Canada’s pre-emptive Trump strategy involves making the US aware of how much they depend on us for trade. But politically that only matters if the US voting system is competitive. If it’s not, then a president won’t really care if voters in Iowa are hurting economically from bad trade policy.

I’m actually surprised this point isn’t more discussed, or discussed at all. Anyway, for the moment, while Canada does have to be helpful especially on border security, the US does need us, which gives us some space for independent policies.