In Trump's Washington, Canada isn't on the radar...

Even discussions of beefing up Arctic security happen without a mention of us.

I’m back in the United States for a couple of days, this time Washington, D.C. the American capital. I’m hoping that just like when I was in Palm Springs, California for two weeks over Christmas that I hear less about about Donald Trump than I do at home.

I’m not joking, Canadians and Canadian media are obsessed with Trump, I can’t say that Trump or Americans are obsessed with us. After landing in D.C. today I picked up three different newspapers - The Washington Post, The Washington Times and The New York Post and none of them mentioned Canada in the news or opinion sections at all.

A prediction that the 76ers will beat the Raptors tonight when they meet at Scotiabank arena doesn’t really cut it.

Canada can’t even get mocked…

Even an editorial in The Washington Times that talked about the need to beef up Arctic security managed to do it without even mentioning Canada or the Carney government. The piece mentioned British cabinet ministers past and present, Ed Davey the leader of Britain’s opposition Liberal-Democrat Party and even Italian PM Giorgia Meloni but no mention of Canada.

For those that don’t know, The Washington Times is a newspaper that likes to take shots at Liberal Canada and we didn’t even rate a mention in an editorial about beefing up security in the Arctic.

Our sense of self is out of measure…

I bring this up in light of the reaction yesterday to my posting on how Trump Derangement Syndrome blinds the judgment of too many Canadians. The response on social media was for people who never read the piece to response with incandescent rage that I was wrong, that I was carrying water for Trump or spewing American talking points.

None of that was true, it did prove my point though.

As I noted in the piece, an awful lot of Canadians are willing to believe things that aren’t true just because it comes with an anti-Trump narrative.

• Canada is doing better than the U.S. on the jobs front - not true

• America’s economy is facing steep inflation due to tariffs - not true

• American’s will revolt when gas prices spike - lowest price in five years

Believing these things and thinking they will save us, or assuming he will lose control in the midterms aren’t good strategies. It’s a recipe for failure for our country and our industries.

If you wan success you have to make it happen and that takes hard work, not hope and false beliefs.

We are big players but we aren’t on their minds…

Canada rarely capture the American imagination. Unless we are talking about when one of our singers or bands tops the charts - Celine, Shania, Bryan Adams, Shawn Mendes, The Weeknd - or if someone notices all the comedians we give them, but aside from that, we aren’t on the radar.

That’s normally fine, it works for us and has allowed us to flourish.

Now though we are on the outside looking in. Issues such as Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, China and restructuring of the global order and global oil industry that I was writing about in the Toronto Sun are what are occupying time here in Washington, not the comings and goings in Ottawa.

We seem to believe that we occupy the same space in their minds and imagination as they occupy in ours and that isn’t true.

What we need to do is show up in in the American capital with quiet confidence and pride, but also knowing that we aren’t their obsession. That means we need to make solid arguments for why we matter, we need to highlight what we bring to the table and act like fair and reliable trading partners - which we haven’t always done.

What we’ve been doing for the past year clearly hasn’t been working. Mark Wiseman takes over shortly as Canada’s ambassador to Washington, hopefully he brings a new tone and new skill set.

He should arrive though knowing that right now, Canada isn’t even registering.