Incumbent Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was elected to a full term April 28, which makes a 4^th consecutive term for Canada’s Liberal Party. Carney defeats Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative Party candidate, who has promoted a brand of populism that has been compared to Trumpism. (That’s what I read. I haven’t kept up with Canadian politics.) This is a remarkable turnaround for the Liberals. Recall that longtime former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation in January (effected March 14) due to deep unpopularity and fellow Liberal politicians turning on him.

“The American betrayal”

The top issue in Canada’s election, at least for prime minister, was the new reality of an adversarial United States as a consequence of Donald Trump’s reelection as president and the trade war and expansionist threat Trump has instigated. At least, that’s my impression from the scant attention I’ve paid to the election (which is still better than probably 95% of Americans). I’m amazed the deteriorating Canada-US relationship isn’t a top issue in the US because it is for me. I was watching the Today show on NBC this morning. They gave more coverage to a forecasted thunderstorm outbreak and a polar bear chasing a man in Svalbard than the Canadian election. It feels like we’re living in an alternate reality, where we have a president threatening to annex Canada, and most Americans seem pretty unperturbed about it. I still don’t have any idea how we (the US) got to such a low low, and still sinking.

Carney has said Canada’s traditional relationship with the US is “over”. I hate that, and it’s the last thing I want. Trump was reelected by those who support him and outnumber me, and this is what they want: a relationship in which the US subjugates and bullies Canada, and perhaps even worse. Carney is merely acknowledging a new reality that Canadians, and many like-minded Americans, never asked for. I hope Canadians know that a sizable segment of the US is aghast and opposed to this, though shamefully few Americans are speaking out. Canada has American friends, but that doesn’t mean Canada shouldn’t stand up to the US and fight back. To the extent that deteriorating relations have a tangible negative impact (economic, national security cooperation, etc.) on me, that’s on the Trumpists, not the Canadians. Carney said solemnly in his victory speech “We are over the shock of the American betrayal”. I’ll eventually get over the shock but never the betrayal.

Antagonizing friendly countries

There’s a plurality of Americans (so it seems) that supports a foreign policy which preys upon our friends and allies. It’s morally reprehensible. Betrayal is a Trumpist value, not an American ideal. Friends might seem like easy prey because they don’t have the defensive posture that our enemies do.

To the Trumpists

You might think you’re really sticking it to them now, but our friends will not remain our friends, especially if this continues. You’re burning bridges, trading long-term, mutually and immensely beneficial foreign relationships for short-term superficial gain, if even that. Our longtime friends won’t forgive the US for this – you (Trumpists) deserve it, but I don’t. But then, I care, and you don’t.

Trumpist iconoclasm

Iconoclasm is one of the driving forces behind Trumpism. It’s fun to demolish things. It brings instant gratification, whereas building things takes time, patience, and the discipline to follow through. As long as this gratuitous destruction doesn’t materially affect the Trumpists, they think it’s funny and watch others getting swacked with glee. That’s why they think it’s cool to have a president that pushes other countries around. Even when it does affect them (like federal employees caught in mass firings), they generally don’t regret supporting Trump. I think there’s a spiteful satisfaction that, yeah Trump got me, but Trump will get “others” (immigrants, Canadians) even worse. That’s never what I thought the US was or would ever become. In the US-Canada relationship that was, I see the greatest bilateral relationship, on cultural, economic, security, and geopolitical levels, that we could ever aspire to be so lucky to have. The Trumpers see the same thing and think: wouldn’t it be fun to demolish that and watch the Canadians and anti-Trumpists squeal? This is how people I used to respect and thought I knew really think. Trump has empowered tens of millions of Americans to wear their true colors on their sleeve.

We’re racking up a debt of goodwill that we’ll be paying off for decades to come. Countries have chosen to align with us, especially post-World-War-2, rather than other world powers because we’ve historically welcomed ties on generous terms with countries friendly to the US, though generally tilted in our favor. It will take decades to rebuild what Trumpists chose to forfeit for their own amusement.

Where does a real American go from here?

I can only hope I and other like-minded Americans rise to the calling of the times and keep fighting the good fight. It will be a long-term endeavor. Even with our best efforts, it will take years to see major improvement in our country’s moral fiber. I’ll try and do my part to treat Canadians like the friends they always were. The Trumpists have already banked a durable victory: they’ve shattered the trust that Canada and Europe had in the US. At best it will take decades to rebuild, presuming that Trumpism will be relegated to the ash heap of discredited and ruinous ideologies where it belongs, and after enough forever Trumpers die off.

NORAD

It may seem out of place, but I have to add this because I can’t stop thinking about it. I keep wondering about the future of NORAD, the joint Canada/US command that monitors our joint airspace and coordinates the air policing that keeps our countries safe from airborne threats (enemy bombers, hijacked kamikaze airliners, etc.). How can NORAD survive such a hellish betrayal by one partner against the other? Both countries will be less safe for it.