Calmly dealing with Trump, don't call people Nazis and why Poilievre should talk to Ford...

Plus lots of talk about China, China, China and my trip to Florida.

Donald Trump has done it again, dominated headlines in Canada for more than 24 hours with a simple social media post. Once again, on cue, Canadians began freaking out, especially the Elbows Up Brigade.

Trump posted on Truth Social that he was going to block the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge citing everything from Canada treating the Americans badly to Carney’s deal with China and warning of the demise of the Stanley Cup.

As I wrote in my morning column for the Toronto Sun, this really does help Mark Carney when it comes to a possible election. Read the column here to see why I’m saying that and why polling shows voters are open to an early election.

Here though is my summary on video of why Canadians need to stop freaking out.

Can’t call Trump TACO and then freak out at his every utterance.

Also, bet you didn’t expect me to give kudos to Mark Carney on this file.

Visiting the States means less Trump talk…

I believe I said this after I came back from two weeks in California over Christmas, but I hear less about Trump in the States than I do in Canada. It was the same when I was in Florida last week for a quick winter escape.

Americans are not as obsessed about Trump as Canadians are.

Sure, if you watch the news channels then the man is everywhere. If you talk to the average person he doesn’t come up the same way it does in Canada.

Here, even people not obsessed with news are still talking Trump. I have to say, escaping Trump by fleeing Stateside was nice.

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Calling a fellow MP a Nazi sympathizer is disgusting…

Liberal MP John-Paul Danko represents Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas. He’s embarrassed himself, his party and his community by calling Jamil Jivani a Nazi sympathizer for heading to Washington last week to try and help on the trade deal and tariffs.

Danko, who owes Jivani an apology, was standing in the House last Friday to debate potential changes to the Standing Orders that govern how the Chamber operates. It has nothing to do with partisan issues or even Canada-U.S. relations, but still Danko went off.

If you don’t know who Unity Mitford was, don’t feel bad it passed by most of the MPs in the Chamber as well, but Danko knew what he was saying.

Unity Miford was a British socialite born to an aristocratic family in 1914. In the early 30s she fully embraced Naziism and even moved to Germany to be closer to Adolph Hitler. Making this comparison was a deliberate act by Danko and he was making a couple of clear claims with his words.

In Danko’s eyes, Jivani is Unity Mitford, a Nazi sympathizer and Donald Trump is Adolph Hitler.

I have a general rule, the only people who should be called Nazis are actual Nazis and Jivani is no Nazi. And whatever you think of Donald Trump, he is not Adolph Hitler and should never be compared to him.

Taking Danko at his own word, does he think that Mark Carney is a Nazi sympathizer for having travelled to Washington to meet all the same people that Jivani did?

Read and share my column in the Toronto Sun where I go into more detail on how the Liberals missed an opportunity in not embracing Jivani’s offer to help them prior to his trip stateside.

Don’t be upset that Carney is talking to Ford, be upset that Poilievre isn’t…

When The Globe and Mail broke the story about Doug Ford and Mark Carney talking about the possibility of an early election, it upset an awful lot of Conservatives. They assumed that Ford was giving Carney advice to help him win.

That’s not how those with and around Ford described the conversation to me and it’s not how Ford described it when asked on Tuesday.

From the official transcript.

Q. Stone: Premier, can you comment on your conversations with the Prime Minister about a possible early election, why you said that stability is necessary right now?

Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario: Well, you know something, I don’t divulge our conversations, but I’ll be very frank with you. When you get 13 Premiers in a room, politics comes up, and politics of every type comes up. That came up, but that’s going to be up to the prime minister. It’s going up to people to decide, if they do decide to call the election. It has nothing to do with me. I’ve called my election. I’m good. We’re moving forward, and that’s it.

Q. Stone: But you had some advice to him, right, because you have done this in the past, and you have talked about the need for stability, and...

Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario: I don’t - I appreciate that, but there’s only two people in the room, me and him, and I don’t divulge that conversation, but is there conversations with 13 Premiers in the room? Sure, there’s conversations.

Q. Benzie: Would you talk about what you call a majority government, though, for stability, just so that we don’t have uncertainty, given the threat, the existential threat from President Trump?

Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario: I’ve always said that I don’t care about political stripes. I’ll work with anyone. I think I’ve proved that. I don’t care if its a Liberal federal government or an NDP mayor. I’ll work with anyone that has the best interests of Ontario at heart. That’s what I’m focused on.

Now, there are people who will be angry that he says he can work with a Liberal PM and NDP mayor, but that is actually the job. More voters appreciate that than oppose it regardless of political stripe, so Ford is smart doing that, just like Stephen Harper was smart doing the same when he was in office.

My point, one I made in my column is, why isn’t Pierre Poilievre talking to Doug Ford to get advice on a possible early election and how to win. Whatever you think of Ford, he’s shown he knows how to win in Ontario under a conservative banner and the federal party hasn’t done that in the last four elections.

Poilievre and Ford had one call between Pierre winning the leadership and last April’s election. Since the election, they’ve had one call and that is it.

This isn’t smart politics.

I hear from lots of Canadians who hate Ford, think he’s a Liberal and they want nothing to do with him. If that’s your view and you want Pierre to adopt that same stance, be prepared to stay on the opposition benches.

Ford talks to Carney because Carney calls him, treats him with respect. If Poilievre did the same with Ford he’d get a much better reception and perhaps some help in the next election.

At some point I’ll do a long post on the history of the whole schism between the federal and provincial parties.

China, China, China…

I’ve been speaking about China quite a bit lately.

On this week’s Full Comment Podcast I interviewed academic and China expert Sandra Watson Parcels about the problems with Carney’s deal. I also had another long chat with Sam Cooper this week.

If you have time, here is my conversation with Sandra.

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And below is my conversation with Sam.