I cannot imagine that, these days, Pierre would applaud Justin's performance. Trudeau the Elder famously said that living next to the United States was like sleeping with an elephant. But I doubt that he would counsel his son to navigate the relationship by climbing on the elephant's back. That, however, is what Justin has been doing lately. He applauded Donald Trump's attack on Syria. Now he is boycotting a key UN disarmament initiative. Linda McQuaid writes:
Having Trump's back may be Trudeau's idea of putting Canada back on the world stage, but it feels more like a revival of the Harper era.
And while the Trudeau team is very worked up about chemical weapons, they seem strangely unconcerned about nuclear ones.
Indeed, the Trudeau government is breaking a long-standing and worthy Canadian practice by snubbing important new UN negotiations aimed at nuclear disarmament.
Pierre Trudeau crusaded against nuclear weapons. Back in 1983, he tried to end the Cold War, doing his own shuttle diplomacy between Moscow and Washington. Mr. Trump has signaled that he wants to rebuild his country's nuclear capacity, and he has refused to join the discussions which will include 123 of the 193 members of the UN. Justin's decision to side with Trump
has prompted condemnation from more than 900 Order of Canada recipients, led by Nobel-laureate John Polanyi and former Canadian Ambassador for Disarmament Douglas Roche, who calls the Trudeau government's stance "astounding" and "a denial of the country's long track record of working constructively for nuclear disarmament."
Another huge disappointment.
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