WASHINGTON, D.C. — If Donald Trump has anything in common with Canada, it might be this: a shared craving for the attention of the American people that at times can border on the pathological.
Both could go through withdrawal symptoms in the new year.
Whatever else history will say about the outgoing president, he had a knack for scratching that uniquely Canadian itch for acknowledgment from south of the border, even if it often left a painful welt. “South Park” fans might call it the “blame Canada” doctrine: Trump branded the country a national-security threat, an existential danger to U.S. farmers and manufacturers, and a place unworthy of U.S.-made pandemic protection.
He decried “two-faced” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a “very dishonest and weak” leader, and admitted to disliking former foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland, who he reportedly said “hates America.”
After Canada’s walk-on part in the U.S. reality-TV zeitgeist, the Joe Biden era will be boring by comparison – not such a bad thing, said Roy Norton, a former senior diplomat who did two stints at the Canadian Embassy in the 1990s and 2000s.
“In Washington, I used to find that not being on the radar screen was usually preferable to being on the radar screen,” said Norton, now a diplomat-in-residence at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Ont. “When you are, you’re the target, and people are gunning for you. Certainly, Trump exercised that.” Canada-U.S. expert Eric Miller opted for a different metaphor.
“Some people are thinking that this is all going to have been like ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ where you’re going to wake up and it was all a scary dream,” said Miller, president of the Rideau Potomac Strategy Group in Washington. “But in reality, the world has changed very significantly over the last four years, and so a good part of what the Biden administration is going to be focused on is dealing with the immediate problem.” Pulling the U.S. out of its pandemic-induced economic tailspin will be Job 1, which means Canadian priorities may have to take a back seat, particularly if there’s a perception they run counter to those of the United States. Source: ctvnews.ca
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
