For Donald Trump, everything is about trade. And trade is about war. The Trudeau government has had some experience with Trump on this file. Susan Delacourt writes:
Canada does have a playbook for trade disputes with the United States, and Justin Trudeau’s government hauled it out to deal with Donald Trump’s America-first hoarding of pandemic-fighting supplies.
Perhaps no one should have been surprised that the U.S. president’s penchant for turning global matters into trade wars includes, it seems, an international pandemic.
Faced with a familiar Trump tactic, the Trudeau government applied a now-familiar response:
Phone diplomacy — a massive flurry of phone calls between Canadians and their American contacts and counterparts.
Co-ordinated, federal-provincial communications, with the provinces often playing bad cop, while Ottawa plays good cop.
Extremely limited contact between Trump and Trudeau themselves, with the prime minister saying as little as possible to avoid inflaming the president.
All of those strategies were put into use after the 3M announcement last week. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland talked to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer; Global Affairs Minister François Philippe Champagne talked to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; and the newly named ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, spent days talking to selected high-level officials in the Trump administration.
It worked for NAFTA. We'll have to see if it works this time. We know this morning that medical masks are headed to Canada.
But one thing is certain. Life can be difficult when you have to deal with The Mighty Moron.
Image: dailykos.com
