Scholar on US-Canada Relations: 'There’s the Possibility of a Trade War'

00:58 GMT, 13 June 2018

Canada’s parliament has passed a bipartisan bill condemning President Donald Trump’s comments about Ottawa’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, in which Trump called the Canadian leader “weak.” For more, Sputnik caught up with Canadian-American Philosopher, Henry Giroux.

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Sputnik: So where do you see US-Canada relations going from here both in terms of trade and politics?

Henry Giroux: Well I think you have to first recognise that Trump has an enormous sensitivity to dictators, he seems to embrace dictators, but has no respect it seems for his Western democratic allies. Whether we’re talking about the United Kingdom or whether we’re talking about Canada.

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Trump is interesting because he thrives on these kinds of humiliations and lies and misrepresentations. He really doesn’t know the facts as you well know. I think that if he continues with this, and my sense is that he will, because he loves this kind of escalation. I think there’s the possibility of a trade war, and if there’s a trade war, I think what he doesn’t realise is the number of jobs that are going to be lost in the United States. Now they’re being estimated at something like 1.8 million.

So, then he’ll sour the relationship between the United States and Canada for a while and hopefully the Canadians, or Justin Trudeau who is much smarter and sensible than Trump, I’m sure will try to work this out, But it’s going to set back US-Canadian relations for a couple of years.

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