The US Stinging Blow To Canada

<p>The US may just be diplomatic in undercutting Canada in a most unexpected manner<br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that there seems to be brewing cold war between the<strong> US<&sol;strong> and Canada&comma; its neighbouring country&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Information gathered by this online medium indicates that the cold war between the US and Canada may not be unconnected with the US commitment to its protectionist policies&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;At the moment&comma; OpenLife further gathered that life for Canada atop its volatile southern neighbor is like bedding down in a nice apartment built above a meth lab&comma; according to a quote often attributed to late American comic Robin Williams&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The bully in the White House made the last four years especially fraught&period; When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau complained about US steel and aluminum sanctions imposed on spurious grounds that Canada was a national security threat&comma; then-President Donald Trump blasted him as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;very dishonest and weak&period;” Another time Trump asked the PM&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Didn’t you guys burn down the White House&quest;” &&num;8212&semi; referring to the War of 1812&period; For his part&comma; Trudeau was alarmed about the ex-President’s undemocratic attempts to cling to power after he lost last year&&num;8217&semi;s election&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There was palpable relief in Canada when Joe Biden — who will hold his first virtual bilateral summit with a foreign leader on Tuesday when he &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;meets” Trudeau&comma; moved into the Oval Office&period; Biden&comma; a man of courtesy and diplomatic decorum&comma; was quick to get Trudeau on the phone and assure Canadians that friendships across the vast &lpar;and Covid-closed&rpar; border are back on track&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The last month however has shown that volatile compounds are still bubbling away in that lab downstairs&period; Biden’s abrupt cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline&comma; reversing Trump’s reversal of an Obama administration move&comma; was a stinging blow to Canada&period; And there is concern in the True North that Biden’s &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;buy America” executive orders are rooted in the same protectionism that motivated Trump’s trade myopia&period; The Trudeau government has also made little progress in securing the release of two Canadians in China&comma; Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor&comma; accused of spying after the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou&comma; on the basis of a US warrant&comma; in Vancouver&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For all Biden’s flattery&comma; there’s a sense that the US approach to Canada is still based on a narrow calculation of what is best for Washington&period; And Trudeau could do with more than a few platitudes from Biden&period; He’s under significant political pressure amid accusations that he failed to secure early vaccine stocks amid a punishing winter wave of disease&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The most successful US presidents forge foreign policy wins and global leadership coalitions because they identify the domestic constraints weighing on their counterparts&period; So watch for whether Biden sprinkles a little of his newly stocked political capital on the somewhat embattled PM&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;