Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada in Montreal on Aug. 8. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)
J.J. McCullough, Washington Post: What Canada’s spat with Saudi Arabia reveals about Trudeau’s scatterbrained foreign policy
The worsening spat between the governments of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been mostly analyzed from the Saudi angle: a case study of the kingdom’s eggshell sensitivities and bossy expectations of deference. Yet the story also reveals much about Trudeau’s own inadequacies as a statesman, and the thoroughly confused nature of his foreign-policy priorities.
Trudeau is often elevated as one of the west’s champions of principled liberal internationalism, a world leader who offers a marked contrast with the populist nationalism of Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, Viktor Orban, et al. Insofar as Trudeau has been an outspoken proponent of immigration, multiculturalism, and Muslim empathy, the contrast is undeniable. At the same time, his commitment to a broader world order seeking to consolidate the gains of liberal reform and resist the pull of authoritarian chauvinism has always been tenuous, in large part because the prime minister appears to have persistent difficulty in distinguishing the two.
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WNU Editor: To say that J.J. McCullough from the Washington Post is harsh in his analysis of Prime Minister Trudeau's approach to foreign policy is an understatement. He does give a long list of Canadian miscues and mistakes in the past few years that makes one wonder if Canadian foreign policy is really that naive. My view is mixed. Prime Minister Trudeau is doing what he promised he was going to do when he was elected. On a side note. This morning I had breakfast with one of my business partners who had just returned from a Christian pilgrimage to Israel. He found during his trip that both Israelis and Palestinians do share a common opinion on one topic .... and that topic is Prime Minister Trudeau, and his naivety of the Middle East and foreign relations. Wow .... that is something that I did not expect.
