“Surreal” and “disturbing” are the words MP Charlie Angus (Timmins – James Bay) is using to describe his experience of attending the Republican Party’s National Convention this week. The local politician was part of a three-MP delegation from Parliament sent to observe the convention in Cleveland, Ohio and meet with Republican party officials to discuss Canadian issues and the impact on them should Donald Trump win the presidency this November.

Most of all, Angus said he was pleased and relieved that the violence that was feared could erupt during the protests and counter-protests outside the convention never came to pass.

“I was very pleased to see that despite the extremist language, you saw in the convention. The people in the street were very peaceful because that’s positive. But the level of dysfunction and vitriol in this election is something that we as Canadians shouldn’t be smug about, but should just make sure we don’t go down that road,” said Angus.

Inside the convention itself, Angus said feels there was a disconnect between the narrow point-of-view being promoted in the convention when compared to the diverse people in the rest of Cleveland this week.

“It makes you wonder how Trump thinks he can win by making a message that is so narrow about who is invited into the Trump tent,” mused Angus.

There was plenty of political spectacle at the Republican convention, from Trump’s former primary rival Ted Cruz being booed offstage by delegates after not endorsing the nominee in his speech, to Trump’s wife, Melenia Trump, being caught lifting large portions of a speech given by Michelle Obama at a Democratic Party convention speech eight years ago.

The words “lock her up” became a sort of mantra chanted by attendees over the course of the four-day convention, directed at the presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. A hatred of Clinton, said Angus, seemed to be the only thing binding the convention together.

“There was really no coherent narrative to the convention. Speeches fell into two categories: there were the endorsers – some of whom were his employees or his family. They would say ‘Donald is a great guy, vote for him,’ but there was not vision stuff or policy stuff,” said Angus. “The Republican heavyweights who spoke focused entirely on spewing vitriol at Hillary Clinton. The level of animosity toward her, as a Canadian, seem shocking.

“It wasn’t that they should vote for Donald Trump. It was that she was a manifestation of evil they had to rally against. It was disturbing, both the level of the vitriol and the lac of any vision for America.”

The Parliamentary delegation met with Republican party strategists during the convention, and from those conversations, Angus said a picture of a deeply fractured party emerged.

“I don’t think that Donald Trump really represents Republican values, he represents Trump values. I don’t know where their party goes after this,” he said.

What the Canadian Government should be taking away from the convention is that if Trump becomes the next President of the United States, said Angus, Canada will have to deal with a White House that is easily distracted with no solid plans for the North American economy.

“That could pose a lot of problems for us,” said the MP. “I had thought we would have heard more about the rising support Trump has from areas where manufacturing has disappeared. But what we were hearing from the strategists was that it was driving some of Trump’s numbers, you didn’t see it on the convention floor. It was very much God, guns, and Bad Hillary.”

The convention didn’t leave the delegation with any better an idea of what Canada/US relations would look like under Trump. The campaign is focused on exacting payback on perceived enemies, said Angus, and its not entirely clear who will end up being branded an enemy.

“I’m not sure if they really notice Canada, but we need to be paying a very close attention to them,” concluded Angus.