U.S. President Donald Trump, in front of a painting of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, smiles during an event to announce that the Space Force Command will move from Colorado to Alabama, in the Oval Office at the White House (REUTERS)
President Donald Trump abruptly ended trade talks with Canada over an anti-tariff ad featuring former President Ronald Reagan. A month later, the two countries have yet to resume trade negotiations.
Washington Monthly reports Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he’ll restart talks “when it’s appropriate,” telling Reuters that “he did not have a pressing issue to address with President Donald Trump.” Meanwhile, Carney is making overtures to U.S. rivals like China and India to reduce Canada’s dependence on its chaotic southern neighbor.
“U.S. relations with Canada are the worst in modern history, and there’s no one who has studied it that would disagree with what I’ve said, especially the Canadians,” former U.S. Ambassador to Canada James Blanchard told the Washington Monthly. “It’s tragic. It’s not just trade disputes. It’s the rhetoric of the president — whether he wants to refer to them as the ‘51st state’ or to say they’re ‘nasty’ or Vice President Vance saying the Canadians have ‘treated us very badly these last few decades.’ He hasn’t even lived long enough to know that.”
The tone and the attitude coming from their southern border is causing Canadians to lose total faith in the U.S. and wondering what’s going on down south.
“It’s sad,” said Blanchard. “It’s humorous. It’s tragic. I tell Canadians, ‘you feel bad? What do you think we feel here in the United States?’ We have a guy who is not well. And even when he was well, he was acting crazy all the time. He doesn’t speak for us.”
Blanchard said Trump is single-handedly responsible for the elevation of Canada’s Liberal Party in elections last December, considering the party was on the path to a crushing defeat by at least 20 points.
“But then Mr. Trump started attacking Canada and making jokes, saying they’re a national security threat — which of course is baloney — and all these other stupid remarks. Then Mark Carney gets the nomination at the Liberal Convention and his numbers just skyrocket,” said Blanchard. “I don’t think there would have been a Liberal prime minister in Canada, but for Trump’s craziness.”
Blanchard added that some of Trump’s problem is the people with whom he surrounds himself.
“We have people around Trump who feed him so much misinformation. It’s crackpot economics. Trump is still out there trying to tell people that other countries pay the tariffs when of course we pay the tariffs as consumers,” said Blanchard. “He’s also still trying to act like Canada is a national security threat, which nobody believes. Or that the European Union was formed to take advantage of the U.S., which of course is not true. So, we have a problem.”
Read the Washington Monthly reports at this link.