Resisting Trump’s isolationism

EDITORIAL: WHAT OTHERS THINK

Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland didn’t mention Donald Trump by name as she set out the Trudeau government’s foreign policy priorities on Tuesday. She didn’t have to. Canada, like the rest of the world, is scrambling to figure out how to deal with Trump’s relentless “America First” agenda, and Freeland gave a strong, positive answer. The response, she said, must be to reaffirm our long-standing commitment to upholding the international order. If the United States steps back, we and others must step up.

This is right as far as it goes, and it will resonate both with Canadians and others worried to see the U.S., in Freeland’s words, “shrug off the burden of world leadership,” most recently in Trump’s misguided decision to pull out of the Paris Accord on climate change.

The risk for a so-called “middle power” like Canada, as Freeland pointed out, is that the rule-based system constructed in the aftermath of the Second World War will fray if its traditional champion turns inward. Other, less scrupulous powers, like China and Russia, will rush to fill the vacuum of leadership. In a mightmakes-right world, the smaller fry (including Canada) will inevitably be more vulnerable.

So Freeland is unquestionably right to underline the often-overlooked benefits for Canada of an “international order based on rules” (including global trade organizations, the United Nations, NATO and the rest). The United States under Trump may be turning its back, but it’s to Canada’s advantage to encourage others to join in upholding our shared values. Trump, after all, won’t be there forever.

Talk, however, is cheap. And Canada’s commitment will be measured not just in words but also in deeds and dollars.

We’ll start to find out how the Trudeau government will back up Freeland’s words when it issues the results of a review of defence policy (which was to be released Wednesday). The minister promised the government intends to make a “substantial investment” in Canada’s military, something that is badly overdue after years of embarrassing delays in procuring bigticket items like modern naval ships and fighter aircraft.

That type of equipment allows Canada to back up its soft power talk with hard power action, at the right times and in the right places. Trump has been badgering Washington’s NATO allies to increase their military spending, and there is some truth in what he says. Others should not be perpetual free riders on the American dime. If that’s all we do, Freeland noted, we risk becoming a mere “client state” of the U.S. Independence in world affairs doesn’t come for free.

On a shorter-term note, the government should finally spell out what it intends to do in the area of peace operations. It put a potential mission to Africa on hold after the Trump victory, and it’s high time to clarify those plans.

Just as important, Canada needs to step up its game in foreign aid.

The government is about to announce what Freeland calls Canada’s “first feminist international assistance policy,” focusing on women’s rights and gender equality. A focus on women would not be a first for Canada; the Harper government funded programs for maternal and child health, and fighting sexual violence and forced marriages (even though it was criticized for not funding abortion services).

But the Conservatives allowed Canada’s overall foreign aid effort to wither. It now accounts for just 0.24 per cent of GDP, below the average for developed countries and far short of the UN ideal of 0.7 per cent. Even as it shifts the focus to women’s rights, the Trudeau government must do better on total spending if it wants to show true leadership in this area.

Freeland also defended free trade at a time when the concept is under attack from both right and left. Canada has always been a trading nation and it stands to be a big loser if the rest of the world follows Trump’s lead and retreats behind their borders.

But she also made the vital point that the real issue is domestic policy. It’s up to each country to make sure that the prosperity generated by trade and growth is widely shared.

If it isn’t, as we have seen too many times in the recent past, ordinary people will justifiably turn against the international system itself and back politicians like Trump who play on their worst instincts. The Trudeau government is absolutely right to push back against this destructive trend.

An editorial from the Toronto Star (distributed by The Canadian Press)