In light of Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau is clearing the decks.
The prime minister is ditching complicated and politically difficult aspects of his agenda in order to focus on the mercurial U.S. president.
That’s the context for Trudeau’s dramatic about-face this week on electoral reform.
It also helps explain why he put the kibosh Wednesday to suggestions the government might tax employee health and dental benefits.
In that case, he publicly undercut Finance Minister Bill Morneau who, in his review of pricey tax breaks, has been deliberately noncommittal about such a move.
A political fight over a popular tax break is the last thing the Liberal government wants now.
Nor, apparently, does it want to spend time and energy on an issue, like electoral reform, that polls suggest most Canadians don’t much care about.
Ottawa has always been sensitive to political ebbs and flows in the U.S. During the 2015 election campaign that brought him to power, Trudeau promised to be even more Washington-focused.
But Trump’s election victory has presented Canada’s government with a host of new problems.
First and foremost is the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Trump’s insistence on a renegotiation of that pact could, in the short run at least, devastate portions of the Canadian economy.
As well, Trump’s ambitious public works promises, if affected, could put upward pressure on interest rates. That in turn could raise the cost of Trudeau’s proposed public investments.
Trump is also musing about a 20 per cent border adjustment tax on exports to the U.S., including, presumably, exports from Canada.
His decision to ban citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. threw Ottawa into a tizzy, one that was only partially resolved when the Americans agreed to exempt dual nationals holding Canadian passports.
Trump has roundly criticized the United Nations. Does this mean he disapproves of UN peacekeeping?
Ottawa doesn’t know. So it is delaying its decision to deploy 600 Canadian peacekeepers to an as yet unspecified country until it finds out.
Ditto with its deployment of 200 Canadian soldiers to Ukraine to train government troops facing Russian-backed rebels. Ottawa is putting off its decision to extend that mission while it tries to figure out how the Russia-Ukraine standoff fits into the Trumpian world view.
On the one hand, Trump has criticized NATO countries, such as Canada, that don’t spend more on defence. On the other he likes Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It is no coincidence that Trudeau’s latest mandate letters give Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland — who is Ottawa’s point person on the U.S. file — an explicit role in defence decisions.
None of this is meant to suggest the Liberals are abandoning all of their promises in order to appease Trump. Trudeau is still forging ahead with plans for a national carbon tax, for instance (although with Trump in the oval office that pledge could end up costing more than predicted).
And Ottawa seems still gung-ho about inking a trade deal with China, even though Trump views that country as his No. 1 economic adversary.
What’s more, there are other forces at play. Trudeau’s opportunistic pledge to replace Canada’s first-past-the-post voting system before the next federal election was not well thought out.
If the prime minister weren’t so stubborn, he would have recanted long ago.
Still, Trump has forced Trudeau’s sunny ways government to rethink itself. Nothing and no one is exempt from Trump’s wrath.
Even Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who like Trump is right-wing and refugee-unfriendly, was taken to the woodshed last week by the president over an already signed deal that would see the U.S. accept 1,250 migrants that Australia does not want. Diplomatic relations between the two allies are strained.
Here in Canada, the Trudeau government is getting extraneous material out of the way in order to deal with any Trumpian onslaught. The decks are being cleared for action.
But what kind of action is Ottawa prepared to take? Is the federal government planning to counter the worst aspects of Trump, or simply strike the colours and welcome him aboard?
That we don’t know.
Thomas Walkom appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Thomas Walkom appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
