Canada-US relations at a low after Trudeau-Trump trade tiff
TORONTO (AP) — For the first time in decades, one of the world’s most durable and amicable alliances faces serious strain as Canadians — widely considered some of the nicest, politest people on Earth — absorb Donald Trump’s insults against their prime minister and attacks on their country’s trade policies.
Some Canadians are urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to seek peace with the U.S. president. Many others want him to hang tough even as Trump seeks to make political hay with his anti-Canada rhetoric.
But there’s broad agreement with this assessment by The Globe and Mail, a leading Canadian newspaper: “Relations between two of the world’s closest allies are now at a perilous low.”
The spark for the confrontation: Not only did Trump suggest new tariffs against Canada are justified on grounds of national security, but he and top aides assailed Trudeau as a “weak” and dishonest” back-stabber who deserves a place in hell.
For Canadians — who don’t totally reject their stereotyped image as self-effacing and nice — the eruption seemed completely at odds with their own national temperament.
Anne Marie Goetz, a Canadian who teaches global affairs at New York University, said she hopes suburb, the City Council unanimously passed a motion Monday encouraging its residents and businesses, with typical Canadian politesse, to consider avoiding U.S. goods “where Canadian substitutes are reasonably available.”
“Trump is like a bad houseguest. He showed up late, left early and insulted the host,” said Mayor Rick Bonnette. “When you have a bully like Trump, you can’t just keep taking it and taking it.”
The ties between the two countries are without parallel anywhere in the world. Trade between the U.S. and Canada totaled an estimated $673.9 billion in 2017, with a surplus of $8.4 billion for the United States. Each day, about 400,000 people cross the world’s longest international border. There is close cooperation on defense, border security and law enforcement, and a vast overlap in culture, traditions and pastimes.
As with most intimate relationships, there have been rough spots.
Limited trade wars over lumber, pulp and paper, and other products have flared on and off for decades. In the early 1960s, there was a bitter rift because of personal enmity between President John F. Kennedy and Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, who balked at U.S. pressure to be more aggressive in Cold War maneuverings.