Trump’s Canadian fan base

The sickening spectacle of MAGA rioters storming the U. S. Capitol seems to have broken Donald Trump’s hold over at least some of the Republicans who have enabled him over the last four years. But a lingering question for Canadian political aficionados is: what will become of his small but influential Canadian fan base?

To be sure, Trump leaves the presidency as massively unpopular on this side of the border as when he took office. Even before this shameful final act, he was widely despised in Canada. He has broken records for unpopularity in this country. According to one poll in September, less than 15 per cent of Canadian respondents said that they could bring themselves to vote for Trump. Most Canadian politicians have understood this.

After early, largely futile efforts to charm Trump and luminaries such as his daughter Ivanka and son- in- law Jared Kushner, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shifted course and spent the last couple of years biting his tongue on the subject of the U. S. president. Conservative politicians in Canada, often quick to embrace Republican celebrities ( and political tactics), have also been notably reticent when it comes to Trump.

So politically radioactive are Trump’s authoritarianism, race- bating and demagoguery that he is the first president in four decades not to be invited to Canada for a state visit. But while elected politicians of all stripes have been astute enough to give Trump a wide berth, he does have his fans in the Canadian political establishment.

Former prime minister Brian Mulroney has lauded him publicly, serenaded himat MaraLago, and according to new biography of Bush family consigliere James Baker, advised Trump behind the scenes.

Stephen Harper has also forcefully defended Trump to U. S. media. One of Harper’s speechwriters actually wrote an opinion column for the Washington Post, just days before the November election, titled “Why Canadians Should Root for Another Trump Term.”

While outright and public Trump fandom here is largely confined to politically marginal figures like the alt- right provocateur Ezra Levant or the convicted mogul Conrad Black, I’ve been shocked at the admiring words about Trump and Trumpism that I have personally witnessed — usually off the record — from members of Canada’s conservative establishment.

Like the former Harper- era cabinet minister who privately chastised me after a presentation I gave on a panel following the 2019 Canadian election. I asked him if he felt I had been too rough on the Conservatives. “No,” he said. “I don’t care what you said about them. But you were too rough on Trump — he’s great for the economy!”

Or the former premier who extolled the virtues of Trump’s chief lickspittle, Sen. Lindsey Graham. “He’s someone we should really talk to and get onside,” said the former premier. “Lindsey’s just a great guy.”

Or the podcast I participated in this past summer with Stephen Harper’s former PMO deputy chief of staff and campaign director, Jenni Byrne. Not only did she cheerfully defend Trump and his myriad transgressions, but she parroted — seemingly word for word — Trumpian smears about what she termed “Joe Biden’s increasingly concerning health and mental capacity.”

Such wilful blindness and political amorality can’t be ascribed to ideology. After all, Donald Trump is in no way a real conservative. I can’t presume to get into the heads of smart people who would defend and even praise a president who put children in cages, pardoned war criminals and tried to steal elections.

Part of it, I think, is a consuming fascination with “the game” of politics, as if it were divorced from real- world consequences and results. Another reason might be the urge to “own the liberals,” that is to infuriate political opponents by embracing the very man that causes their so- called “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Ultimately, I ascribe it to something more banal but equally infuriating: the “fanboy” nature of many Canadian politicos when it comes to U. S. politics. This is not strictly a Conservative trait. I have observed it among star- struck Liberals, who act like addled Ariana Grande fans when they get near the likes of Barack Obama or Bill Clinton.

What does that mean as Trump is dragged off into the sunset? Canadians have a weakness for American celebrities, even washed- up and secondrate ones. Toronto’s business, political and media elite paid top dollar to attend a 2018 Munk Debate headlined by Steve Bannon, the Trumpiest of all Donald Trump’s acolytes.

Will a post- presidency Donald Trump — or his noxious offspring — draw the same kind of audience in the months and years to come? As they indulge in what is now a time- honoured, bipartisan American post- political rite — commoditizing their celebrity — will they find a lucrative niche market in Canada?

Unfortunately, it’s not something I would bet against.

Peter Donolo was communications director for Jean Chrétien. He is now a consultant based in Toronto.