As long as Trump is in office, Canada is at risk. This is why protecting ourselves is the most important thing we can do

The week that Donald Trump was elected I offered Justin Trudeau some free advice in this newspaper.

At that time, Trudeau was trailing Pierre Poilievre in the polls by 25 points and had been for two years, hanging onto power despite being so personally unpopular that he could not win support for anything.

I thought Canada needed a leader to calm the political waters by tacking hard to the centre, so that the country could respond to the Trump challenge in a unified way. I wrote that Trudeau had to do four things he wouldn’t want to do: get rid of the carbon tax, remove the emissions cap on Alberta oil, tighten immigration and increase military spending.