U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks before signing the Laken Riley Act, the first piece of legislation passed during his second term in office, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC., on Jan. 29.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
There’s long been an assumption, for about a century anyway, that as a nice neighbour, ally and friend, Canada has had a special relationship with the United States.
You can go through the speeches of almost every American president and find testimony to that. We’ve had lots of quarrels but we’ve remained America’s closest companion. The two countries, as Pierre Trudeau once put it, set the standard for enlightened international relations.
Not now.
Now, just when we need a show of that great friendship, it is not to be found. Just when we need American voices to strike hard against Donald Trump’s beggar-thy-neighbour madness, his proposed skyscraper tariffs and his economic annexation threats, they aren’t there.
On the contrary, the American attitude might well be nutshelled as: Quite frankly Canada, we don’t give a damn.
No matter that the Trump threat is the worst Canada has faced in generations – there has been little pushback. There’s silence from Republicans who are terrified of challenging their self-worshipping sultan. There’s mostly silence from Democratic lawmakers who, with Mr. Trump flooding the zone, are too busy with other shock-and-awe stuff.
As for the mainstream media, given how Mr. Trump has reined it in, don’t look for much outrage at his Canadian aggression there. On social media, X owner Elon Musk is the new tower of power in Washington. He is an ardent campaigner against Canadian progressives.
How about corporate America? On the topic of tariffs, U.S. companies are “not saying anything,” notes Dennis Darby, president of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters. What a far cry that is from Mr. Trump’s first term, when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned him that ending free trade could cost the U.S. 1.8 million jobs.
Not everyone is quiet. Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who’s terrific, is among those who have spoken out for Canada, saying that you don’t punish a partner like this.
But if there was more pressure – if American friendship and respect for their northern neighbour wasn’t so hollow – Mr. Trump might have felt the need to show some restraint. Instead, he probably feels emboldened.
Initially his threats were deemed too outlandish to be taken seriously, Hence, not much clamour. But that can’t be the excuse now.
If Canada had done something deeply damaging to American interests there may have been grounds for punitive action. But Ottawa has announced a $1.3-billion border-security upgrade to deal with that Trump complaint. As for the trade deficit with Canada, Mr. Trump’s numbers are pure balderdash, three times the real number.
On defence, the Trudeau government has increased spending more than any Canadian government since the Second World War and is en route, finally, to meeting the NATO target of 2 per cent of GDP. That still won’t satisfy Mr. Trump. He wants his military industrial complex even more nourished than it is now with its US$850-billion Pentagon budget, which massively exceeds the spending of rival powers.
Mr. Trump, who won the election by a tiny 1.5 per cent of the popular vote but operates like he has a mega MAGA mandate, is getting his take on tariffs called into question by the likes of The New York Times and The Washington Post. But trenchant American editorials standing up for Canada have been hard to find. A Times columnist, Ross Douthat, gave a thumbs up to annexation.
The impact on Canada of Mr. Musk cannot be underestimated. Since taking over Twitter, the Canadian-educated, US$420-billion brainiac has been turning it into a conveyor belt for right-wing propaganda. Formerly a Democrat, Mr. Musk now appears to prefer, as opposed to the Canadian way, Trump-styled authoritarianism.
On foreign policy, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and relations with China are devouring American attention. One of the few positive features of Mr. Trump is that while he is looney-tunes on tariffs and trade wars, he offers hope on real wars. He detests the forever wars and is determined to get Russia and Ukraine to the bargaining table, and he could very well do it. He has far more clout in the Middle East than Joe Biden and could make significant progress there. With China, he enjoys excellent personal relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
If he makes ground with the enemy powers, he’ll come under even less criticism than he is receiving now for his harsh treatment of neighbouring powers.
Becoming a satellite of the United States has been a fear Canadians have had to contend with throughout their history. The country avoided that fate, a big reason being that it could rely on the goodwill of American governments and the American people.
Today, both are missing.