Montreal, Canada – In his first speech as Canada’s prime minister-designate, Mark Carney delivered what observers have described as a shocking assertion.
“I do know that these are darkish days,” Carney instructed a room filled with supporters on Sunday after he gained the race to steer the governing Liberal Social gathering. “Darkish days introduced on by a rustic we will now not belief.”
The nation in query? An ally with which Canada shares the world’s longest undefended land border and, till not too long ago, seemingly unshakeable ties: america.
“That’s jaw-dropping within the broader context,” Jon Parmenter, a historical past professor at Cornell College in New York state, stated of Carney’s comment.
Consultants say the concept the US can now not be trusted displays a sentiment that has been spreading rapidly across Canada in current months, nevertheless.
In that point, Canadians have watched with a mix of shock, confusion and anger as US President Donald Trump repeatedly took goal at their nation — each as a part of his international commerce insurance policies and his expansionist ambitions.
Trump has imposed steep tariffs on Canadian items and threatened extra. He repeatedly requires the annexation of Canada, and he has made unfounded and disparaging claims about outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Canadian electoral system.
“The injury to the connection is substantial,” Parmenter instructed Al Jazeera. “It’s going to be long-lasting.”
But, as Trump’s assaults in opposition to his nation’s northern neighbour proceed unabated, many observers are actually asking: Why?
Why is the president concentrating on a rustic that had broadly been seen as one of many US’s most dependable companions? Why does Trump appear so fixated on Canada?
‘Closest goal’
Whereas the present US-Canada commerce warfare is “unprecedented” in trendy historical past, it’s unsurprising within the context of Trump, in line with Aaron Ettinger, a political science professor at Carleton College in Ottawa.
The US president pursued related “America First” financial insurance policies throughout his first time period, Ettinger famous, together with imposing tariffs on Canadian metal and aluminium imports in 2018.
“None of that is new. We all know that is coming. He’s telegraphed all the pieces. However now he’s speaking about 50-percent rates of tariffs. The aggressiveness is jacked up greater than it was seven or eight years in the past,” Ettinger instructed Al Jazeera.
Inside the scope of the Trump administration’s adversarial strategy to international coverage, Ettinger stated he doesn’t consider Canada is especially particular. As an alternative, it “simply occurs to be the closest goal, together with Mexico”.
“Trump treats all nations as if they’re subordinates to his needs. He loves their leaders when the leaders play alongside, and he doesn’t once they don’t,” Ettinger stated.
“So Canada goes to get hit with tariffs, similar to European Union nations and Mexico. Canada simply occurs to be shut by. Canada additionally occurs to be taking part in in opposition to sort and combating again fairly arduous proper now.”
The Canadian authorities has imposed retaliatory tariffs on billions of {dollars} price of American items, additional stoking Trump’s ire. It has stated the measures will stay in place till the US president rescinds and removes the specter of levies.
Private animosity
But, Trump’s focus on Canada goes past tariffs and financial coverage alone.
Even earlier than he re-entered the White Home in January, the Republican chief started urging Canada to develop into the 51st US state. He has repeatedly referred to Trudeau as a “governor” as an alternative of a primary minister.
Trump additionally has framed the plan to annex Canada as a boon for Canadians and a approach to dodge US tariffs.
“The folks would pay a lot much less tax than they’re paying proper now. They’d have excellent army safety,” Trump not too long ago stated.
Whereas Trudeau and different Canadian leaders at first shrugged off the remarks as good-natured ribbing, they rapidly started to take Trump’s repeated requires annexation extra critically.
Final week, Trudeau instructed reporters that Trump desires “a complete collapse of the Canadian financial system as a result of that’ll make it simpler to annex us”. The outgoing prime minister stated Canada won’t ever develop into a part of the US and known as the administration’s tariffs a “very dumb” coverage.
Trump and Trudeau by no means had a very hot relationship, they usually publicly clashed in 2018 over commerce and tariffs as nicely.
That animosity could possibly be taking part in a job in Trump’s current rhetoric in opposition to Canada, stated Geoffrey Kabaservice, vp of political research on the Niskanen Middle, a centre-right suppose tank in Washington, DC.
“Trump is at all times searching for a approach to actual revenge and retribution in opposition to individuals who have criticised him up to now, and definitely Trudeau would fall into that class,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
A ’Nineteenth-century’ imaginative and prescient
However Kabaservice stated Trump’s “very Nineteenth-century thought” of what it means to be an excellent energy is on the coronary heart of his annexation rhetoric.
“When Trump talks about desirous to ‘Make America Nice Once more’, one element of what he has in thoughts by greatness is a rustic that’s expansive, that reaches for and claims new territory, that enlarges itself,” he defined.
That stated, when the US president says he desires Canada to be the 51st state, he seemingly isn’t fascinated about what that may imply in observe, together with how absorbing a rustic of 40 million folks would alter American politics, stated Kabaservice.
“It’s type of like simply [a] boy’s fantasy: ‘Wouldn’t it’s nice if America might increase to absorb all these different nations? Wouldn’t it’s nice if America was like Britain again in its imperial days, when the world map was lined in crimson?’
“I believe that’s the extent on which he thinks of this stuff.”
And whereas Trump’s base might not have annexing Canada on its checklist of priorities, Kabaservice stated, the US president’s supporters get pleasure from when he proposes issues “that make his enemies and even lots of his allies sad”.
“They applaud what they see as his audacity, his willingness to check a brand new world, and his skill to ‘personal the libs’ and make them cry.”
Based on Amy Koch, a Republican political strategist, Trump’s insurance policies vis-a-vis Canada also needs to be seen as a part of a wider push for dominance within the Western hemisphere.
Tariffs on Canadian and Mexican items, calls to retake management of the Panama Canal and acquire Greenland, and an government order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” are all parts of that effort.
“It’s [about] absolutely establishing dominance within the Western Hemisphere, and I believe Canada is part of that,” Koch instructed Al Jazeera.
‘Ways with out technique’
Wherever Trump’s actual motivation lies, observers agree that his stance in the direction of Canada might have an enduring impact.
“The entire level about Donald Trump is that he’s a bully, and bullies bully people who find themselves prone to their strengths. And that’s what he’s doing,” stated Kabaservice.
“Trump can do issues like levy tariffs as a result of he has the leverage over Canada and he has the latitude when it comes to the duty of the chief government … However we’re additionally within the technique of destroying belief with our allies and that will likely be immensely tough to rebuild.”
Ettinger added that, whereas folks within the US and Canada hold looking for the rationale behind Trump’s actions, the president might in the end be “using ways with out technique”.
For instance, US inventory markets plunged this week amid the uncertainty round Trump’s tariffs push, elevating fears that the nation might slip right into a recession.
“He is aware of that he desires to hit arduous, or he desires to place tariffs, or he desires to escalate. However there’s no strategic means-to-ends calculation happening right here,” Ettinger stated. “And that makes the man essentially irrational.”
