Drugs, drinking water and buckets of bolts: how politics touched us this week
OTTAWA — Official Ottawa spent the week absorbing the aftershocks of aggressive Donald Trump foreign policy decisions.
On trade: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in China most of the week, where the public pressure for Canada to launch free-trade talks — mainly as an antidote to Trump’s penchant for protectionism and faltering NAFTA negotiations — escalated even as the preliminary discussions stalled in a conflict of competing visions.
On the Middle East: The U.S. president’s decision to move the American embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem forced ally after ally to re-declare or redefine where it stands on the best route to peace in the Middle East, and Canada was no exception. Urged by some to stand with Trump, and by others to stand up to him, the federal government steered a careful, precarious path in favour of the status quo.
And on lumber: On Thursday, American trade authorities sided with the U.S. softwood lumber lobby, and voted to entrench astronomical duties on Canadian lumber exports — prompting the federal government to declare it would fight the fees tooth and nail.