Would you want to visit the United States these days? That is, if you weren’t already here? We’re like the sketchy truck stop toilet stall of the world right now.
Well, you’re not the only one who’d like to avoid our country like the plague. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has opted out of a visit to Washington to celebrate Gomer Pyle’s USMCA, the new free trade agreement that Trump will claim is some sort of revolutionary, manna-on-high miracle but is really more akin to a software patch.
AP:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has turned down a White House invitation to celebrate the new regional free trade agreement in Washington with U.S President Donald Trump and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Trump and López Obrador are due to meet Wednesday Washington, but Trudeau spokesperson Chantal Gagnon said Monday that while Canada wishes the U.S. and Mexico well, Trudeau won’t be there.
“While there were recent discussions about the possible participation of Canada, the prime minister will be in Ottawa this week for scheduled Cabinet meetings and the long-planned sitting of Parliament,” Gagnon said.
In other words, he doesn’t want to be anywhere near Patient Zero.
Trudeau is currently holding cabinet meetings online because of the threat of the coronavirus. And because Canada is taking the virus seriously, regulations require Canadians to quarantine after visiting a foreign country.
But there’s also the potential embarrassment of being seen with the doughy disease vector, who is unpopular everywhere, not just here.
Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said Trudeau has less to lose by shunning Trump now that the new treaty is in effect.
“Trudeau loses in Canadian public opinion to be seen chumming with the very unpopular Trump,” Wiseman said. “Trudeau can afford to wait out Trump’s presidency now with less than four months to the U.S. election. Trudeau will still be in power after the election, Trump much less likely so.”
I wish it were easy for us to simply wait out Trump’s presidency. Unfortunately, we have to live here.
This guy is a natural. Sometimes I laugh so hard I cry." — Bette Midler on Aldous J. Pennyfarthing, via Twitter. Find out what made dear Bette break up. Dear F*cking Lunatic: 101 Obscenely Rude Letters to Donald Trump and its boffo sequels Dear Pr*sident A**clown: 101 More Rude Letters to Donald Trump and Dear F*cking Moron: 101 More Letters to Donald Trump by Aldous J. Pennyfarthing are now available for a song! Click those links, yo!