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Some of Trump’s latest imprecations may prove less fearsome, come the dawn, than they now appear. The threat to withdraw from NAFTA is more than likely an attempt to gain bargaining leverage in the coming renegotiations; in any case, it is not entirely clear Trump can do so unilaterally (I have read lawyers’ opinions on both sides of the question). The tax plan, likewise, is probably best regarded as an opening bid: so far as it implies permanently increasing the U.S. budget deficit, it is unlikely to pass the Congress.

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What we should not imagine we can do is change Trump, much. The Trudeau government’s efforts to engage and flatter him may have failed to divert his wrath, but I’m not sure any other approach would have succeeded better. In particular, there would seem little point in retaliating — slapping tariffs, for example, on American exports in response to Trump’s tariffs on ours. Nothing we can do to them would have remotely comparable impact, given the difference in our sizes and relative trade dependence. We would indeed be hurting ourselves much more than them; impoverishing our own consumers is an odd way to “retaliate.”

Free trade, rather, is the best revenge: keeping our borders open, even if they do not, while pursuing further trade liberalization opportunities with other partners — China, Japan, the Trans Pacific Partnership. Indeed, much of what we might do in response to Trump is stuff we ought to be doing anyway. We should have gotten rid of supply management long ago. If that can now be used as a bargaining chip, so much the better. The need for comprehensive tax reform, likewise, has been evident for years; the Trump challenge only makes urgent what was already desirable. Neither can Canada’s history of welching on our NATO commitments be anything but a source of national shame.

If we cannot improve Trump’s behaviour, in sum, we can at least improve ours.