If you’re going to negotiate with Donald Trump, go where he hangs out: Fox News.
It’s got an audience bigger than CNN and MSNBC combined, and it’s the U.S. president-elect’s favourite viewing. Team Canada needs a Fox-appropriate spokesperson who can make our case. I nominate Doug Ford.
In response to Mr. Trump’s social-media post threatening Mexico and Canada with a blanket 25-per-cent tariff, “until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!” the Ontario Premier struck exactly the right tone.
“To compare us to Mexico is the most insulting thing I have ever heard from our friends and closest allies, the United States of America,” he said. (Words like that will get you cancelled on MSNBC.) He added that it was “like a family member stabbing you right in the heart.”
The statement has the virtue of being factually true, sincerely felt and, most importantly, expressed in a way that resonates with Americans, in particular those who just elected Mr. Trump.
I’ll admit that Mr. Ford probably doesn’t want the gig; he already has a job, and being too cozy with the Americans has never been a good look if you’re running for office up here. But along with traditional U.S. lobbying – White House, Congress, state capitols – Team Canada needs some populist-sympatico players popping up regularly on Fox News.
It’s the comms part of a broader strategy for getting the Trump administration, and Americans, to understand that, on a lot of issues, including those dear to Mr. Trump, the two countries are on the same page and should act together – regardless of who is in the White House.
In his Truth Social post threatening tariffs, the president-elect said it was all about border security – his key issues of unauthorized immigration and illegal drugs, specifically fentanyl. Like any politician, Mr. Trump wants to be able to tell voters that he’s delivering on his promises. He needs a winning story. Fair enough.
Canada has a different immigration policy than the United States, but the two countries have a shared interest in controlling who and what crosses each of our borders. (Again: It doesn’t matter who’s in the White House.) And because we share a continent and the world’s longest border, we can accomplish a lot more working together than at cross purposes.
The last time Washington freaked out about northern border security was after 9/11. To respond to the Americans’ concerns – and to further Canada’s own security and economic interests – after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the government of prime minister Jean Chrétien negotiated the Smart Border Declaration. It made the movement of people and goods across the border more secure, but also smoother. There’s intelligence and information sharing, and even co-decision making on some border matters, with officials from the two countries working together. If you have a Nexus card, you’re a beneficiary of that process.
Canada needs to double down on what we did after 9/11. There are major common interests to come together over.
Mr. Trump wants to stop the flow of fentanyl and precursor chemicals from China? So does Canada. But Canada alone can’t get China to play ball. And if Washington concludes a solo agreement with Beijing, shipments may simply be diverted to Canada, some to poison Canadians and others to be smuggled across the U.S. border.
Canada and the U.S. have a common crisis of drug overdoses and deaths, and our two countries need to work together to lean on China. If the Americans go it alone, we will both lose. If we play on the same team, we can both win.
It’s a similar story when it comes to the movement of people. Until the Trudeau government, Canada generally had tougher visa rules than the U.S. As such, Ottawa was always far more concerned about refugee claimants from south of the border than Washington was about the reverse. That’s also why Canada pushed for and got a Safe Third Country Agreement as part of the post-9/11 negotiations, to compel asylum seekers to make their claim in their first country of arrival. That was a Canadian ask of the Americans, not the other way around.
Mr. Trump says he’s concerned about people sneaking into the U.S. from Canada. Compared to Mexico it’s a trickle, but so what: We should be happy to help address this irritant. One way to do so is by expanding the Safe Third Country Agreement to remove its remaining loopholes. It would mean that anyone crossing from Canada into the U.S. to make a refugee claim, or illegally crossing the U.S. border, would be returned immediately to Canada. And vice versa.
The two countries have a shared interest in making it happen. Sounds like a win-win.