Justin Trudeau has a full plate with border security, U.S. trade and NATO funding. The larger question: Who’ll be in office next fall?
It wasn’t exactly dinner at the White House, but Mar–a–Lago would do just fine.
And as a personal invitation from Donald Trump to Justin Trudeau, it was even better. State dinners are scripted events with 100 guests.
This was a one-time only event at the U.S. president-elect’s family resort in Palm Beach, the result of Trudeau engaging in reply to Trump’s provocative social media post calling for a 25 per cent tariff on exports to the U.S. from Canada and Mexico, as well as deporting undocumented immigrants and a crackdown on dangerous drugs at the borders.
The prime minister can never give in to Trump’s ridiculous demand on trade, but he could agree to a discussion on quotas or targets when NAFTA 2.0 comes up for review in 2026. We’ll see, among other things, who’s in office here after an election that will occur no later than next October.
And this in the home province, let alone the home country, of his host.
This time around, the summit could provide a more positive note for the Trudeau-Trump relationship.
As host and chair, Trudeau could prove to be an important intermediary between Trump and the others. Moreover, after nine years in office, Trudeau is now the senior member of the G7 club.
Defence and foreign affairs are two closely related issues where Trump will have a lot to say. The leadership and management of NATO, 75 years after its founding, will be key.
There’s one big file for NATO — the invasion of Ukraine by Russia’s Vladimir Putin, with whom Trump has been quite cosy in the past. If America doesn’t support Ukraine, what then?
But Trudeau said the day after the election that he had a good 10-minute conversation with Trump and looked forward to working with him again. Then within hours of Trump posting his 25 per cent tariff rant on social media, Trudeau reached out to him again and said they had another good conversation.
In essence she’s the chief operating officer of the Trudeau government and she knows the Trump crowd well from having negotiated NAFTA 2.0 (formally, CUSMA) with them the last time around in 2018.
She knows this stuff cold.
L. Ian MacDonald is a former national affairs columnist with The Gazette.