Former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland penned a somewhat humorous, but also rather menacing, op-ed for the Washington Post on Sunday in which she warned incoming President Donald Trump not to “doubt Canada’s resolve.”
Freeland’s piece was meant as a gentle-but-firm refusal of Trump’s notion that Canada should become the 51st of the United States, although her tone occasionally grew a bit snotty for the “let’s just be friends” message she was ostensibly transmitting to American readers:
We admire so many things about you: your spirit of enterprise, your love of freedom, your embrace of change. We share those qualities — along with a universal, single-payer health-care system, $10-a-day child care, gun control and abortion rights.
We are proud to be a bilingual country, which includes the distinct society of Quebec — the only majority-French-speaking jurisdiction in North America. We are committed to reconciliation with the Indigenous peoples who have been here from time immemorial, and we believe in a multicultural society, rather than a melting pot.
Some of you don’t like our way of life. That’s fine. We aren’t asking you to become Canadian. But we do expect you to respect who we are and our long history of friendship with the United States.
Trump largely seemed to enjoy the 51st-state routine as a means of belittling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who effectively announced his resignation two weeks ago but remains in office as a “caretaker” until the Canadian parliament returns to session in March.
The meat of Freeland’s op-ed concerned Trump’s tariff threat against Canada unless it does a better job of securing its border – a threat Freeland claimed Canada is ready to meet head-on.
“The threats won’t work. We will not escalate, but we will not back down. If you hit us, we will hit back – and our blows will be precisely targeted. We are smaller than you, to be sure, but the stakes for us are immeasurably higher. Do not doubt our resolve,” she growled.
“Loyalty works only if it is reciprocal. If you choose to treat us like an adversary, we will find friends who know just how much we have to offer,” she muttered.
Freeland probably feels the need to talk like this because her old boss Trudeau, already deeply unpopular with Canadian voters after years of policy disasters, was finally undone by the perception that he was too weak and insubstantial to deal with the second Trump administration.
Trudeau forced Freeland out of office shortly before his resignation over a disagreement on government spending, a move that did not do the embattled prime minister any favors, since Freeland had previously been one of his strongest advocates.
Freeland kicked off her campaign to replace Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada on Sunday. The event did not go terribly well, as she found herself grappling with several hecklers, including pro-Hamas activists.
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