Isn’t it strange how some political stars can lose their brilliance seemingly far sooner than expected? Last Tuesday night, Donald Trump’s election results were the complete opposite of what they had been just two years before. Then, the nation was his oyster; today it’s his albatross.
We’ve seen it here in BC as well.
When I was elected MLA in 1986, our premier was Bill Vander Zalm. Really, without stretching things out of proportion, he is one of the greatest guys in the world. For the most part, politically smart; personally, one of the most caring people. And personality-wise, always a joy to be around. He was a great speaker, and he could sing. At the height of his popularity, his entrance into a crowded community centre of any kind brought a noisy crowd to a respectful quiet.
He was a hard worker. He and I were to meet at the Victoria Airport one day at six in the morning for a full day in our riding. He was late. He had just gotten to bed at two, four hours before, and I had fourteen events planned for the day. After about six events in Golden, we headed to Invermere by helicopter, and he went to sleep. How could a person go to sleep in a chopper in this part of the world?
But in the end, a political miscalculation of a conflict of interest brought him down. It cost him a glorious conclusion to a remarkable political career, and it cost the province the service of a very gifted public servant. He left our province, and our Golden area (with the modernization of both the Golden and Donald mills, a $17 million project) in very good shape.
Donald Trump also did some very good things for his country but, again, some small issues have left his legacy in serious doubt.
If you read this space last week, you’ll recall that I mentioned that, similar to the separation referendum in Alberta and the BC provincial election, I expected that the US election would reflect deep core issues on the part of voters. I don’t like to say that I was right, but I think my assessment might have at least been somewhat close to the mark.
And unlike Bill Vander Zalm, whose political obituary came as a result of a small thing which grew into a big thing, Trump’s end has come, I believe, because of his style of governing. He has done lots of good things, but he has also done some things that his public didn’t agree with, and then he has done some very stupid things. And no country’s public tolerates stupidity very well.
It was good that Trump closed the southern border. He has attracted a lot of investment back into the US. Interfering with Iran’s nuclear program has possibly delayed a nuclear World War III by a generation.
But before the ’24 election, he promised an end to the Ukraine/Russia war, saying it would be over in a day. It’s still killing people. He said the war with Iran would be over ‘soon.’ Soon has never come. I don’t think those were intentional misinformations, but those kinds of things do create expectations, and expectations have a way of wanting to be satisfied.
Then there is stupid.
While you and I may see things differently than the rest of the world, at the top of our list of things that were stupid in Trump’s world were the ways he treated Canada. It seemed like we were the dog he kicked whenever the day went sour. And this Lake Ontario change to Lake America. That and, of course, the 51st state talk was foolishness in the extreme.
Also making the list was Trump saying that Canada was begging for a deal, and that the US ‘holds all the cards.’ Canada, of course, has not been ‘begging for a deal ’; indeed, it was Canada that pulled out of the trade talks in August. And the cards the US is holding, they certainly do have some cards, but they are significantly short of crude oil cards, potash cards, electricity cards and aluminum ones and, yes, even softwood lumber cards. And the cards for rare minerals as well. Not exactly what you would call ‘all the cards.’
Now the problem with these kinds of things is not that they couldn’t have some degree of truth in them, but they certainly aren’t all true, and worst of all, they add up. If we hear something once or twice, it doesn’t bother us too much, but if you hear it continually, it eventually sticks in our craw. And, as it turns out, not only in ours, but in the American voters’ minds too.
So you put all these things together, and pretty soon Trump had lost it for himself, his party and his country, because, as Wacky Bennett used to say here in BC, ‘the socialist hordes are at the door.’ And it’s a bigger door in DC than it was in BC. The door in DC is largely the door to the free world.
So, along with freedom-loving Americans, we Canadians care about that door as well. It would have been nice if Trump had been more careful with how he was swinging it. It didn’t have to be like this. He could have been the greatest president in history. Now, only he and perhaps his family will think he was.
So where does Canada go from here?
We stay the course of diversifying our trade patterns. That’s the lesson we have learned from Trump, and we shouldn’t squander it. Trading so heavily with one country is not a good practice, because if they turn against us, we’re in trouble.
Mark Carney and Dominic Leblanc, the two major minds deciding our trade arrangement with the US, keep saying that we shouldn’t be so concerned about what the US does; we need to pay attention to what we are doing in Canada, to the things that are within our control.
And they’re right!
