Don Martin: Beware the friendly face of Joe Biden. He's just not that into us.
Don Martin: Beware the friendly face of Joe Biden. He's just not that into us.
The flowery tributes will be laid on thick and our undefended border hailed as a unique miracle in a fracturing democratic world amid pledges of eternal friendship as glasses filled with Canadian wine are clinked at the state dinner.
Joe Biden comes for a sleepover next week to make Canada the 18th country he has visited since being sworn in as U.S. president, quite the protocol slippage from that fading, if not forgotten, tradition of Canada being the first foreign presidential pitstop.
But it will be a warm Canadian welcome thanks to three simple words. He. Isn’t. Trump.
Still, several unrelated developments suggest our U.S. connection may be in need of some damage control just as much as relation celebration.
For starters there was Biden this week opening up northern Alaska reserves to oil production, which will be carried by pipeline right down the middle of America’s last wilderness frontier. It was the action of a president throwing his environmental credentials under the political bus.
CRICKETS FROM BIDEN
But wait a minute. Isn’t this the same Biden who vetoed a far less-riskier mostly-built Keystone pipeline from Canada as his first act of presidential business?
And, lest we forget, it’s the same president seemingly on silent standby as Michigan’s governor aims to kibosh the Line 5 pipeline running under Great Lakes in clear violation of an international energy treaty Biden is charged with enforcing.
So far, as the fight to keep the pipeline flowing plods through U.S. courts, it’s crickets from Biden.
For more negative Biden fallout on Canada, just wait for the federal budget later this month.
Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is a $375-billion bag of supersized carrots dangled in front of investors to lure their renewable electricity generation and hydrogen production interests inside protectionist America.
It’s a commendable goal and all, but it also flips the kill switch on promising Canadian investments in similar ventures.
That’s why Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will struggle to rein in the deficit while rolling out hefty inducements to keep our environmental infrastructure investments from disappearing into that giant sucking sound of U.S. subsidies.
And, finally, Biden is the president who didn’t give Canada even a sideways glance when he inked a three-way submarine deal with Australia and Britain this week.
A BIDEN SNUB?
You could’ve called it a Biden snub except it’s an agreement largely rooted in nuclear submarines and we’re a country seemingly satisfied with just four Victoria-class submarines that were outdated and dented when purchased second-hand from Britain in 1998.
But military experts point out there’s technology-sharing involved in the agreement, which might’ve given Canada, if it was allowed into the club, given a modern upgrade to our sorry state of submarine readiness.
So if Biden is blocking cross-border energy, stealing green investments and blackballing Canada from a military partnership, what will he bring to Ottawa besides his pyjamas and address-to-Parliament speaking notes?
Well, he’s coming here to arm-twist Canada to take a leadership role by deploying forces to restore order to gang-run Haiti, a mission that could ensnare Canada in a failed-state quagmire of ruthless violence. In other words, he wants us to front a no-win scenario. We should say no.
He might want to discuss Chinese security and election interference concerns but, with Trudeau in denial that the problem rates serious cyber-security investments, sworn testimony from his chief of staff or a formal inquiry, it will be a brief conversation.
'MEH' LEVEL OF CROSS-BORDER CORDIALITY
He will discuss Ukraine, but Canada is already offering what limited military assistance can be spared from an armed forces with very little surplus in soldier capacity or modern equipment.
And Biden will offer to do nothing to stop the flood of asylum-seekers being bussed to the Quebec border for a hop-over into the warm arms of Canada’s welfare state, a dynamic that will continue until there are changes in a border treaty Biden has no interest in altering.
Let’s face it. The connection has not gone cold but we’re at a “meh” level of cross-border cordiality. This visit feels more like a checked-box obligation than celebration.
We may be America’s largest trading partner but Canada clearly ranks as an afterthought for Biden and there’s little sign he shares an Obama-class bromance with Trudeau, a prime minister he probably sees as a lightweight leader on the world stage.
But hopefully this visit will replace what seems to be Biden’s only Canadian memory, that being when he was honoured with a state dinner during his 2016 farewell tour as Obama’s vice president.
And perhaps we should be grateful he won’t follow the departing script of the last U.S. presidential visit to Canada -- when a furious Donald Trump trash-talked Justin Trudeau from Air Force One even before he left Canadian airspace.
U.S. President Joe Biden heads north next week for his first visit to Canada as president. Ahead of the visit, both countries are laying out a wide range of potential topics spanning from migration policy to continuing support for Ukraine.
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Joe Biden comes for a sleepover next week to make Canada the 18th country he has visited since being sworn in as U.S. president, quite the protocol slippage from that fading, if not forgotten, tradition of Canada being the first foreign presidential pitstop, writes Don Martin in a column for CTVNews.ca.
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The Trudeau tipping point is within sight. The moment when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau knows he has to quit for the good of the party or the Liberals realize they can't survive re-election with him at the helm is almost upon us, Don Martin writes in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca.
Bombshell revelations that suggest Chinese agents actively, fraudulently and successfully manipulated Canada's electoral integrity in the last two federal elections cannot be dismissed with the standard Justin Trudeau nothing-to-see-here shrug, Don Martin writes in his exclusive opinion column for CTVNews.ca.
The chances Trudeau's health-care summit with the premiers will end with the blueprint to realistic long-term improvements are only marginally better than believing China’s balloon was simply collecting atmospheric temperatures, Don Martin writes in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca, 'But it’s clearly time the 50-year-old dream of medicare as a Canadian birthright stopped being such a nightmare for so many patients.'
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Scotland's governing Scottish National Party elected Humza Yousaf as its new leader on Monday after a bruising five-week contest that exposed deep fractures within the pro-independence movement.
Thousands of anti-government protesters marched on the streets of Kenya's capital, Nairobi, on Monday despite the government's declaration that the protests are illegal.
The Manhattan grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump over hush money payments returned on Monday to hear more evidence, with still no word on when it might be asked to vote on a possible indictment.
A suicide bomber struck Monday near the foreign ministry in Kabul, killing at least six people and wounding several, according to officials. It was the second time this year that there has been an attack near the ministry.
Despite delayed decision-making by parliamentarians, Canada's massive renovation of Parliament Hill's Centre Block is being effectively managed so far, according to a new audit. However, 'rigorous' cost management will be needed as the work proceeds, cautions auditor general Karen Hogan.
The 2023 federal budget includes a 'grocery rebate' that will be offered to Canadians with lower incomes who may be struggling with the rising cost of food, CTV News has confirmed.
Han Dong is threatening legal action against Global News and its parent company Corus Entertainment after the media outlet published an allegation the Toronto MP spoke to a Chinese diplomat about delaying the release of two Canadians.
Hershey Co. is looking to reduce 'trace' amounts of lead and cadmium in its chocolate, chief financial officer Steve Voskiul told Reuters on Wednesday, after Consumer Reports found that some dark chocolate bars had potentially harmful levels of the heavy metals.
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