When it comes to assessing the outcome of the summit meeting in Alaska on Friday between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, I am from Missouri. For those who are not familiar with that expression, Missouri is known as the ‘show me’ state, meaning ‘I want evidence, I’m skeptical, you will have to prove it to me.’ I relate to that.
In my Listen Up article last week, I wondered if Canada could get a fair deal with Donald Trump and ultimately concluded that it could not. This time I want to double down on that.
I wonder how much the Summit Meeting in Alaska was more of a get-together of two like-minded friends than it was about really finding a fair resolution to the war in Ukraine. Trump and Putin appeared more like old buddies than the adversaries or opponents they are supposed to be. One pundit observed, “The world is watching the President of the United States bend his knee to Moscow on live TV.”
Trump boasted going in that he would get a cease-fire agreement with Putin or he would walk out. After the summit, there was no ceasefire; Trump did not walk out and instead stood by Vladimir Putin as he effectively gave a victory speech.
Olga Nesterova is a renowned journalist and political analyst, and more lately, the founder of Onset Media, a consulting company that offers its services to Fortune 500 companies. Here is what she said about the Alaska summit.
“These two are friends. Period. End of story. I’ve covered a variety of summits, and I know what admiration looks like. That’s the end of world order as we knew it. A sad day for everyone.”
My guess is that Putin and Trump spent more time talking about their mutual interests, including carving up neighbouring territory, than they did on actually stopping the war in Ukraine.
On Monday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet with United States President Donald Trump in Washington. Trump will, in my view, try to convince Zelenskyy to end the war in Ukraine by giving up land to Russia, likely the Donbas region of Ukraine, in order to end the war.
Effectively, he will be telling the world that it is okay for an aggressor to start a war in order to gain territory. The hard news, in my view, is that however much Trump tries to appear to be helping Ukraine, he is little more than Putin’s man and will seek an outcome that will suit him.
In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney is still trying to appease Donald Trump. Of the Alaska summit, Carney has said, “Trump is creating an opportunity to end the war in Ukraine.” At least in terms of leaving Ukraine intact, that is not how I read the tea leaves.
I hope that Prime Minister Carney and his government are fully aware of who they are dealing with in the United States. There simply is no upside.
Again, this week, Donald Trump has shown his preference for authoritarian rule by again pitting American troops against the American people and by telling the prestigious Smithsonian Institute what historical exhibits they can or cannot feature—more signs of revisionism and total control.
This past week as well, George Conway, a lawyer, Republican, and prominent commentator who has warned against Donald Trump for years, could not have been more blunt when he said, “What we have here (with Trump) isn’t traditional conservatism. It isn’t traditional republicanism. But I think a better word for it would be gangsterism. We don’t have Ronald Regan anymore. We have Tony Soprano.”
I would hesitate to go that far, but I do believe that the Canadian government needs to recognize that it will be next to impossible to make a deal of any kind with the Trump Administration that will be fair to Canada.
Indeed, I believe it is imperative to come to the conclusion that the tariff issues with the United States, while potentially devastating, are more of a smoke screen to cover Donald Trump’s real intentions when it comes to Canada. In simple terms, he wants it.
Michael Dobner is a senior partner, economist, and trade expert at PricewaterhouseCoopers, a large Canadian accounting and consulting firm. He is also the national leader of their policy practice.
His view is that “President Trump’s Trade War with Canada is ultimately about America’s neighbor to the North, giving up some of its sovereignty to the United States.”
He goes on to say, “It is clear that Trump is not willing to do a deal with Canada, and I think the reason for that is that his aspirations regarding Canada are not the same as for Europe or Japan.”
Trump himself said in July, ”We haven’t really had a lot of luck with Canada. I think Canada would be one where they just pay tariffs. It’s not really a negation.”
Even the Toronto Star is beginning to acknowledge the real threat that Canada is facing from the Trump Administration. The headline on a recent opinion piece by journalist Andrew Phillips reads, “Trump sends signals he’s coming after Canada.”
The starting point for any aggression is always to make your opponent look like the bad guy. Phillips points out that this propaganda is well underway by the Trump Administration. He highlights remarks from Pete Hoekstra, America’s ambassador to Canada, who is busy spinning tales that Canada is the ‘bad guy,’ angry, and disrespectful of the Trump Administration, and that they are the ones who started the trade wars in the first place.
Phillips believes that this is the precursor to Trump dumping the current trade agreement between Canada, the United States, and Mexico (CUSMA), a further step in challenging Canada’s economy and sovereignty. I tend to agree with him.
On this, Phillips said, “To me it is quite clear Hoekstra is laying the groundwork for Trump to toss CUSMA aside and blame Canada for its demise.”
The bottom line here is that Donald Trump wants as much of Canada as he can get. He doesn’t give a damn about our sovereignty, and his use of tariffs is just one tool he has at his disposal to achieve his objective. There will be others.
That is why Trump will never stop Russia from taking land from Ukraine and likely never stop China from taking Taiwan. It is difficult not to imagine the synergy here.
The real battle for Canada is not the trade wars with the United States. They are simply the means to an end. The real battle is Canada’s sovereignty. One can only hope that Mark Carney and his government are gearing up for this and not wearing rose-coloured glasses related to the real challenge that Canada faces.
At best, Donald Trump resembles a neighbouring despot. At its worst, he is a clear and present danger to Canada.
Canadians need to see some hard evidence that the Carney government gets that.
Hugh Mackenzie.
Hugh Mackenzie has held elected office as a trustee on the Muskoka Board of Education, a Huntsville councillor, a District councillor, and mayor of Huntsville. He has also served as chairman of the District of Muskoka and as chief of staff to former premier of Ontario, Frank Miller.
Hugh has also served on a number of provincial, federal and local boards, including chair of the Ontario Health Disciplines Board, vice-chair of the Ontario Family Health Network, vice-chair of the Ontario Election Finance Commission, and board member of Roy Thomson Hall, the National Theatre School of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada. Locally, he has served as president of the Huntsville Rotary Club, chair of Huntsville District Memorial Hospital, chair of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, president of Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and board member of Community Living Huntsville.
In business, Hugh Mackenzie has a background in radio and newspaper publishing. He was also a founding partner and CEO of Enterprise Canada, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm established in 1986.
Currently, Hugh is president of C3 Digital Media Inc., the parent company of Doppler Online, and he enjoys writing commentary for Huntsville Doppler.
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Agreed to a large extent – but I think I am more optimistic than you are right now.. I believe that Carney is so much smarter and very much more intelligent than the Trump sycophants that he and his government are required to work with. I also happen to believe that Trump is so sick – both mentally and physically – that his regime is facing a real citizen rebellion and his personal downfall..
Trump can hardly be too critical, or too demanding, of Putin given that the US, even in recent history, has been the most aggressive superpower with their illegal war in Iraq (more than 1M killed), their involvement in Afghanistan and their illegal occupation in parts of Syria. Criticism of Russia would be the pot calling the kettle black. With regard to Ukraine, the main instigator here is NATO, supported over the years by a succession of US Presidents. For the last several years NATO has pushed further and further towards the Russian border, installing US missiles pointing toward Moscow. This despite an agreement not to. Putin is drawing a line in the sand and advancement into Ukraine is securing Russia’s border, the same as any other superpower would do. At the end of the day, this conflict is not about Ukraine, they are just a pawn in the power game. NATO wants to destabilize Russia, and Russia knows that. Trump also knows that, and he would do the same if he found the US in the same position. So, Russia will not agree to let Ukraine join NATO, understandably, and Russia will insist on keeping that part of Ukraine it has taken, again understandably. A lot of that territory is Russian speaking and pro-Russia. The biggest war mongers in this conflict are in Europe, especially the UK, and those are the ones that should be reigned in.
As far as Carney and Canada is concerned, who knows where we will end up. Carney is not here for Canada or Canadians. Carney doesn’t believe in democracy. He’s a globalist and the welfare of Canadians, and our sovereignty is not his priority. Canada’s future is very uncertain under Carney. The only question in my mind now is will we end up being controlled by a New World Order as defined by the US or a New World Order as defined by some other global-run group, like the WEF, of which Carney is a high-ranking official.