Trudeau decides it's just not worth appeasing Trump in foreign-policy shift

Trudeau decides it’s just not worth appeasing Trump in foreign-policy shift

JOHN IBBITSON
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Jun. 06, 2017 2:41PM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Jun. 06, 2017 5:08PM EDT

America has left the world, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland signalled in Tuesday’s landmark foreign policy address. Canada and its allies will hang together, she vowed, awaiting its return.

This was a very dangerous thing to say. But we live in dangerous times.

Although Ms. Freeland never mentioned the words “Donald Trump” in her speech to the House, practically every line was informed by the crisis of his rogue presidency. Clearly, something happened at May’s NATO and G7 meetings to make Prime Minister Justin Trudeau conclude there is nothing to be gained by treating with this man.

“Many of the voters in last year’s presidential election cast their ballots, animated in part by a desire to shrug off the burden of world leadership,” Ms. Freeland told a silent House of Commons.

“The fact that our friend and ally has come to question the very worth of its mantle of global leadership puts into sharper focus the need for the rest of us to set our own clear and sovereign course,” Ms. Freeland said. “For Canada, that course must be the renewal, indeed the strengthening, of the postwar multilateral order.”

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