HALIFAX—There is a lot that United States President Donald Trump doesn’t understand. Canada is close to the top of the list. 

Trump is accustomed to wielding the presidency as the ultimate big stick. He gets his way by threatening, not persuading or charming, as past U.S. leaders have done. Can anyone picture Jimmy Carter threatening to annex the Great White North?

So, it must be something of a surprise to this professional bully in the White House, that Prime Minister Mark Carney has opted for diversification of Canada’s trade interests, rather than Canada’s usual over-reliance on the United States. 

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And it is even more galling for Trump that polling shows that 80 per cent of Canadians back the prime minister on his approach to the U.S. 

Bottom line? Canadians think that Trump is a stinker, and they don’t want any Canadian leader to bow down to him.

That doesn’t mean Canadians don’t get it. They fully understand the importance of a so-far elusive trade deal with the U.S. How can they not when Americans have a $27.3-billion trade deficit with this country? 

Depending on which source you read, somewhere between 66 and 75 per cent of our exports go to the U.S.

But Canadians are beginning to understand the dangers of such a lopsided dependency on the American market. 

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© The Hill Times