make Canada a casualty of his fierce, America-first protectionist policies. Personally, Trump appeared to hold Trudeau in low regard, famously slamming him as “dishonest and weak” during a 2018 Twitter tantrum. Similarly, Trudeau’s tolerance of Trump seemed stretched at times; notably, he was caught on camera in late 2019 laughing at the president with other world leaders at a Buckingham Palace reception. 

As one of the longest-serving progressive leaders now on the world stage, Trudeau is one of the few who bears the battle scars of dealing with Trump, and he has spoken before of how he has had to explain to Biden how much America’s reputation changed during the stormy Trump years.

Trudeau also sees a domestic advantage to running against Trump:

However, a new poll from Abacus Data shows that Canadians are more ambivalent about Trump than they were eight years ago — and while not as polarized as Americans, more divided on party lines than they once were.

Abacus CEO David Coletto reports that in his latest survey of opinions about the U.S. election, not all Canadians — especially Conservatives — share Trudeau’s view that a Trump victory would be bad news.

Coletto writes that “66 per cent of Canadians favour Biden over Trump, with a notable divide among Conservative supporters — 57 per cent favouring Trump and 43 per cent Biden. On the other hand, overwhelming majorities of Liberals and NDP supporters prefer Biden. Strikingly, younger Canadians, particularly those under 30, show a higher inclination towards Trump compared to those over 60.”

The Trump lie has spread across the border.

Image: Evan Vucci/The Associated Press file photo

Worse Things Await

Michael Harris' contempt for Justin Trudeau keeps growing. He's particularly ticked at Trudeau's response to the bonfire Trump has set in the Middle East:

Issuing timorous platitudes in response to Donald Trump’s disastrous decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is not leadership. It’s abdication.

Everyone understands the need for expediency, diplomacy and practicality in geopolitics. No government sticks its nose into another country’s affairs on a whim.

But for his government to offer nothing more on Trump’s catastrophic political decision than a promise that our embassy is staying put — along with an anodyne statement that the Israelis and Palestinians are our friends — is decaffeinated politics at best and, at worst, a disgraceful cop-out.

It's not easy living next door to the United States. But Donald Trump is not a normal American president. And sometimes neighbours have to deliver unpleasant truths to those who live across the yard:

President Trump reversed seventy years of U.S. foreign policy after consulting his belly-button and Steve Bannon. According to CNN, American evangelicals were informed of this reckless and self-interested political move before the State Department.

In the end, Trudeau will gain nothing by molifying Trump. The shear number of people who have left his employ during the last year should make that clear. And those who stay on  -- like Jeff Sessions and Rex Tillerson -- merely serve as punching bags fro Trump. In the end, Trump must be confronted -- certainly not a pleasant experience.

Justin needs to remember his father's response when the Watergate tapes revealed that Richard Nixon had called him a "son of a bitch." The elder Trudeau's response was, "I've been called worse things by better men."

Worse things await Justin the longer he remains silent about a man who most assuredly deserves the qualifier "worse."

Image: The National Post