If economic nationalism exists on a spectrum, where Donald Trump’s America is at one end, and hands-off, open economies are at another, Canada has traditionally been somewhere in the middle.

Yes, politicians advocate for Canadian corporations, negotiate trade deals on their behalf, and deal in programs and incentives to encourage their growth. But no, they don’t force companies to locate here, or compel trading partners to buy their wares, or jimmy with Canadian institutions to pave the way.

The SNC-Lavalin controversy shows the gravitational pull of the Trumpian side of that spectrum. But if there’s anything that’s heartening in the vitriol that has infected the public discourse on this matter, it’s that Canadians seem to generally agree: don’t go too far in that direction.

From day one, SNC-Lavalin has made little secret that Ottawa should head to that place.

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So, about those 9,000 SNC-Lavalin jobs

The company issued a clarification on Monday that spelled out the nuance of its pitch: the company “never threatened” the federal government with job losses or moving to another jurisdiction if Ottawa doesn’t open the door to a remediation agreement on corruption charges.

Rather, “the company had made it very clear to the government through its advocacy campaign that the implementation of a remediation agreement — also known as a deferred prosecution agreement — was the best way to protect and grow the almost 9.000 direct Canadian SNC-Lavalin jobs, as well as thousands of indirect jobs through its more than 5,000 suppliers across Canada.

“The company still asserts this position.”

Protect those jobs from what? The company doesn’t say, but its other statements strongly suggest that they would be in jeopardy, and that leaving Canada would be a possibility.

“Business commentators have widely shared their views on what criminally prosecuting SNC-Lavalin would achieve and what the implications would be in Canada. Those critical repercussions are alternatives we do not want to take,” company CEO Neil Bruce warned ominously in an open letter dated last October.

So, SNC-Lavalin let it be known: its future in Canada was uncertain, and thousands of jobs were at stake. Not a threat, as the company said in its clarification this week, but a polite Canadian version of, “We’re sorry. Please give us a remediation agreement. Or else.”

As University of Ottawa law professor Jennifer Quaid put it, “They’re trying to play the violin.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s responses throughout this controversy tell us he took the company’s plea to heart — his talking points have homed in on SNC-Lavalin’s 9,000 jobs in Canada and his duty to protect them — and acted accordingly, despite the public prosecutor’s decision to refuse a remediation agreement.

Would the Prime Minister’s Office have been wrong to take that argument at face value? Yes. Because sprinkled among the various notes of disclosure on the SNC-Lavalin website, the company also clearly outlines commitments it has made to its biggest shareholder, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. In return for a $1.5-billion loan, SNC-Lavalin agreed to stay in Montreal for seven years, ensure most of its management team and CEO live in Quebec, and name a board of directors that is mainly Canadian.

This was a choice that Trudeau and his team made — to slide further along the spectrum of economic nationalism, and go to bat for the company, even if at a cost.

“I stressed the importance of protecting Canadian jobs and reiterated that this issue was one of significant national importance,” Trudeau said on March 7 in a public address in which he recounted a Sept. 17 meeting with then-justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould as he asked her to go back to the drawing board on SNC-Lavalin.

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The Caisse involvement eased the way along that spectrum. Its mandate, as custodian of Quebecers’ pension savings, goes beyond mere profit-making to include fostering Quebec’s economic development. That was amplified last week by the new Quebec government’s first budget, which put $1 billion towards retaining head offices in the province — a measure that could perhaps help SNC-Lavalin, provincial Finance Minister Eric Girard said.

But seven weeks of carnage in Canadian politics proves Trudeau’s choice to stare down the independence of the justice system for the benefit of a corporation was a bridge too far.

Trump may well have changed the scope of what has become acceptable for Western democracies, but so far, even those Canadians who seek to justify the Liberals’ actions cling to the institutions — and the economic approach — that have stood the country well in the past.

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