Trudeau cutting nose off to spite face

These are not easy days for embattled Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. They are not only what he called his Liberal Party's "toughest days", but also his own. From within his own party and Canada's opposition parties, he has heard louder calls for his resignation.

At home, his approval rating has reportedly plummeted from the 63 percent he enjoyed when he was first elected in 2015 to 26 percent this month. The abrupt resignation of his Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland on Monday only made things uglier. The departure of Freeland, a key ally, not only dealt a heavy blow to Trudeau's political survival, which was already in the balance, but, perhaps more importantly, revealed the divisive potential of the subject of how to cope with the imminent second term of Donald Trump as leader of neighboring United States.

It certainly is not all about the US president-elect. But just as Deputy Prime Minister Freeland disclosed in her resignation letter, Trump was at least a significant trigger. As one observer put it, Trump's reelection in November has caused a split among US allies. What happens in Canada is only a footnote to that fissure.

Like many US allies and partners, the Trudeau government of Canada is scrambling to reposition itself in the face of a replay of Trump's manifestation of his "America first" agenda. This is a grueling test for decision-makers in every major country around the world who will wish to weatherproof their nations at least for the next four years. Trudeau may be presenting an example of how to fail to do that. The incoming US leader has threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on Canadian and Mexican imports should the two countries fail to do more to stop fentanyl and illegal migrants from crossing into the US.

Faced with the choice between pushing back or backing off, Trudeau picked the latter, which, according to Freeland, was a critical point of divergence between the two of them. Freeland advocates "pushing back against the 'America first' economic nationalism with a determined effort to fight for capital and investment and the jobs they bring". But in a bid to appease the next US leader, Trudeau flew to Mar-a-Lago, the US president-elect's Florida estate, to dine with Trump. He moved fast to boost security along the Canada-US border. And he worked out a broad package of tariffs on Chinese imports. According to the Canadian government's fiscal update, it plans to impose tariffs on a slew of Chinese products next year. This is after slapping a 100 percent tariff on all Chinese electric vehicles and a 25 percent tariff on imports of Chinese steel and aluminum products.

The additional tariffs are said to target such products as solar products and critical minerals. While such moves seem to be driven by the Trudeau government's desire to show the US president-elect that it is aligned with him in his administration's anticipated stand against Beijing. If that is the case, it does not seem to have worked as expected.

In his latest social media post commenting on Freeland's resignation, Trump continued to address his northern neighbor as the "Great State of Canada", and its leader as "Governor Justin Trudeau". And while Trudeau has tried to appease the incoming US president by indicating his government is willing to take a tough economic line against China, he should be wary of dealing a damaging blow to economic and trade relations with China.

China and Canada have broad prospects for cooperation in the fields of energy, agriculture and environmental protection, and Trudeau risks leaving his country high and dry if the tide turns the other way. He should face the fact that China and Canada have no conflicts in their interests, and Canada's relations with China and the US do not conflict with each other either.

As the major economies of the world, the three countries are obliged to fulfill their due responsibilities to advance an inclusive economic globalization that will serve not only their common interests but also the world's. There is no reason for the Trudeau government to sacrifice China-Canada economic relations to curry favor with the US.