Don’t fall for Tory leader’s rants

These are bitter days for those who believe in the essential role of a healthy American democracy on the global stage. Bitter, too, for a large majority of Americans.

For the rest of the world, terrifying.

For those who cannot digest America’s often irritating arrogance, excesses and even humiliating mistakes, there is one unavoidable reality they must face. A world where the United States is ruled by a corrupt autocrat determined to seek revenge on his enemies at home and around the world, would make today’s nightmares pale by comparison.

If the calamity of such a collapse came as a result of the collusion of its most powerful democratic institutions, the horror is only magnified. Yet that was what we saw at the nation’s highest court last week.

Last week, we saw Republican justices, who hold a majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, openly collude with Donald Trump. They have engineered their schedule and decision dates such that Donald Trump will not be tried before he may become president again.

Worse they listened to his lawyers’ breathtaking claim that a president could murder a rival and — if it were an “official act” — not face any consequences. There was a little objection to this lunacy from the bent side of the bench. It almost felt like one had been transported to a Beijing courtroom.

In New York, Trump’s lawyers faced a judge with integrity and a steel spine. Their claim that Michael Cohen had spent nearly $300,000 of his own money on his own, to silence two women, taking out a homeequity loan to do so, was laughable.

This and other insulting nonsense earned them a loud slap from the judge, “You have lost all credibility before the court.” There will be more such nauseous weeks ahead.

As dreadful as the potential outcome is for Canada, it is not our role to snipe from abroad. Even more seriously, nor should we inject the Trump poison into Canada’s politics. One might hope that, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre will pay a price for his flirtation with racists and zenophobes. And for his claim that Canada is “completely broken,” that everything the government of Canada has done over eight years is just “bulls--t” and “lies.”

It is insulting to Canadians. It could also have come from the lips of America’s autocrat.

But Justin Trudeau must avoid the temptation to paint Poilievre as a Trump mini-me. It only cheapens our politics, ironically, in a pure Trumpian manner.

Far better to champion Canada, surely. Not only is Canada not broken, we this week succeeded at getting the world’s first serious draft agreement on reducing plastics near the finish line. Our role was central, professional and won global praise.

We are proud of what Canadians have pioneered in immigrant integration, AI and quantum technology, in climate change, in progress on Indigenous reconciliation, and on and on.

Partisan politics is made of attacking your opponents’ failures and delivering passionately your better vision for Canada. Emotional denunciation, anger verging on rage, savage sarcasm in whacking your opponent — all OK.

In Canada, it has not been about denigrating the country — until now.

It has not been about adolescent vulgarisms in personal attacks — until now.

Coming from a man whose life achievement is limited to a few weeks as a junior minister in the cabinet of a dying government and two decades as a publicly paid opposition MP, it is somewhat galling.

While acknowledging all our deficits and the work remaining to do, we are proud of Canada. Most of us do not want to hear it described as completely broken.

No matter your partisan convictions and grievances about governments failures, we might all look south from time to time and say, “Let’s make sure together that we never get there …”

Then maybe call an American friend and tell them our fingers are crossed that they emerge successfully from this terrifying dark terrain they are now navigating their way across.

Not only is Canada not broken, we this week succeeded at getting the world’s first serious draft agreement on reducing plastics near the finish line. Our role was central, professional and won global praise