EDITORIAL: Who is the real Donald Trump?
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The head-spinning way U.S. President Donald Trump pivots his policies regarding Canada gives us whiplash.
Two recent stories floated in the U.S. suggest (a) Canada will be dropped from the Five Eyes security alliance; and (b) Trump now wants the Keystone XL Pipeline built — and he wants it now.
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Both these positions run counter to his recent declarations that (a) the U.S. would allow Russia to do “whatever the hell it wants” to any country that doesn’t meet its NATO spending obligation and his support for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
His cosying up to the Kremlin has caused many European leaders to suggest the U.S. is no longer a reliable ally and cannot be counted on to side with democracies in future conflicts. The U.S. is more likely than Canada to be excluded from any of our allies’ security alliances.
His position (b) on the XL Pipeline comes as an about-face and should underscore for Canadians how desperately we need to diversify our markets away from our southern neighbour and onto more reliable trading partners.
Trump posted recently on social media that he wants the Keystone XL Pipeline to return to America — “and get it built NOW!”
As Postmedia columnist Lorne Gunter explained in a recent column, “Trump no longer sees Canada as a partner. We’re a foe or a rival to be crippled until our jobs and prosperity are transferred stateside.”
Keystone XL has been an on-again-off-again — mostly off-again — project for decades. It would have carried 800,000 barrels of crude oil daily from Alberta to Illinois. It was stalled by President Barack Obama, restarted by Trump and then killed by President Joe Biden. You can understand why TC Energy might be reluctant to restart the project.
Canadians don’t know which Trump we’re dealing with from one day to the next. Is it the Trump who told the World Economic Forum he doesn’t need Canada’s cars, lumber, oil or gas? Or the one who wants a pipeline — now? And for the privilege of allowing us to build a pipeline, he’ll put a 10% tariff on all the crude he didn’t need a month ago.
What Canada needs is certainty from its largest trading partner.
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