Scheer needs Trump returned to sender
U.S. president’s antics benefiting Trudeau, says Andrew Macdougall.
During Black Friday’s madness Justin Trudeau was undoubtedly busy shopping for his best mate, Donald Trump. It’s a tricky one, even for an Amazon algorithm. What do you get the man who’s consigning Andrew Scheer to second place?
Whatever Trudeau chooses, he should spend big to keep Trump sour. The more Trump throws his toys out of the pram, soils convention and acts against Canada’s interests, the more he acts in Trudeau’s. If Trump keeps on keeping on, Scheer can forget the keys to not-24 Sussex.
Don’t think Trump has been good for Trudeau?
How about Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Accord? Renders it useless in practical terms, but loads up Trudeau’s rhetorical emissions in favour of climate multilateralism. The Liberal carbon tax is now cloaked in world-saving robes.
The U.S. president’s constant praising of nationalism? A natural response to 30 years of disappointment with globalization to some communities, but a shock to the majority view of a country such as Canada that has relied on the rules-based order to punch above its weight.
Trump’s even-handedness with dodgy white nationalists? An acidic byproduct of “Make America Great Again”-ism, one that provides a tart taste to some of Canada’s most ardent anti-trudeauists. Even worse, Maxime Bernier’s new project has made these votes biddable instead of quietly bankable.
The steel and aluminum tariffs? They might be a blight on our joint relationship, but they are solid gold with which to stiffen Trudeau’s middle finger back. And, apparently, his selfie stick, too. There will be no photo taken of the two men together celebrating Chrystia Freeland’s miracle act of USMCA negotiating prowess at next week’s G-20 meeting.
Trudeau can only hope Trump takes the bait and chokes out another round of Twitter rage. Anything over four tweets will probably send Trudeau over the magical 40 per cent level of support. And three years into an unimpressive mandate, that’s a stellar place to be.
Of course, the race would be more competitive if Scheer would stop aiming at his own two feet.
Scheer might not be immune to the world, but he is absolutely in charge of his unforced errors. From here until October 2019 he needs to be perfect, so perfectly has Trump limited his room to manoeuvre (while at the same time expanding Trudeau’s).
Every tweet from CPC HQ has to be perfect. Every question from Conservative Members in the House. Every interview given on every platform. All with perfect tone.
It goes back to Scheer doing the work, not trying to light a blaze he can’t control. Inflicting wounds on Trudeau on substance is the best route to keeping the Canadian MAGA crowd on side, while expanding his support amongst the unsure. The more Scheer slips, however, the more the ultras will call for harsher measures.
Fortunately, the opposition Scheer leads is doing some good work.
Despite Trudeau dipping into the partisan well to brand the Tories “ambulance chasers,” they scored a significant win on the use of healing lodges for savage killers such as Terri-lynne Mcclintic. They also notched up a victory on personal privacy by whipping up a furor over Statistics Canada’s use of people’s banking data.
Even better for the Tories, the government response to both issues demonstrated a tone deafness wrought by an inflated sense of virtue and invulnerability. There are other, similar buttons to press at home provided clatter from abroad is ignored.
All the more reason, then, for Trudeau to order up a copy of Bob Woodward and James Comey’s books and ship them to the White House.
Scheer might need Trump returned to sender, but Trudeau needs the president to keep delivering explosions.
Every tweet from CPC HQ has to be perfect.