Time to draw a line
The role of a host, generally speaking, is to make sure the guests are comfortable and no fights break out at the party.
But when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau presides over the annual summit of G7 leaders starting Friday in Charlevoix, Que., he’ll have a very different job: speaking plain truths to the biggest, most disruptive guest of them all, President Donald Trump.
If that means the summit “fails” by traditional standards, then so be it. At this point there’s no point in Trudeau simply making nice with Trump. No one would believe it, and Canadians will rightly feel let down by their leader.
Trump has gone out of his way to sabotage the trust between Washington and its closest allies, including Canada and key G7 members like Britain, France and Germany. His latest gambit is imposing stiff tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada, Mexico and the European Union, ostensibly for reasons of “national security.”
As regards Canada and Mexico, it’s really just a naked pressure tactic to gain an edge for the U.S. in the talks to renegotiate NAFTA. Trump’s chief economic adviser, Lawrence Kudlow, threw in another curveball this week. He says Trump wants to split up the NAFTA talks; instead of renewing the three-way deal among what used to be known as the “Three Amigos,” the president would prefer to work out separate pacts with Canada and Mexico.
Of course he would. Divide and conquer is an ancient tactic and Canada is quite right to reject that approach as a total non-starter. When it comes to dealing with Trump on trade, if Canada and Mexico don’t hang together they will surely hang separately.
Trudeau has taken a tougher public stance with Trump in past weeks, as he must given the continuous provocations from the White House. The G7 will be a major test of how he handles the petulant president, and he should not worry overly about taking a firm line.
Traditionally, prime ministers have been expected to handle their dealings with U.S. presidents with the greatest delicacy. If the American side got upset enough to show its annoyance, a good number of Canadians were ready to jump on the prime minister for “mishandling” relations with Washington.
But with Trump, the mishandling is all on one side and most of it is deliberate. Trudeau and his foreign affairs team tried the nice-guy approach for a long time, to considerable good effect. But there is a point beyond which that risks looking like weakness, and we passed that point in recent weeks.
For the prime minister, it’s time to stand up to the bully — and be seen to be doing so.
As G7 host, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will have to speak plain truths to Donald Trump