A field of ruins. In the wake of this weekend’s Trumpian tweet storm, that’s what is mostly left of the fragile structure Justin Trudeau had painstakingly built to try to preserve Canada’s most important trade relationship. The fact that the prime minister did not have a hand in the demolition, or that the collateral damage extends to the White House’s relationship with the other long-standing American allies who make up the G7, does not alter the grim morning-after reality.Trudeau’s personal relationship with Donald Trump is, if not in tatters, at the very least in a dire state. White House watchers have become used to intemperate presidential tweets, and to the subsequent dispatching of some Trump spokesperson tasked with mopping up behind the boss.But the president’s attacks on Canada and Trudeau this weekend followed a different pattern. They were compounded by the deployment on the Sunday television news shows of White House mouthpieces on a mission to throw accelerants on the fire by doubling down on Trump’s criticisms. This they did with a vengeance.In the immediate aftermath, Canada’s strategy to bring the ongoing tariff dispute between the two countries to an early and amicable end seems dead on arrival. When Trudeau announced a retaliatory round of tariffs against the U.S. two weeks ago, he delayed their application for a month. The hope was that Trump could be brought around to exempt Canada from his latest protectionist volley before the counter-tariffs came into effect. That now sounds like wishful thinking. As for the NAFTA negotiations, they stand to get stuck between the rock and the hard place of conflicting presidential and prime ministerial stances on the attachment of a five-year sunset clause to the tripartite agreement. Both have publicly dug in their heels on this one over the past few days.Where the relationship goes from here and what, if anything, Canada can do to restore some normality to ...
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