Making the Liberal Party Great Again

Trump's threats against Canada are boosting Justin Trudeau's party.

A few months ago I wrote that Justin Trudeau was so unpopular among Canadians that only one thing could possibly save his political career: Donald Trump returning to the White House and doing Donald Trump things, resulting in a rally round the (maple leaf) flag effect.

The eighty percent of us who aren’t Trump fans will come out of this hating him even more, and anti-Americanism - always a force in Canadian society and politics, as one would expect when you’re right next door to an economically and culturally dominant superpower - will skyrocket.

And when Canadians are in an anti-American mood - think the free trade debates of the late eighties and early nineties, or during the George W. Bush presidency - it’s the Liberal Party of Canada which sees the opening and goes for it (and later, when tempers have cooled, take credit for the free-trade and security policies against which they once railed).

Trudeau might be too far gone politically for this to save his Prime Ministership. But the …