US, Canada war of words... when old friends fall out
Foreign Correspondent
What happens when old friends and good neighbours fall out? Canadians and Americans are about to find after a testy G7 meeting in Quebec that left President Donald Trump attacking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Twitter.
On Saturday the US president called Trudeau “very dishonest and weak”. On Sunday, White House adviser Peter Navarro said Trudeau “deserves a special place in hell” for trying to “stab Trump in the back ...”
Trudeau’s offence? He rejected the president’s trade tariffs, noting: “Canadians stood shoulder to shoulder with American soldiers in far off lands in conflicts from the First World War onward. Canadians, we’re polite, we’re reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around.”
Canadians also reacted with anger. “Trump shows up late, leaves early from the G7 and worries that already stated comments made about him make him look weak?” Canadian Pierre Dupuis said. “I’ll tell you what makes you look weak: Paying [porn star] Stormy [Daniels] $130,000 and begging her not to talk. You can’t make this stuff up.”
President Trump’s heated comments are unprecedented and unhelpful, Dalton McGuinty, the former premier of Ontario, has said.
Speaking to Gulf News on the statements that President Trump made following the G7 summit and its fallout, McGuinty said Canadians stood firmly behind their Prime Minister Trudeau. “Canadians are united behind Prime Minister Trudeau’s determination to strike a fair and balanced trading relationship with the US. While President Trump’s comments dismay Canadians, we will not allow them to draw down the deep reservoir of friendship and goodwill that characterises our relationship with our neighbour.”
He cited the example of former US President John F. Kennedy to describe the special relationship between the two countries. “In describing that relationship, I prefer the words of another American president, John F. Kennedy, who once said of our two great countries, “Geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder.”
“Canada will remain steadfast in its firm resolve to seek a fair and balanced trading relationship with the US,” he said.
McGuinty served as the 24th Premier of Ontario from 2003 to 2013. He was the first Liberal leader to win two majority governments since Mitchell Hepburn nearly 70 years earlier.