Montreal, Canada – In his first speech as a Canadian premiere-Dizajna, Mark Carney delivered what the observers described as an amazing statement.
“I know these are dark days,” Carney said in a room full of supporters on Sunday after winning the race to run the ruling Liberal Party. “The dark days brought by a country where we can no longer believe.”
The country in question? An ally with which Canada shares the longest inaudible land border in the world and, until recently, a seemingly unwavering relationship: the United States.
“It’s the lowering of the jaws in a wider context,” said Jon Parmenter, a professor of history at Cornell University in New York, said Carney’s remark.
Experts say that the idea that now can no longer be trusted reflecting the feeling that was Is quickly spreading around Canada In recent months, however.
At the time, the Canadians watched with a mixture of shock, confusion and anger that US President Donald Trump repeatedly targeted their country – and as part of his global trade policy and his expansionist ambitions.
Trump imposed steep tariffs on Canadian goods and threatened more. Regularly calls for annexation of Canada, and he made unfounded and disparaging claims About the departure Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Canadian Problem System.
“It’s a significant damage,” Parmenter told Al Jazeera. “It will be long lasting.”
However, as Trump’s attacks on the northern neighbor of his country are still not fit, many observers now ask: Why?
Why does the president aim to go to Earth widely considered one of the most reliable partners in the United States? Why does Trump seem so fixed in Canada?
‘Closest goal’
Although the current trade war is “unprecedented” in modern history in the US, it is not surprising in the context of Trump, said Aaron Ettinger, a political science professor at Carleton University in Ottawa.
The US President has persecuted similar economic policy of “America’s first” during his first term, Ettinger said, including Tariff imposing About Canadian imports of steel and aluminum in 2018.
“None of this is new. We know it is coming. He has telegraphs everything. But now he’s talking about it 50 percent of the rate tariff. The aggression was raised more than seven or eight years ago, “Ettinger told Al Jazeera.
As part of the opponent’s approach to Trump’s administration towards foreign policy, Ettinger said he did not believe that Canada was especially special. Instead, “it just happens that the closest target is, along with Mexico.”
“Trump treats all the countries as if they were subordinate to his wishes. He loves their leaders when the leaders play together, and he does not do so,” Ettinger said.
“So Canada will be affected by tariffs, just like the EU countries and Mexico. Canada only happens to be close. Canada is also playing against type and currently fighting it.”
The Canadian government has imposed retaliation On billions of dollars worth US goods, she further cared for Trump’s anger. It was said that the measures would remain in place until the US president abolished and removed the threat of the levy.
Personal animation
Still, Trump’s Focus on Canada transcends tariffs and economic policy.
Even before he re -entered the White House in January, the Republican leader began to persuade Canada to become 51. Trudeau has repeatedly called the “Governor” instead of the Prime Minister.
Trump also framed the plan for the support of Canada as a boon for Canadians and a way to escape the US tariff.
“People would pay much less tax than they are currently paying. They would have perfect military protection,” Trump said recently.
While Trudeau and other Canadian leaders were initially distracting from remarks as well -intentioned ribbed, they quickly began to take the Trump’s repeated calls to annexation more seriously.
Last week, Trudeau told reporters that Trump wants “a total collapse of the Canadian economy because it will make it easier for us.” AND Outgoing Prime Minister He said Canada would never become part of the United States -a called the “very stupid” policies.
Trump and Trudeau never had a particularly warm relationship and they publicly conflicting In 2018 and over trade and tariffs.
This animation could play a role in Trump’s recent rhetoric against Canada, said Geoffrey Kabaservice, Vice President of Political Studies at the Lownen Center, a research center of the right center in Washington, DC.
“Trump is always looking for a way to specify revenge and retaliation against people who have criticized him in the past, and he would surely have made his own category,” he told Al Jazeera.
Vision ’19. century ”
But Kabaservice said that Trump’s “very idea from the 19th century” is about what it means to be a great force at the center of his rhetoric annexation.
“When Trump talks about wanting to” make America a big one again, “one component of what he has in mind is a country that is expansive, which reaches and claims a new territory, which is expanded,” he explained.
It said that when the US president says he wants to Canada be 51. StateHe probably doesn’t think about what this would mean in practice, including to change the country of 40 million people to change US policies, Kabasers said.
“It’s just [a] The boy’s fantasy: ‘Wouldn’t it be great if America could expand into all these other countries? Wouldn’t it be great if America was like Britain in her imperial days, when the map of the world was covered with red? ‘
“I think that’s the level he thinks of these things.”
While Trump’s base may not be annexed to Canada on his priority list, said Kabaservice, supporters of the US president enjoy when he proposes things “that makes his enemies, and even many of his allies dissatisfied.”
“They welcome what they see as his courage, willingness to imagine the new world and his ability to” own Liba “and make them cry.”
According to Amy Koch, a Republican political strategy, Trump’s policies in relation to Canada should also be considered a part of a wider stimulus for dominance on Western hemisphere.
Tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods, invite them to take control of the Panaman channel and get Greenlandand executive command Renaming the Gulf of Mexico “American Bay” are all elements of this effort.
“That’s [about] Completely establishing dominance on the Western hemisphere and I think Canada is part of it, “Koch told Al Jazeera.
‘Tactics without a strategy’
Wherever Trump lies real motivation, observers agree that his attitude towards Canada could have a lasting effect.
“The whole point of Donald Trump is that the abuser and abusers are abusers who are sensitive to their forces. And that is what he does,” Kabaserica said.
“Trump can do things like Tariff for Levy because he has an impact on Canada and he has a width in terms of the responsibility of the executive director … But we are also in the process of destroying confidence with our allies and it will be immensely difficult to renew.”
Ettinger added that although people in the United States are still trying to find a explanation behind Trump’s procedures, the president can ultimately “use a tactic without a strategy”.
For example, the US Stock Exchange dived this week In the midst of the insecurity around Trump’s tariffs pushes, raising the fear that the earth could enter the recession.
“He knows he wants to hit hard or want to put tariffs, or want to escalate. But there is no strategic means of calculating here,” Ettinger said. “And that makes a guy basically irrational.”
