Sunny Ways

 

Pierre Poilievre is caught in the Erin O’Toole trap. He has taken roughly the same position on the Trump tariffs as the Liberal government. If this remains the dominant issue in an election, he has given the Canadian public no reason to vote for him. If the agenda is going to be hostility and retaliation, the Liberals are more convincing; since Poilievre is ideologically aligned with Trump. He loses. At the same time, by agreeing with the government, he begins to look squishy, like controlled opposition; not decisive like Trump. Poilievre’s Conservatives and Farage’s Reform in Britain risk seeming unexciting by comparison.

It is bold and would take iron nerve, but what Poilievre should have done, and perhaps could still do, is to show leadership: explain the real situation to the Canadian people. We cannot win a trade war with the US. Whether we like the tariffs or not, an angry reaction is suicidal.  And to be honest, Trump has a point. We have been imposing quotas and high tariffs, on, for example, eggs and dairy products. We need to announce our readiness to put these on the table. Poilievre needs to point out that the result will be beneficial for Canadians as well as our American cousins.

And he can go further: far from objecting to the offer of statehood—a rejection which is an egregious insult to the USA, when none need have been taken by Canada from the offer—we will helpfully hold a Canada-wide referendum on the issue. Trump is welcome to make his case directly to the people, and we will freely choose. Why would any patriotic Canadian not want this?

It is the Canadian tradition to be polite and to compromise; to seek friendship with all. It is a perversion of the Canadian spirit to be rude and dismissive of our closest friend and ally.

Sunny ways, my friends, sunny ways.

The Conservatives might take an immediate hit, in the current atmosphere of hysteria. But very soon, I expect the Canadian public to sober up and realize that retaliation is a disastrous tactic. Doug Ford’s debacle with his electricity surcharge shows the way.