Canadian Trump fans finally got it: ‘America First’ is ‘Canada Last’

The US president-elect has threatened tariffs and his Canadian followers are having trouble digesting that. Populist-on-populist “animus” may be a more accurate way to describe how Canada’s two leading populist charlatans have been responding to the threat made by their populist hero – American President-elect Donald Trump – to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods and services exported to the United States. The glorious spectacle began when Ontario’s semi-coherent premier, Doug Ford, and the slightly more articulate Conservative Party leader, self-styled tough guy and would-be prime minister, Pierre Poilievre, recognised that the inevitable meaning of Trump’s xenophobic-drenched “America First” vow translated into “Canada Last”. Ford and much of Canada’s amnesiac establishment press – who once giddily extolled the wonderful benefits and virtues of NAFTA – have ditched one of the “amigos” to assuage a thug turned president – again. Ford threw Mexico under the bus – I’m sorry, given the premier’s grating lead, I couldn’t resist the cliché – insisting that the “threat” its porous border posed to Canada and the US was “serious”.