It seems silly to be writing a column on national affairs a week after all of Canada’s problems were seemingly resolved in one fell swoop. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has, after all, announced his intention to step down.
As Canadians (at least those who follow social media or engage in political discourse in coffee shops or taverns) well know, Trudeau is pretty much wholly responsible for inflation, the housing crisis, the common cold and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ ongoing playoff failures. All of these will no doubt end promptly when he finally passes the flickering torch of party leadership to his almost certainly doomed successor.
One suspects though, that Trudeau or no, Canada’s biggest current threat, the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump will continue to be a thorn in our collective sides.
While some suggest Trump’s musings about making Canada the 51st state are pure bluster aimed at distracting from the impact his announced intention to place a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods will have on American consumers, most commentators seem to believe he will at least attempt to implement said tariffs, to devastating effect on both sides of the border.
Switching prime minister appears unlikely to be helpful, as Trump’s public response to Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre’s statement that Canada “will never be the 51st state” (Maybe we’ll be 52nd, after Greenland?) was a blunt “I don’t care what he says.”
Maybe other leaders will step into the breach? Canada’s premiers are said to be planning a joint mission to meet key members of the new US administration, congress and business leaders in February. The expedition will reportedly be led by none other than Ontario Premier Doug Ford, so what could go wrong? (Hopefully he won’t publicly muse that Trump’s “cheese has slipped off the cracker” despite the obvious lubriciousness of the president-elect’s fromage.)
Interestingly, an example of the kind of leadership our nation lacks these days recently manifested itself in the form of an opinion column published in the Globe and Mail by former PM Jean Chretien on the occasion of his 91st birthday,
“To Donald Trump, from one old guy to another: Give your head a shake! What could make you think that Canadians would ever give up the best country in the world – and make no mistake, that is what we are – to join the United States?” Chretien asked.
The former PM’s missive is in wide circulation and well worth a read in its entirety, but briefly, he points out Canadians prize independence, love their country and have “built something here that is the envy of the world.
“If you think that threatening and insulting us is going to win us over, you really don’t know a thing about us,” Chretien tells Trump, adding that “when it came to fighting in two world wars for freedom, we signed up – both times – years before your country did. We fought and we sacrificed well beyond our numbers.”
He also notes Canada (under his administration at the time) “also had the guts to say no to your country when it tried to drag us into a completely unjustified and destabilizing war in Iraq.”
“We may look easy-going. Mild-mannered. But make no mistake, we have spine and toughness,” he notes, while urging federal and provincial leaders to “start showing that spine and toughness.”
Drawing a hockey analogy, Chretien points out that games are not won with defence alone and that appeasing the bullyish Trump is unlikely to produce useful results.
“We all know that even when we satisfy one demand, Mr. Trump will come back with another, bigger demand. That’s not diplomacy; it’s blackmail,” he states.
Chretien suggest an offensive tact could include pointing out Canada has border issues with the US, including illegal guns that originate from south of the border and disputes over lack of US recognition of Arctic sovereignty.
The op ed points our there are more trade barriers between provinces than between Canada and the United States and suggests a national project to remove them.
“And let’s strengthen the ties that bind this vast nation together through projects such as real national energy grid,” he adds.
Of course, Trump being Trump, there’s no guarantee a Chretienesque approach would work, as any attempt to negotiate with him assumes he’s interested in negotiation or open to logical argument. Simply put, he’s not.
In that case, there’s one last Chretien-style tactic that might be worth a shot, albeit one that might not bear much fruit beyond a certain grim satisfaction. Trump is well known for his attempts to intimidate visiting world leaders with overlong, exaggerated greeting grips.
Maybe he’d like to try a “Shawinigan Handshake” on for size?
Talk about a photo op for the ages!
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Patrick Raftis is the editor at Midwestern Newspapers. He can be reached at editor@midwesternnewspapers.com