As the world braces for more global freeze-outs prompted by Donald Trump, remember one thing: Canada knows how to survive the cold.
By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on January 27, 2025.
OTTAWA—A blanket of cold air covered the continent as the United States of America ushered in an oligarchy under the leadership of its new President Donald Trump.
It was the coldest day on record in the history of American presidential inaugurations. But the frigidity wasn’t only caused by temperature.
It reflected the mood of almost half of the nation, those dreading the return of President Trump to the White House.
Former first lady Michelle Obama expressed her disgust by simply refusing to attend the inauguration. She joined with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who posted the reasons for her boycott on Instagram: “Let me make myself clear: I don’t celebrate rapists so no, l’m not going to the inauguration.”
Others were present in strange garb or body language. Senator Bernie Sanders sat with his arms crossed, scowling at Trump.
Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, wore his customary shorts and hoodie to the event. At 6 foot 8 inches tall, Fetterman could not be missed.
Nor did anyone miss the breasts bared by Jeff Bezos’ fiancé, Lauren Sanchez. Seated in front of Robert Kennedy Jr., when Sanchez doffed her jacket, he could not keep his eyes off them. Mark Zuckerberg was caught ogling, as well.
And then there was the second-tier invitee list, including Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, whose assigned seat was so far out in the cold that she gave it up, opting instead to watch the ceremony from the warmth of the Canadian Embassy across from Capitol Hill.
Considering her claim that she saved Canada from tariffs—at least until Feb. 1—Smith should at least have been designated closer viewing.
Instead, she was forced to join the majority of 220,000 invitees who were politely disinvited when the event was moved indoors because of the cold weather warnings.
The president said he didn’t want anyone to get hurt, and encouraged those with tickets to go elsewhere.
Smith must have felt more cold air blowing at the Canadian reception, since she is the only premier to have publicly gone rogue in refusing to join all other provincial and territorial leaders in a Team Canada approach to the Trump threat of tariffs.
And while she worked with failed Conservative leadership candidate Kevin O’Leary to access the president, Arlene Dickinson joined Trudeau’s Team Canada tariff advisers, and promptly called out her Dragon’s Den foe for “negotiating against us.”
After consistently trashing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Team Canada’s approach, Smith had the nerve to suggest that we should achieve our objectives through “diplomacy rather than bravado, bluster, and escalation.”
Talk about a bull in a china shop.
Smith went on bended knee to Trump in an effort to negotiate a carve-out for her own province. She didn’t care much about what damage tariffs could do in other parts of the country.
Meanwhile, Trump marked his first day in office with executive orders on everything, including pardons for the instigators of the Jan. 6, 2021, riots that killed five police officers and injured 140 people. He also ordered that non-binary people cannot be identified as such.
Trump also plans to prevent those transitioning from one gender to another from revising their identity on official federal documents.
He also issued a slew of anti-immigrant edicts, including an unconstitutional decision to deny citizenship to American-born children of undocumented migrants.
Many of these executive orders will not pass legal muster, but they certainly sent a chill through throughout the world.
His decision to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accord were the most notable, but he also eliminated security clearances for federal investigative officers, effectively preventing them from doing their jobs.
Trump also put all diversity, equity, and inclusion federal employees on paid leave, while he tasked agencies with drawing up methods to fire them.
Most egregiously, in a speech designed to lay out his vision for the next four years, Trump was silent on housing, health care, wealth gaps and cost-of-living concerns.
In a post-Trump analysis, Sanders pointed out that three people on Trump’s inaugural guest list make more money than half of all residents in the U.S.
Sanders also said that those three invitees—Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos—saw their wealth increase by more than $233-billion since Trump’s election.
The oligarchy predicted by former president Jimmy Carter has taken root in Washington, D.C.
As the world braces for more global freeze-outs prompted by President Trump, remember one thing: Canada knows how to survive the cold.
Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.
