trump-calls-canada-toxic-amid-political-disarray

Reiterating his wish to make Canada the 51st state of the US, President-elect Donald Trump shared a recent post on social media about Canadian businessman Kevin O'Leary's support of the idea.

Mocked with great determination for this latest trolling activity of the United States 's President Towards Canada, but his seemingly dangerous obsession comes at the time when the long weakened Liberal government of the country is in mess after the big shock resignation of Chrystia Freeland from her post as finance minister and deputy prime minister.

 

Her response to Trump was at the core of Freeland's critique on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the December resignation letter.

One of the tests that she turned at her former boss was that Canada would not be ready to meet the bitter new challenge coming with the second term of Trump.

 

True to his character, Trump was already embroiled with the internal Canada agenda by calling Freeland toxic and continuing to make his running joke of referring to Trudeau as governor of an American state rather than the leader of a sovereign nation.

 

It has become routine now for such attacks, with Trump suggesting in another post that Canadians would "save massively on taxes and military protection" if they became the 51st state.

 

Economic, democratic decline

Whoever becomes prime minister in weeks or months ahead would have to envisage very effective ways of dealing with the progressive Trump-a threat to Canada-in contrast to the ineffective ways Liberals have done it under Trudeau.

 

Trump is openly disrespecting Canadian independence and, along with it, that which is Canadian identity. He daringly challenges the very notion of Canadian sovereignty. Canada must respond in kind.

 

It may be capable of understanding just how personally this person can follow through on activity that disregards time-honored political and diplomatic conventions. His threats of annexation raised a constant set of diverse challenges to economic prosperity, democratic values, and sovereignty in Canada.

 

That much of the threat is now generally understood in economic terms while carrying an indirect reference to Canada. Trump's prediction of a 25 per cent border tax for all exports to the United States may not only be massively expensive for both countries but also because of the size difference between the two countries, it will hurt Canada more.

 

The democratic threat is also obvious. Trump has established that democracy in his mind is not a crucial set of rules and norms but rather a set of obstacles to overcome.

 

He's incapable of accepting loss or victory graciously.

 

President Trump has launched his revenge tour with lawsuits against media companies and a pollster that he claims was favorable to Democrats-an indication that Kamala Harris was ahead during the last bend of the development of the US election campaign.

Once he regains residence at the White House, Trump has vowed to use public institutions for chastising adversaries. By-and-by, a partisan US Supreme Court ruling last year made it sure that even if the actions of Trump are found to have judicial offences, he will not be prosecuted.

 

"Trump's disdain for democratic structures is poisonous and replicable. During his first term, experts raised alarms and described how he was related to floundering democracy around the world. After all, if the president of the United States can do that in open defiance of democratic norms, what stops any other aspiring demagogue from doing the same?"

 

A second Trump administration would likely continue such currents, and his readiness to meddle in Canadian politics is already sending shockwaves across the border.

 

Canadian sovereignty at stake? 

 

The actions of Mr Trump indicate that he indeed does not respect people he considers powerless - and at the moment, that includes Canada. He has taken it as a stock joke that Canada is not a real country at all but just another American state. There is no serious comeback for that but a nervous giggle. 

 

Canada has acted so far in a way that suggests to the observer that Trump actually has a point. The government immediately promised over one billion in new border spending instead of pushing back in defense of Canada's strong record on its part of the border relationship. Leaders in Canada have failed to call out the threats from Trump as bluster from a bully.

 

In the face of Trump's threats of tariffs, Trudeau unexpectedly hit the skies to Florida to pay tribute to the president-elect and make a case for Canada instead of going through the usual protocol of formally waiting for an inauguration date state visit. It only adds to the image of more of a supplicant than a visiting head of government.

 

Even more helpful is to think of Trump as a schoolyard bully: the one demanding that someone else do his homework-his homework in this particular case being the defense of America's borders. There isn't an end to that bullying, however, when you give in to the bully; it's clear when you won't.

 

Border protection is a fundamental function of any state, a responsibility given to any president of the United States. The fact that Trump demands that others do it for him shows both weakness and an attempt at scapegoating for possible failure in his efforts.

 

With such a bully, if you promise to take care of it for him, you will only fuel additional torment. So when Trudeau said he would do more in return for an end to bullying, he got a kick in the grandfather's pants for his efforts as Trump started making remarks about him being the governor of the 51st American state.

 

How Canada responds to the bully will be how the rest of the world is watching. Canada has to be willing, however, to put up a fight for itself, its prosperity and its values if it hopes to enjoy the respect of its peers. It has to maintain its sovereignty against those who refuse to respect it and act to make sure prosperity is maintained in Canada. That might even include a full-fledged trade war.

 

Power imbalance

 

Herein lies the history of the last century-and-more: co-operating and prospering in relatively close quarters, keeping shoulder to shoulder, would-be superpower with hyper superpower. They forged alliances and made pacts on a collaborative basis under the guise of shared commons in principle, value, and ritual in a multi-faceted and deep relation.

 

None of that history seems relevant to Trump, and these days it appears that American power matters more than Canadian sovereignty. This power asymmetry is especially sharp when considering Canadian dependency on the U.S. economy and American military might.

 

Yet Canada is not powerless. Dependency works both ways, and such deep integration between the two economies makes them vulnerable to each other.

Shutting off power exports as Ontario Premier Doug Ford suggests is one area in which immediate and major adverse implications could be inflicted on the American economy. Similarly for petroleum. Energy is power in more ways than one.

 

Billions of barrels of oil are consumed by Americans daily from Canada, and a tax on that oil would be inflationary and definitely not liked by American voters.

 

There is more than Canada that will suffer if the US establishes a practice of flouting sovereignty.

 

If he refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of Canada, then no country could be considered immune. Panama and Denmark can already testify to that fact.

 

Finding ways to creatively push back against such demands should be an imperative for any country that values its independence, and Canada needs to work with such allies.

 

He will be back in the presidential office soon. But then again, he is not the president of Canada and shouldn't act like one. Whoever leads Canada in the months to come will have tools at their disposal to defend Canadian sovereignty, and they must be prepared to wield those weapons.

 

via The Conversation