It would be irrational and unfair for Canadians to blame this barbarity on Trump, let alone more broadly on America. The strategy can’t begin to work if, as occurred from time to time during the Jean Chrétien era, MPs or the prime minister publicly vent their spleen at American policy. The worry is that the strategy can only go so far — because Trump is not Reagan, to state the obvious. If the president continues to veer beyond the caustic and controversial, into the recklessly destructive, he risks making himself universally loathed. If that happens, diplomacy gets checked by rising nationalist fury on this side of the border.

Source: National Post January 31, 2017 20:49 UTC