Ontario Premier Doug Ford recently declared on CNN that in Canada, U.S. President Donald Trump is the “most disliked politician in the world . . . because he has attacked his closest family member.” In January, just before Mark Carney announced his leadership bid for the Liberal Party, he appeared on The Daily Show and told Americans that Canada and the United States could be “friends with benefits.” Are prominent U.S. leaders making time for media appearances to defend Canada as their “closest family member”?
Believing that trading partners are family, or friends even, betrays our leaders’ wide-eyed view of the world that not even historical precedent appears able to shake. It has invited complacency and deepens the damaging economic consequences when trade relationships evolve or break apart.
