The Globe and Mail: Trudeau Decides It’s Not Worth Appeasing Trump in Foreign-Policy Shift

America has left the world, said Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland in a landmark foreign policy address as reported by John Ibbitson for the Globe and Mail, and allies must hang together while awaiting the country's return. “The fact that our friend and ally has come to question the very worth of its mantle of global leadership puts into sharper focus the need for the rest of us to set our own clear and sovereign course,” Freeland said. “For Canada, that course must be the renewal, indeed the strengthening, of the postwar multilateral order.” In areas such as climate change, the United States under the Trump administration rejects scientific evidence and opinions of its allies and US citizens. Polls show that a hefty majority of US citizens reject the decision for the US to withdraw from the global agreement to stem climate change. Freeland lists the three pillars of the Trudeau foreign policy doctrine: a dependable military, participation in a strong Western alliance and pursuit of trade agreements. Ibbitson concludes, “For the first time in our country’s history, Canada’s foreign policy is essentially opposed to the foreign policy of the United States.” Our best friends keep us in check, speaking up when we sabotage ourselves with rudeness, obstinacy or greed. Canada is doing what friends must do, and that is deliver the unpleasant truth. – YaleGlobal