By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on March 24, 2025.

OTTAWA—Trump is rooting for Carney. Who would believe it?

Nobody. The notion that the president of the United States would support the leader of a party he has been insulting and demeaning, is as believable as his claim that he won the 2020 election.

Donald Trump has spent the first two months of his term in office trashing the Liberal government and threatening the country with economic takeover.

Donald Trump has spent the first two months of his term in office trashing the Liberal government and threatening the country with economic takeover.

The interview given by the president in which he states he would rather deal with Liberals because the Conservative leader said bad things about him is simply another of Trump’s multiple contradictory positions.

Pierre Poilievre jumped on the statement, claiming that he is the strong Canadian leader to fight the constant flow of attacks from the president.

But he will have a tough time convincing most Canadians of that, since his whole career has been based on copying the messaging and governing approaches of Trump.

Just last week, Poilievre announced he would break a longstanding tradition, by kicking journalists off his campaign plane during the upcoming election.

Poilievre barring reporters from his aircraft is akin to Trump’s decision to eject legitimate journalists from the White House briefings and replace them with so-called social media journalists.

One of those newbies posed a ridiculous question on Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s clothing choices during the recent disastrous meeting with the Ukrainian president.

Poilievre supporters regularly denigrate the Canadian mainstream media, labelling them as legacy journalists with whom the Conservative leader refuses to engage.

CBC’s Rosemary Barton is constantly reaching out on social media simply asking for an interview with the leader of the official opposition.

Poilievre has also recently released details on his party’s position to cancel foreign aid in favour of military reinvestment.

That is the same position taken by Trump, who authorized Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency to eliminate international aid.

That cancellation was questioned last week in a Federal Court judgment ruling that the dismantling of USAID was likely unconstitutional.

It is unclear whether the White House will even heed this court ruling as Trump has pushed back against another court ruling opposing the mass deportations being carried out under government orders.

The chief judge of the American Supreme Court issued a video warning to the president, after Trump threatened a judge with impeachment because of a ruling.

Last week, Poilievre repeated his promise that he would have no problem firing the governor of the Bank of Canada.

Poilievre refuses to accept the independence of those responsible for Canada’s monetary policy just as Trump threatens the independence of the judicial system.

Some believe that Trump’s comments were specifically intended to help the Conservative leader, but the presidential tirade was more likely directed against Poilievre’s negative commentary on Trump.

“The Conservative that’s running is stupidly no friend of mine. I don’t know but he said negative things. So when he says negative things, I couldn’t care less. … It is easier to deal actually with a Liberal. And maybe they’re going to win, but I don’t really care.” Trump said in an interview on Fox News.

Poilievre jumped on the attack saying,

“It’s true. I am a strong leader. I am a tough guy to deal with….By contrast the Liberals…have driven a half trillion dollars of investment to the U.S.”

Poilievre’s pro-Canada positioning is relatively new. He has spent most of his time in opposition saying Canada is broken because of the tax policies of former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Now Trudeau is gone, the carbon pricing is gone, and Poilievre is trying to pivot into a posture as the strong man for Canada.

Trump’s declaration will definitely soften the MAGA edges that have been dogging Poilievre.

If the ballot question in the election is “who is best prepared to deal with an erratic American bent on annexing Canada,” current polls place Prime Minister Mark Carney in first place.

Trump could be blamed for the turnaround.

In an unprecedented political comeback, the Liberal Party has reached polling parity with the Conservatives since the election of Carney.

Trump is not oblivious to the astonishing political upswing of the Liberals.

He must be steaming that Carney’s first international trip was to Europe, not Mar-a-Lago. Carney also managed to purchase an Australian early warning radar system that was supposed to be destined for the United States.

One of Canada’s first financial moves under Carney was to sell off American dollars in a Canadian government bond offering.

Trump has met his match.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

Donald Trump keeps saying that Canada will be better off, with a better health-care system, better jobs and a better economy if it joins the United States.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on February 17, 2025.

OTTAWA—Sixty years have passed since Canada broke from British tradition to adopt a unique flag.

The distinctive red Maple Leaf is now recognized around the world as a symbol of Canada, but it was a much more divisive debate six decades ago.

With the exception of U.S. President Donald Trump, most people see our flag as a symbol of freedom and diversity. It often adorns backpacks of young travellers as a flag that is welcomed everywhere.

It wasn’t always so. In 1965, the Progressive Conservatives thought the adoption of a new flag was an insult to those who fought in two world wars under the unofficial national Red Ensign. The ensign included a smaller union jack and a Canadian coat of arms.

Former prime minister John Diefenbaker made it his personal mission to fight the flag.

Prime minister Lester Pearson preferred another design, which included three red flags attached by a stem with a blue border. The original designer of the flag, Mount Allison University historian George Stanley, received death threats.

The Tories voted for the single maple leaf design, thinking Liberals would support the tri-leaf version that was called the Pearson Pennant. Instead, Liberals also supported the single Maple Leaf, and an all-party committee voted 15-0 in favour of the Stanley-designed flag that was inspired by the flag of the Royal Military College in Kingston.

While the world may have embraced it, even modern-day Conservative governments have not been so celebratory.

On the 50th anniversary of the introduction of the flag, then-Canadian heritage minister Conservative Shelly Glover refused to organize a celebration of the event.

While local flag-raisings took place across the country, the only official national celebration was held by then-governor general David Johnston.

Current Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has taken a more celebratory approach to the flag.

In Tory advertisements, Poilievre is often seen walking in a field under the shadow of a huge Canadian flag.

The use of the flag as a symbol adopted by anti-vax truckers has now made its display permissible for all political stripes.

Trump recently communicated his message of economic domination by tweeting a photograph of himself standing on a mountain with a Canadian flag flying proudly behind him.

And five living Canadian prime ministers called on all Canadians to fly our flag on the anniversary date as a message to Trump that our country has no intention of becoming America’s 51st state.

In a joint letter signed by former prime ministers Stephen Harper, Joe Clark, Paul Martin, Kim Campbell, and Jean Chrétien, the leaders called on Canadians to fly the flag this past Saturday to answer the “threats and insults from Donald Trump.”

And while in Brussels attending a meeting with European leaders, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made it very clear that there’s “not a snowball’s chance in hell” of Canada joining the United States.

He’s enlisting the support of international partners, including the European Union, as most states have been strangely silent on Trump’s annexation comments.

Europeans are listening now because Trump has been threatening them with tariffs, as well.

The Danish government has reacted to Trump’s announcement that he would like to take over Greenland. As well as threatening retaliatory tariffs on Ozempic, Denmark’s biggest export to the U.S., some Danes have launched a petition to buy California.

While all Canadians are now uniting behind the flag, the Trump threat may also serve to be a catalyst for breaking down interprovincial barriers.

If we can build a pipeline to send Alberta crude for refining in Illinois and Texas, surely, we can do the same for eastern Canada.

So when we have been delivered lemons by Trump, we need to make lemonade. And we need to start recognizing the great benefits that come with life under the Canadian flag.

Poilievre’s message that Canada is broken now needs reworking, and he was slated to deliver a major pivotal speech this past weekend.

His message will need massaging because the idea that Canada is broken plays right into the hands of Trump, who plans to crush our country economically.

Trump keeps saying that Canada will be better off, with a better health-care system, better jobs and a better economy if we join the U.S.

He also revealed earlier last week that when it comes to takeover of foreign lands, he believes he has the legal right to “take over the Gaza Strip and occupy it.”

Insert “Canada,” and we have an idea of what might be coming.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

Up until Doug Ford’s hot mic comments about Donald Trump, he was smooth sailing as Captain Canada, but he’s hit some rough waters.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on February 10, 2025.

OTTAWA—Captain Canada has no clothes. Ontario’s Doug Ford lost that standing when it was revealed last week in a leaked hot microphone recording that he was a huge Trump fan who celebrated when Donald Trump was victorious.

“On election day, was I happy this guy won? One hundred per cent I was,” Ford told supporters while chatting with a few of them on Feb. 3 at a campaign event. “Then the guy pulled out the knife and fucking yanked it in us.”

In that regard, Ford joined a minority of Canadians as the vast majority were hoping for another outcome to the American election.

Ford said all the right things in the lead-up to the tariff war, including wearing the mantle of Captain Canada in multiple American television interviews.

His negative numbers were neutralized as a result of these interventions, and it looked like Ford would be sailing to a second term.

Then came the revelations of what he really thinks. Ford called a snap election banking on two things: the unpopularity of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and the popularity of Ford’s personal fight for Canada.

But now he has faced a serious hit to his plan on both those fronts.

First, the prime minister’s reaction to the tariffs, including an incredible speech to the nation and a robust response to Trump’s proposed plan, have actually boosted his popularity.

It is hard for Ford to run against Trudeau, and then get on television to say how we all want to work together.

Second, Ford’s attachment to Trump, and the fact that he is sticking to a multi-million Starlink satellite contract with Elon Musk is causing pain on political fronts.

Ford briefly announced he would cancel the deal, but then revoked his cancellation when the tariff threat was put on pause for 30 days.

Trump may have paused, and his attention temporarily pivoted to an insane suggestion to kick all Palestinians out of Gaza and turn the place into an American-owned resort. For a president who campaigned on staying out of other countries’ business, he is off to a poor start.

Trump continually repeats his dream to literally turn Canada into the 51st state. And Canadians are literally not buying it. The national move to “Buy Canadian” and to refuse American purchases or travel shows no signs of pausing.

Trump has even managed to turn Quebecers into ardent Canadian nationalists. The boycott is being felt so broadly that Boston Pizza felt compelled to underscore its Canadian identity.

The company took the unprecedented step of clarifying through social media that despite its name, it is not American.

In fact, it is so Canadian, it was even started by a former Mountie.

The Boston Pizza mea culpa is proof positive that the Buy Canadian movement is working. Even after the American president postponed tariff threats for 30 days, Canadians appear to be launching their own trade war.

And if the label or destination is American, the answer is no.

As for Ford’s Conservative counterpart in Ottawa, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is still reeling from the fact that his carbon tax election has been pulverized by a change in Liberal leadership and the fight against Trump’s political agenda.

Poilievre is also too closely aligned with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, the only Canadian politician bent on weakening her country’s leadership by siding with Trump.

It took Smith only hours after the announcement that Trudeau had been successful in postponing tariffs for the Alberta premier to start attacking him again, and defending Trump’s actions as understandable.

Only a month ago, pundits were claiming that Smith was in the ascendancy as Trudeau was leaving and Poilievre appeared poised to become prime minister.

Thank Trump for a trade war that vaults the federal Liberals into top spot in Ontario for the first time in almost two years.

Mainstreet Research polling published last week showed the federal Liberals at 43 per cent while the Conservatives are at 39 per cent. That has not been replicated in the provincial election trending yet, but Ford’s support of Trump is already provoking some movement in the race.

The hatred for Trudeau that was supposed to be the underpinnings of a successful Ford re-election has diminished, and with the fight for Canada, the premier has to be cautious about his attacks on the prime minister.

As for Poilievre, he has largely disappeared, not doubt huddled with supporters trying to craft a new three-word slogan as “Canada is Broken” no longer cuts it.

Perhaps he should pivot to a four-word pitch.

There is a new MAGA hat circulating featuring the Canadian flag, and the words Make America Go Away.

That is a hat the Tories should be wearing because as long as the threat of Trump’s annexation plans remains, Canada will not be broken.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.