lilley: trudeau insulted trump for years, now places are reversed
trudeau has spent years attacking trump to boost his own political fortunes, so why are canadians upset that trump is returning the favour?
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it’s funny to watch canadians in the commentariat class clutch their pearls at donald trump’s insults aimed at justin trudeau. not because the insults and online trolling are funny in and of themselves but because it comes after two years of trudeau insulting trump for his own political gain. trudeau has denounced trump’s maga movement as a threat to canada, as dangerous, as something to be avoided, and has tried to paint his main opponent, conservative leader pierre poilievre, as a “maple-syrup maga conservative.”
since 2015 when trump announced his bid to make america great again (maga) by seeking the american presidency, the term maga has been used in canada’s parliament 127 times. of those 127 mentions, 122 have been since the start of the 2023 fall session of the house of commons and 115 of them have been by liberal mps.
in the commons, trudeau has accused the poilievre conservatives of adopting maga policies on ukraine, housing and climate change. he’s also taken several shots at the maga movement in news conferences and media interviews.
“what we’re seeing from these maga conservatives is an approach on going back on fundamental rights in ways we shouldn’t be seeing,” trudeau told the canadian press in a 2023 year-end interview.
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he also tried to link the u.s. supreme court decision on roe v wade to the maga movement and canada’s conservatives.
“we may think to ourselves, ‘this will never happen in canada and this is just the liberals bringing up the usual fear that they do.’ i’m sorry, it wasn’t ever supposed to happen in the united states either, and yet it did because of maga conservatism. the threat is real,” trudeau said.
that was trudeau taking shots at maga and trump, the leader of the movement, on canadian soil to try to score points with voters in this country. unfortunately, he also took shots at trump while standing on american soil.
in april 2023, trudeau was giving a speech to the council on foreign relations in new york when he took a veiled shot at trump
“you guys are the greatest democracy in the world,” trudeau said. “right now, it’s not just that it’s being taken for granted by so many citizens, it’s actually being devalued.”
he took more shots at trump in that speech, as reported by reuters, while also praising joe biden’s time as president. biden took several hardline protectionist stances in areas like softwood lumber and the auto industry, as well as cancelling the keystone xl project on his first day in office, but trudeau never openly criticized biden in the same way.
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a little over two weeks ago, trudeau lamented that american voters rejected kamala harris and chose trump as a failure of feminism, it was a move noticed in washington and by those close to trump.
chrystia freeland, until recently trudeau’s deputy pm and finance minister and the woman trudeau wanted to put in charge of canada-u.s. relations, had a habit of calling poilievre’s party “maga maple syrup conservatives.”
it wasn’t just columnists like me who warned trudeau that this was a bad tactic that would hurt canada in the event trump won a second term. david macnaughton served as the ontario co-chair of the liberal campaign in 2015 and helped put trudeau in the pmo. he then served as trudeau’s ambassador in washington from 2016 through 2019.
“i don’t understand it,” he told the toronto star in february 2024.
macnaughton advised the trudeau government, via the star, not to have any blow-ups in the canada-u.s. relationship.
“we need to be seen by the americans as a trusted friend, ally, partner and, you know, right now, i don’t think that feeling is as strong as it has been,” he said.
obviously, they didn’t listen to me, but they also didn’t listen to people like macnaughton. instead, trudeau spent the last two years campaigning against trump, against maga and trying to link them both to poilievre’s conservatives in an attempt to boost liberal polling numbers.
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it hasn’t worked. instead, liberal support among voters has fallen further.
what has happened is that trump and his team noticed what trudeau has been doing and are now responding in kind. yet, while trudeau’s power base has shrunk as his popularity has shrunk, trump’s power base is growing.
trudeau has put canada in a difficult position due to his shameless politicking and foolish actions. he will surely lose his job at the next election — how many canadians, though, will lose their jobs because of trudeau’s stupidity before then?
sadly, it won’t just be his cabinet ministers.
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