Canadians loving Carney’s decision to stand tall against floundering U.S. bully

It’s hard to imagine a more dramatic political contrast than the one unfolding on opposite sides of the Canada-U.S. border.

Mark Carney is fighting a trade war with Donald Trump, taking the occasional verbal punch from the American president and imposing retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products.

And the prime minister is being rewarded for it politically.

Trump, meanwhile, is fighting pretty much everyone he can find — including some of America’s closest allies — and his own voters are increasingly giving him the political equivalent of a raised middle finger. That’s quite a tale of two leaders.

Let’s start with Canada.

A recent Leger poll found a staggering 74 per cent of Canadians support Carney’s decision to impose new retaliatory tariffs on certain U.S. products imported into Canada.

Only 13 per cent oppose the decision.

That’s not merely majority support. It’s an overwhelming public endorsement, with supporters outnumbering opponents by more than five to one.

There are plenty of good economic arguments against tariffs. They can raise prices, disrupt supply chains and hurt businesses and consumers on both sides of a border.

But this poll suggests Canadians aren’t looking at the issue simply through an economic lens. They’re looking at it politically.

And they appear to be concluding that when an American president launches an aggressive trade war against Canada, their country needs a government willing to fight back.

The broader polling numbers are even more stunning for Carney and his Liberal government.

A recent Angus Reid poll puts the Liberals at 46 per cent, compared with 32 per cent for Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives. But it’s the projected seat count from those numbers that are even more telling.

According to the latest 338Canada analysis, that popular vote could translate into 223 Liberal seats if an election were held today, compared to just 82 for the Conservatives and 14 for the NDP.

That would be a Liberal landslide.

There is no federal election on the horizon at the moment. But the numbers tell us something important about the political environment Carney is operating in.

And much of it has to do with the man occupying the White House.

Because while Canadians are rallying around their prime minister, Trump’s political standing among Americans is moving in precisely the opposite direction.

A Focaldata/Financial Times poll released Sept. 6 found only 32 per cent of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance. That’s down three points from the previous month and it’s a record low for the president.

With the November midterm elections approaching, that should make Republicans very nervous.

Trump has spent much of his presidency trying to convince everyone that confrontation is strength. He threatens tariffs, he insults allies, he picks fights and he escalates disputes. Then he falsely declares victory. It’s a remarkably exhausting way to run a country.

All of which is helping Carney, who just got another Trump bump in the polls.

The prime minister has been handed a political gift by the American president. Every tariff threat makes Carney look more like a defender of Canadian interests.

Every public insult from Trump makes the prime minister look more measured and statesmanlike. And every attempt by Trump to bully Canada reinforces the argument that Canada needs to fight back.

That doesn’t mean Carney should get a free pass. His government will eventually have to answer for the economic consequences of the trade war. Canadians will want to know whether the tariffs are working, whether they are doing more harm than good for Canadian businesses and consumers and what the government’s long-term strategy is.

And the Conservatives have every right to challenge the government on those questions.

But Poilievre faces a more difficult political problem. How do you attack a prime minister when the country’s biggest economic and political adversary is making that prime minister look this good?

Trump may believe that attacking Canada makes him look powerful. But for now, all it’s doing is making Carney look stronger.

The president came into this fight apparently believing he could intimidate Canada into submission. Instead, he has managed to unite Canadians behind their prime minister, strengthen Carney’s political standing — including on the global stage — and give the Liberal government a rallying point it could never have manufactured on its own.

Trump started a fight with Canada because he wanted to demonstrate how powerful America is. If the polls are any indication, he may end up demonstrating something else entirely: just how badly a president can misjudge his neighbours — and how quickly a bully can turn his opponent into the more popular leader.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca