Canada Responds After White House Says Trudeau ‘Stabbed Us In The Back’
npr
After one White House adviser said there was “a special place in hell” for foreign leaders like Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, and another said Trudeau “stabbed us in the back,” Canadian leaders offered a measured — even polite — response.
“Canada does not believe that ad hominem attacks are a particularly appropriate or useful way to conduct our relations with other countries,” said Canadian foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland, according to the Toronto Star.
The foreign affairs minister spoke to reporters in Ottawa, and offered a markedly different tone from the attacks lobbed at Canada, one of the United States’ closest allies, this weekend by President Trump and other members of his administration.
Tensions have been building between the two countries for months, as President Trump has targeted Canada as one of the many countries he sees as giving American the short end of the stick in trade deals.
Trump announced yesterday he was backing out of a joint statement made by the countries that attended this weekend’s G-7 Summit in Canada, after Trudeau gave a press conference in which he said Canada planned to retaliate against the Trump administration’s recently-announced tariffs that will commence July 1.
“I have made it clear to [President Trump] that it is not something we relish doing, but it is something that we absolutely will do,” Trudeau said. “Canadians — we’re polite, we’re reasonable — but we also will not be pushed around.”