The Conservative Party of Canada lost the last federal election because they couldn’t put enough distance between themselves and US President Donald Trump, and they seem very determined to lose the next one for the very same reason. Time and time again, they’ve been given opportunities to show their solidarity with Canada and their disdain for Trump and his movement. And time and time again, they have decided not to do it — or, worse, show their true colours. 

This time it was over Trump’s supposed potash deal with Belarus, which he claimed would replace Canadian imports with cheaper ones from the Putin-aligned dictatorship. “The pricing would be for substantially less than we are currently paying to Canada, very good news for ​our Farmers and Ranchers,” he said. This is impossible for a bunch of different reasons, not least the fact — one communicated by none other than Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko — that Belarus doesn’t have any potash supplies to spare. There’s also the thousands of kilometres the huge volumes of potash would need to travel, both by rail and sea, the multiple borders it would need to cross (Belarus is landlocked) and the soaring diesel costs it would incur along the way. The only way it could be cheaper than Canadian potash is if Belarus was willing to eat a 30 to 40 per cent price cut — and why would it do that when it........

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