TORONTO – We are friends again!
This was the prevailing vote in Canada this week following the inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
After four years of being insulted, threatened, fired and slapped by the Trump administration, the shocked Canadian felt the once-familiar warmth of their neighbor and closest ally, the United States. Of all the world leaders with whom Mr. Biden needs to kiss and make up, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would be the first to receive an official call, his government announced.
“We have so much alignment – not just me and President Biden, but also the Canadian and President Biden,” he said. Speaking at a news conference outside his home on Friday morning, Trudeau said: “I am very much looking forward to working with President Biden. . ”
The deep relief that the US election is provoking across Canada has been further deepened by Mr. Biden’s inaugural address, in which he promised to restore alliances and enter into dialogue not with violence, but through partnership with the world.
But, as is often the case with makeup, it will take some time to rebuild trust and resolve the 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 outlook predicted by Mr. Biden was accepted, emphasizing the U.S. jobs.
Nor did it help that one of his first actions was to cancel the Keystone XL – a proposed pipeline intended to transport crude oil from Alberta to Nebraska, which the Canadian oil industry hoped to revive its sinking fortunes .
‘It was not a friendly first act, ‘said Roland Paris, a professor of international affairs at the University of Ottawa and a former foreign policy adviser to Mr. Trudeau. But, he added, “Knowing the knowledge of the White House resident would make Canada a respected friend makes a big difference.”
Canada has long considered itself a close cousin of 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 lives within 60 miles[60 km]of the U.S. border and regularly crosses it before the pandemic to go shopping and visit family.
“We have forged a bond that is not practical,” said Allan Rock, a former longtime Canadian government minister. “It borders on mysticism.”
Historically, the Canadian prime minister, if not the first, then received the first foreign visits by a new US president. Since the coronavirus has hampered such visits, the first call should be seen as a stand-in, said Bruce Heyman, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada. “It’s definitely a big problem,” he said from his Chicago home. “Getting the first call is an acknowledgment of the importance of the relationship.”
As with any family, there were differences of opinion, and the Canadians often overlooked them through their much larger neighbor. But in modern history, nothing has approached the explosions that provoked former President Donald J. Trump.
He slashed tariffs on Canadian products, threatened to repeal the country’s most important trade agreement, and Mr. Trudeau insulted as ‘very dishonest and weak’. His trade adviser Peter Navarro went further and suggested that there is a special place in hell for the Prime Minister of Canada.
Few Canadians were sad to see the Trump administration go.
“There’s actually a special place in hell for Trump,” said Gary Doer, a former Canadian ambassador to Washington and prime minister of Manitoba.
Mr. Doer is one of many Canadians expecting the return of the once special relationship under a Biden government. Some even see Canada can help the United States restore other relations.
But the photos of a mob breaking into the Capitol on January 6, and the deep and ugly divisions it revealed in the United States, are a source of concern to many.
As America’s ‘breaks and deepens, we’re in trouble,’ said Kathleen Wynne, the first female and openly gay prime minister of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. Far-right activists were also encouraged in Canada, she noted, being followed and harassed by ‘very, very hard core right-wing angry men’ during her 2018 re-election campaign, which she lost.
“We need to see it disappear in the United States,” she said. “This is Biden’s first order. To breathe, and not preach to people, but try to figure out how to weave back the social fabric of the country.
She added: “It’s a big task.”
Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Praying has a warm history. The prime minister hosted a farewell dinner for the then retiring vice-president four years ago, following the victory of Mr. Trump. Mr. Biden then gave a speech in which he said that it belonged to Canada to be the defending champion of the ‘liberal international order’. He ends with a toast: ‘Vive le Canada. Because we need you very, very much. ‘
Both leaders have put the fight against climate change, the defense of human rights and the strengthening of international institutions at the heart of their platforms. They build their political personas on inclusivity and social justice – although Mr. Trudeau at 49 a generation younger than Mr. Biden is.
Mr. Rock, who also served as Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, said he hoped Mr. Trudeau his help to mr. Biden would offer to rebuild American relations around the world. “I hope the first conversation contains the words ‘How can we help?'” Rock said. ‘We did not wear those like Mr. Trump does not. We have reasonable money in the capitals of the world. ”
Some in the country are concerned that Mr. Biden’s proposed protectionist economic policy could harm the Canadian economy, which is so fundamentally dependent on the United States. But even conservative Canadian politicians expect a renewed and strengthened relationship.
Alberta’s Prime Minister Jason Kenney, who calls the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline a ‘gut punch’, welcomes the new government, adding that his province ‘has the deepest economic ties with the United States and strong social ties that well go back ‘over a century. ”
When inevitable disagreements arise with the Biden administration, most Canadian politicians expect a return to a rational and respectful conversation, which after years of evading grenade attacks over Twitter seems like a balm.
“I can not wait to return to Washington, DC to work with the new government and Congress on our common interests,” tweeted Flavio Volpe, president of the Auto Parts Manufacturers Association, who worked with the Canadian government for four years to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
He added: “Happy New Beginnings, America.”
Dan Bilefsky reported from Montreal and Ian Austen from Ottawa.