The American right sees Canada as an enemy. Should we be worried?

For all the kind words Democrats have for Canada, they have also been working on protectionist trade measures, Edward Keenan writes.

By Edward Keenan

Washington Bureau Chief

TOR STAR

Tue., March 1, 2022

WASHINGTON—Over the past week, the eyes of the world have been glued to Ukraine, whose citizens are trying to fend off a Russian invasion that threatens to level their cities, kill many of them, and end their country’s independence. It’s a battle that Canada, the United States and the European Union describe as being not just about democracy versus autocracy, but about the global, rules-based order that says a country cannot just take what it wants by force.

But when the thought leaders of the Republican Party gathered at the influential Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, it was like they were doing table reads for a reboot of the “South Park” movie, where the American battle cry is a chorus of “Blame Canada.”

“The radical left is trying to replace American democracy with woke tyranny. They want to do the same thing to America that Trudeau has been doing to Canada,” former president Donald Trump told the crowd, which booed loudly at the reference to the Canadian prime minister. He suggested that if Americans want to fight for democracy abroad, “they should start with the democracy that is under threat right next door, a place called Canada.”

It wasn’t just Trump. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who has made headlines for insisting on carrying a gun in Congress, saying in a TV interview from the convention floor that she is praying for Ukraine, “but we also have neighbours to the north who need freedom and need to be liberated.”

It can seem like satire, this kind of not-too-subtle suggestion that Canada poses a threat to democracy that could require a military response — and may seem easy to brush off, because it comes from people with a history of outrageous claims in a party that’s not in power.

But this isn’t a marginal fringe of conspiracists. Trump intends to run for president again in 2024 and may well win, while Boebert sits in a caucus that seems likely to control Congress after November’s midterm elections.

Of course, President Joe Biden and his Democratic Party still publicly and privately consider Canada a valued friend and partner. Indeed, during the Ukraine crisis the two countries have been working in lockstep on the response. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland reportedly led the efforts to convince the U.S. and its European allies to sanction the Russian central bank, which may have been the most punishing and immediately effective sanction imposed so far.

But for all the kind words Democrats have for Canada, they have been steadily working on measures to implement more protectionist trade measures that could have severe economic consequences up north.

Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin said the recent anti-vaccine blockades of the Canada-U.S. border showed “we can’t be this reliant on parts coming from foreign countries,” and “we have to bring American manufacturing back home.” Even before the convoy occupations, Biden was beating the “buy American” drum, with procurement measures and proposed electric vehicle subsidies that some feared could devastate Canadian industries.

And while Biden’s economic agenda has been stalled in Congress, he continues to talk about bringing it back in pieces through this year, and remains committed — along with many members of Congress — to the sort of protectionist measures that have so alarmed the Canadian auto industry.

So we have, on both sides of the political aisle in the U.S., a chillier environment for Canada than perhaps we’ve grown accustomed to. For a generation or more, Canada has based much of its economy on an ever-growing partnership with the U.S., which is now the destination for 75 per cent of our exports. At the same time, Canada has virtually outsourced our national defence to the U.S.

In promising to send lethal aid to Ukraine, the writer Dan Gardner noted on Twitter, Canada is not sending state-of-the-art anti-armour weapons, because we don’t own any. Instead, we are sending anti-tank weaponry designed in 1946. Much of Gardner’s recent work has focused on how psychology affects decision-making. “The roots of this situation lie [in] politics and culture but also psychology and recent history: ‘That’s never happened before’ or ‘that hasn’t happened in ages’ becomes ‘that will never happen’ becomes ‘let’s save some money by cutting that.’ Until it happens,” he wrote.

The past week has provided another reminder — as if COVID-19 and climate change weren’t enough — in how disastrous outcomes that people let themselves believe would never happen can suddenly occur. In response to the invasion of Ukraine, we’ve seen much of Europe’s postwar order overturned. Germany, for example, has pivoted from steadfast pacifism to planning the highest military spending of any country in Europe.

It’s unlikely that the strong relationship between Canada and the U.S. will sour disastrously anytime soon. In confronting the current international crisis, Canada and the U.S. are as united as they have ever been — together with other allies — and appear to be working together more closely than they have in a long time.

But in the background, with strains of outright hostility coming to the forefront of the American right and support for economic barriers coursing across the U.S. political spectrum, it may be time for Canada to start thinking about the risks of pinning the health of our economy and our national security on the continued goodwill of our neighbour.