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The Trudeau government knows that it is going to spend political capital in the coming months — a euphemism that translates as decisions that will consign members of the governing caucus to defeat at the next election.

The U.S. presidential election has made clear that few issues are more contentious than mega free-trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), opposed by Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

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Small wonder the Trudeau Liberals have been on all sides of the agreement — signing the deal in New Zealand in February, yet always keen to distance themselves from it by pointing out that it was negotiated by the Harper government.

The calculus is that there is little point in inciting opponents of the deal if it is a non-starter in the U.S.

For a long time, it looked as if U.S. President Barack Obama’s legacy project was going to be stymied by Congress. It may be yet – U.S. Senate majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the Senate will not vote on the TPP, a deal he considers “seriously flawed,” before the next president takes office.