Canadians may not like Trump, but they really need his help

Canada — and Trudeau in his reelection efforts — need Trump on a wide range of trade and foreign policy issues.·Politico
By Alexander Panetta
0

Canada’s prime minister left a meeting in the Oval Office Thursday with a mixed political blessing: A proclamation of friendship from President Donald Trump.

Justin Trudeau doesn’t want to be seen as chummy with Trump, since Trudeau’s liberal base back home despises him. But the reality is Canada — and Trudeau in his reelection efforts — need Trump on a wide range of trade and foreign policy issues.

Trump has already come through for Trudeau in lifting steel tariffs, and he’s helping Canada when it comes to dealing with China, which has battered Canada in myriad ways — arresting its citizens, blocking its imports, and freezing out Canadian leaders from any facetime.

Trump has also promised to take up Canada’s concerns with Chinese President Xi Jinping when they meet next week at the G20 in Japan.

And instead of rage-tweeting at Trudeau, which Trump did after visiting Canada a year ago, on Thursday following their meeting Trump instantly tweeted a flattering video, accompanied by an orchestral soundtrack.

“It’s an honor to have the prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. He’s been a friend of mine,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, seated beside Trudeau.

Trump also promised to speak up on Trudeau’s behalf when he meets Xi: “I’ll represent him well,” Trump said. “Anything I can do to help Canada, I will be doing.”

This was music to the ears of Canada’s prime minister.

It may, however, represent a challenge to Trudeau in his other role: as the head of Canada’s Liberal Party. Trudeau is in deep political peril, trailing in the polls with an election on Oct. 21, and he desperately needs to regain the trust of voters on the left.

Trudeau’s progressive coalition began cracking in the wake of an ethics scandal earlier this year, with left-leaning voters moving away from his party and considering other options like the Green Party.

It goes without saying that this group of progressive voters holds no fan-club gatherings for America’s populist president. Trump has low approval ratings in Canada, as in numerous other countries.

One Canadian pollster says he suspects the PM might seek some way to campaign against Trump.

“Up 'til now the prime minister has generally tried to play nice with Mr. Trump,” said David Coletto, CEO of Abacus Data.

“But as we get close to the election, if they get desperate, if the Liberals start to realize this is going to be hard, do they bring out the Trump card? … Like in September-October, at what point do they start saying, ‘Do we really want to elect a Donald Trump-esque government in Canada?’ I don’t know if Canadians will buy it.”

Trudeau has dropped hints about how he might discreetly raise Trump during the election. He never criticizes the president by name, but pushes hot-button issues that happen to be at the center of American debates.

For example, he expressed concern about new state-level abortion laws during Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Ottawa. Trudeau has put gun control on the election-year agenda. He’s also blasted unnamed foreign politicians for nationalist race-baiting, and tried linking his own domestic Conservative opponents to those politicians.

Trudeau’s election rival predicts some subtle Trump-bashing during the campaign.

“The [Trudeau] Liberals will claim [Canadian] Conservatives are part of some global populist movement, but Canadian won’t buy it,” said Erin O’Toole, an MP who speaks for the opposition Conservative Party on foreign affairs issues.

“If you look at our leader and policies, we are more relatable to Canadians, more trustworthy and will have policies people are very comfortable with.”

All the major Canadian parties are trying to distance themselves from Trump to a certain degree.

The Conservatives do it by suggesting Trudeau wasn’t tough enough with Trump at the negotiating table for a new North American trade deal.

And they accuse him of grandstanding. O’Toole said public speeches given by Trudeau and his foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, poisoned the negotiating atmosphere.

Now the prime minister's in a jam and trying to regain Trump's favor, O'Toole said, by rushing to ratify the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal and imposing import controls on Asian steel.

“Lately, he is doing everything the president asks," O'Toole said, "because he needs help salvaging the Canada-China dispute."

Trudeau acknowledged before departing Washington that the NAFTA renegotiation had gotten contentious — but added that "we’ve come through it.”

When a reporter pointed out that Trump has yet to make an actual state visit to Canada, and asked Trudeau whether he'd invited him, the prime minister sidestepped the question.

Trudeau replied only that he’d recently hosted Pence, and that he'd welcomed Trump for the G7 summit in June 2017 — the one that ended with Trump bashing Trudeau on Twitter.

Advertisement

Recommended Stories