TORONTO – We are friends again!
That was the prevailing mood in Canada this week after President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office.
After four years of being insulted, threatened, fired and slapped by the Trump administration, shocked Canadians felt the once familiar warmth of their neighbor and closest ally, the United States. Of all the world leaders Biden has to kiss and make peace with, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would be the first to receive an official call on Friday, his government announced.
“We have so much alignment – not just me and President Biden, but Canadians and President Biden,” Trudeau said Friday morning at a news conference outside his home, adding, “I am very looking forward to working with President Biden. . “
The deep sense of relief that the American election evoked across Canada was further deepened by Biden’s inaugural speech, in which he promised to restore alliances and engage with the world not by force but by partnership.
But, as is often the case with makeup, it will take some time to rebuild trust and resolve differences between the two countries. And the United States is a very different place than it was four years ago: deeply divided, sick and weakened by the coronavirus, with an economic perspective adopted by Biden that emphasizes American jobs.
It also didn’t help that one of his first steps was to cancel Keystone XL – a proposed pipeline to transport crude oil from Alberta to Nebraska, which the Canadian oil industry hoped to revive its declining fortunes.
“It was not a friendly first act, ”said Roland Paris, professor of international relations at the University of Ottawa and former foreign policy adviser to Trudeau. But, he added, “Just knowing that the White House occupier will treat Canada as a respected friend makes a huge difference.”
Canada has long considered itself a close cousin to the United States. The two countries share a similar colonial history, immigrant population, defense network, economic supply chains and culture. Two-thirds of Canada’s sparse population live less than 60 miles from the American border and, before the pandemic, crossed regularly to shop and visit family.
“We forged a bond that is beyond practice,” said Allan Rock, a longtime Canadian government minister. “It’s almost mystical.”
Historically, the Canadian Prime Minister received, if not the first, one of the first foreign visits by a new American president. But because the coronavirus has made these visits difficult, the first call should be seen as a replacement, said Bruce Heyman, a former United States ambassador to Canada. “It’s definitely a big deal,” he said from his home in Chicago. “Answering the first call is an acknowledgment of the importance of the relationship.”
As with any family, there were disagreements and Canadians often felt forgotten by their much larger neighbors. But in modern history, nothing can compare to the explosions instigated by former President Donald J. Trump.
He imposed tariffs on Canadian products, threatened to tear up the country’s most important trade deal and insulted Trudeau as “very dishonest and weak”. His commercial advisor, Peter Navarro, went further, suggesting that “there is a special place in hell” for Canada’s prime minister.
Few Canadians were saddened by the Trump administration’s departure.
“In fact, there is a special place in hell for Trump,” said Gary Doer, a former Canadian ambassador to Washington and Prime Minister of Manitoba.
Mr. Doer is among the many Canadians who await the return of that once special relationship under the Biden administration. Some even imagine Canada helping the United States to fix other relationships.
But the photos of a crowd storming the Capitol on January 6 and the deep, ugly divisions it has revealed in the United States are a source of concern for many.
If the “divide in America becomes more resentful and profound, then we will be in trouble,” said Kathleen Wynne, the first woman and openly homosexual prime minister of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. Far-right activists were also encouraged in Canada, she noted, remembering being followed and harassed by “very, very extreme right-wing men” during her 2018 re-election campaign, which she lost.
“We need to see this dissipate in the United States,” she said. “This is Biden’s first order of business. Breathing and not preaching to people, but trying to find out how to rebuild the social fabric ”of the country.
She added: “It is a huge task”.
Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Biden have a warm history. The prime minister hosted a farewell dinner for the then outgoing vice president four years ago after Trump’s victory. Mr Biden then gave a speech, during which he said that it was up to Canada to be the champion of the “liberal international order”. He ended with a toast: “Vive le Canada. Because we need you so much. “
Both leaders have made combating climate change, defending human rights and strengthening international institutions a central point of their platforms. They built their political personas based on inclusion and social justice – although at 49, Trudeau is a younger generation than Biden.
Rock, who also served as Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, said he hoped Trudeau would offer his help to Biden in rebuilding American relations around the world. “I hope their first conversation will include the words: ‘How can we help?'” Said Rock. “We didn’t behave like Mr. Trump did. We have reasonable currency in the capitals of the world. “
Some in the country fear that the protectionist economic policies proposed by Biden could damage the Canadian economy, so intrinsically dependent on the United States. But even conservative Canadian politicians anticipate a renewed and strengthened relationship.
Alberta Prime Minister Jason Kenney, who called the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline a “punch in the stomach”, welcomed the new government, adding that his province had “the deepest economic ties to the United States and strong social connections that go back well over a century. ”
When the inevitable disagreements arise with the Biden government, most Canadian politicians expect a return to rational and respectful speech, which after years dodging grenade attacks on Twitter, would seem like a balm.
“I can’t wait to return to Washington, DC to work with the new administration and Congress on our common interests,” tweeted Flavio Volpe, president of the Auto Parts Manufacturers Association, who spent four years working with the Canadian government to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
He added: “Happy New Beginnings, America.”
Dan Bilefsky contributed reporting from Montreal and Ian Austen from Ottawa.