PM’s tweet misguided
Last thing Canada needs is feud with Trump
To avoid confusion, I agree entirely with Pierre Trudeau’s contention that a society that emphasizes uniformity is one which creates intolerance and hate.
Donald Trump is a man temperamentally unfit to be President of the United States of America — a bully whose “win-lose” philosophy threatens peace and stability around the globe.
Americans are far more likely to die from lightning, lawn mowers and armed toddlers than Islamic jihadists, so his pledge to get tough on terror by imposing a 90-day ban on travel by citizens of seven Muslim countries makes little sense, like breaking a butterfly on a wheel.
But while Trump is truculent, he is also transparent.
He was elected, in part, on this nonsensical policy and there is every prospect that it will collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. It is blatantly racist, judging people on their race and religion, rather than their actions. Even his vice-president has called it unconstitutional. Republicans who have to face voters in midterm elections in two years will, surely to God, curb Trump’s more noxious enthusiasms in the meantime.
It was entirely appropriate for the government of Canada to highlight its own policies on immigration and point out that diversity is this country’s strength.
But the differentiation should not have come in the form of a tweet from a prime minister trying to build bridges with the new president.
Justin Trudeau’s “welcome to Canada” tweet on Saturday made headlines around the world — the BBC, New York Times and Al-Jazeera all portrayed the Prime Minister in the vanguard of opposition to Trump’s policy.
This will have played well domestically — opposition to Trump crosses party lines but there remains a virulent strain of anti-Americanism on the progressive left that last found voice in Liberal ads suggesting a Stephen Harper victory in 2006 would put a smile on George W. Bush’s face.
But while the tweet may have helped boost Trudeau’s political fortunes, it was not in the national interest. This is not Love Actually and Trudeau is not Hugh Grant, publicly berating a U.S. president for bullying his allies.
Canada’s most important bilateral relationship is with the U.S. and getting on with the Americans has been one of the most important obligations of any prime minister.
The Trudeau government avoided being targeted with protectionist measures like a border adjustment tax by working constructively with an incoming administration on which it disagreed on just about everything. Instead the Liberals focused on areas of commonality and muted their grievances.
At least we think we have avoided discriminatory measures. Who knows how a figure as mercurial and vindictive as Trump might respond once he reads the headlines in his beloved New York Times?
It would have been more diplomatic to have a member of the Trudeau cabinet, such as Somalia-born immigration minister Ahmed Hussen, say that Canada remains open to refugees and immigrants. (Hussen did say Sunday that Canada will issue temporary residency permits to anyone stranded in this country because of the ban. And he defended Trudeau’s tweet, saying it was a “very important re-stating of the long-standing tradition” of welcoming those seeking protection.)
This would have been a disciplined and discreet way of expressing Canada’s displeasure at the new policy, without tweaking Trump’s warped ego. The President lives in a world of absolutes, where, if you’re not with him, you hate America.
Thus far, Trudeau has been remarkably successful, considering their differences, at getting along with the new president.
The world needs that relationship to flourish. During some future crisis, Trudeau’s role as interlocutor — someone whose word carries weight in Washington — may prove crucial. We have already seen the Chinese reach out to the Canadian prime minister as someone who can talk to Trump.
But that role is in jeopardy, if the restraint that has characterized the relationship is abandoned. The tweet was a calculated attempt to bolster sliding domestic support by upbraiding an unpopular president. It was a mistake.