BARBER: Dealing with the bully Trump

While catching up on my reading over the holiday, it was obvious to me that the mainstream media assumes left or even far-left talking points as the norm in society. With that as a base, it then evaluates the utterances of President-elect Donald J. Trump. This approach can only produce biased evaluations, and not sound actionable information from an objective base. It is however very good for producing propaganda. As a result, Trump is portrayed as bad, a bully, someone who will destroy the international order, and, given sufficient time, possibly even release the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.As a consequence of this approach to all things Trump, multiple outlets have in essence decided there are only two ways to deal with Trump the bully, and his threats to impose tariffs on Canadian goods: Canada can either capitulate or fight. In fact, neither of these approaches will work, and if pursued, will probably place Canada in a worse position. Furthermore, we can already see that other approaches have a higher likelihood of bearing fruit.Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been spending a lot of time south of the border. She has been invited to the president’s inauguration, and will be attending activities at the Canadian embassy in Washington, D.C. In addition, she has been meeting with congressional representatives, governors and members of industrial organizations building support for Alberta. This contrasts sharply with Premier Doug Ford's approach. Ford has been very vocal about fighting with America and has even threatened to cut the electric power that feeds into the US grid from Ontario. This would create problems in New York and parts of New England. Whether it is Premier Ford or PM Trudeau, a tit-for-tat trade war with the US would be a losing strategy for Canada. Here is why Ford’s idea is foolish. They don't need us that badly.There has been talk for example, even before President Trump’s election, about recommissioning Unit 1 of the Three Mile Island nuclear facility, located near Londonderry, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania lies directly south of New York state. (Unit 2 famously had a partial meltdown.) In fact, Microsoft has agreed to purchase power from the facility. This is part of a broader effort to revitalize the nuclear power industry in the US, and we will see more plants come online. Furthermore, power from TMI Unit 1 can be directed to the grid in New York. There are other existing options available to address grid shortage in the US.So, what Premier Ford and others do not understand is that there is a limited number of products that the US needs from Canada, and electricity is not one of them. Electricity from Ontario is convenient for the US, not an absolute necessity. Premier Ford does not therefore have the leverage to fight with President Trump.Neither does Prime Minister Trudeau.Bottom line? The next prime minister needs to build contacts and allegiances in the US like Premier Smith is doing and come up with a deal that Trump can buy into. Trudeau is not capable of doing this, and his sending the wrong people to Washington is not likely to have the best of results for Canada. Dr. A.W. Barber is the former Director of Asian Studies at the University of Calgary. He is internationally active and has wide-ranging interests.

BARBER: Dealing with the bully Trump

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