Justin Trudeau assures that Canada would be able to “manage” a return to the White House of Donald Trump, as Ottawa has been able to do in the past, notably by reactivating a “Team Canada” responsible for defending Canadian interests in the south of the border.
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“Mr. Trump represents a certain uncertainty,” admitted the Prime Minister at a press conference in Montreal on Tuesday morning, to close a retreat for his cabinet before returning to Parliament next week.
“We don’t know exactly what he will bring, but as we knew how to do seven years ago now, we knew how to manage Mr. Trump well by defending Canadian interests and demonstrating that we can create economic growth on both sides of the border.”
Mr. Trudeau was quick to point out that after eight years in power, he has already worked, exchanged and negotiated with three American presidents, from Barack Obama to Joe Biden via Donald Trump.
The Prime Minister also announced on Tuesday that his government was reactivating a “Team Canada”, made up of elected officials, unions, entrepreneurs and experts, who will be responsible for defending Canadian interests over the coming months. which promise to be eventful from the point of view of Canadian-American relations. The strategy was used successfully during the Trump years to reduce the negative effects on Canada of the president’s protectionist policies.
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“It is certain that there is no American president who is easy for a Canadian prime minister. It is always a complex relationship where the interests of the Americans take up a lot of space in the discussion,” the Prime Minister clarified on Tuesday.
Despite this, Mr. Trudeau acknowledged that Donald Trump “does not mean the same thing as Mr. Biden,” as a journalist in the room put it.
Neck to neck with Joe Biden in the polls, Donald Trump, despite endless prosecutions, receives the support of a considerable part of the American population, for whom the accusations are nothing but a tissue of lies .
On the other side of the border, Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government are significantly weakened in the polls and are falling behind Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives.
Some observers believe that a strong comeback by Donald Trump could favor the federal Liberals: a majority of Canadians do not abhor them.
Hesitant to openly criticize Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau does not hesitate to bring him as close to his conservative rival as possible. As proof, the Prime Minister and members of his team have been saying for some time that Poilievre’s conservatives are playing MAGA-style politics, the acronym for Make American Great Again, the movement launched by Mr. Trump.
“In two years, here in Canada, we will make a similar choice, we will have a similar choice to make: Do we move forward to defend democracy, our principles? Are we continuing to fight climate change? Do we defend individual rights? Do we defend minorities? Or are we going backwards because we are too angry about everything that is happening in the world around us?” said the Prime Minister, without naming Mr. Poilievre, during a conference in Montreal last week.
