SNOBELEN: Trump threats a warning for Canada to grow up

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I’ve long heard it said the difference between a cactus and a politician is that the cactus has prickly parts on the outside.

Or at least that’s the way it used to be.

The art of diplomacy is saying nice things in public while saving the tough talk for private discussions. Theodore Roosevelt, one of America’s greatest leaders, defined successful diplomacy as talking softly and carrying a big stick.

Roosevelt’s approach was not limited to having the might to apply force. He said the essence of foreign policy is “the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis.”

The Roosevelt approach to foreign policy had four elements that tempered the big stick. Those tempering disciplines are acting justly with other nations, resisting the temptation to bluff, using force only when prepared to use overwhelming force and showing compassion to defeated opponents.

The Roosevelt doctrine stands in stark comparison to the diplomacy now being practised between the United States and Canada.

First and foremost, Roosevelt put a lot of thought into his approach to foreign affairs. In contrast, Canada’s foreign policy is situational, reactive and often muddled.

Reactive is the opposite of “intelligent forethought” and exactly the wrong approach to the challenge of Trump 2.0.

Talking softly is not a hallmark of president-elect Donald Trump. His approach leans toward tweeting tough and dominating the media. He is not noted for displays of compassion. He is a champion of bluff and bravado.

Trump is no Roosevelt. But then, neither is Justin Trudeau, whose approach is to talk endlessly in breathless, virtue-signalling rhetoric and wear funky socks. Oddly enough, world leaders don’t seem to take him seriously.

Canada is, at best, a middle power. Even if we achieved the apparently impossible objective of meeting our NATO commitments, it is unlikely major powers will tremble at the thought of our military strength.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t be a serious nation capable of backing up our commitments with — when necessary — a meaningful military. A serious nation makes commitments it intends to keep, avoids virtue signalling and manages its fiscal health and natural resources prudently.

A serious nation would not need the threat of tariffs to force it to invest in border security, have a rational refugee policy, enforce drug laws and maintain a functional military. By any of these measures, we are not a serious nation.

And, finally, a serious government would understand the objectives and conditions of satisfaction of its major trading partner.

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Trump has clear objectives in his second term. He is establishing basic conditions for trade that include securing borders, controlling the importation of illegal (and often lethal) drugs and stopping the flow of illegal immigrants. These are the new table stakes for any trade relationship with the United States.

Beyond those conditions, Trump is also determined to repatriate domestic manufacturing. People who can’t grasp the rationale for this policy need to take their collective heads out of the latest global economic reports and listen to a song James McMurtry wrote two decades ago, We Can’t Make It Here.

Canada can live and prosper within the emerging U.S. foreign policy, but only if we grow up, get serious and learn a little from Theodore Roosevelt.

We could start by adopting “the exercise of intelligent forethought.” Heck, we might quit lecturing the world about our moral superiority and start fixing our fences.