Leaders around the world are grappling with how to manage relations with President Trump. For Justin Trudeau, it’s not only a daily preoccupation—it’s a defining moment. To Americans anxious about the direction their own government has taken, the prime minister to the north has emerged as the charismatic face of the post-World War II order of alliances, trade agreements, immigration flows and multilateral institutions. While Trump and populist leaders in Europe have fanned ethno-nationalism, Trudeau has tacked the other way, flamboyantly embracing Syrian refugees and championing a global climate pact. At the NATO Summit in Brussels in July, he spoke in favor of “a society that is based around values and not identity.”

The 46-year-old tattoo-sporting former drama teacher was pegged as a political lightweight when he was elected in 2015 on a campaign slogan of “sunny ways.” Things quickly turned darker. In response to Trump’s election, Trudeau created an internal “war room” devoted to U.S. issues and replaced a professorial French-speaking foreign minister with former Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, a longtime U.S.-savvy journalist who herself has become an outspoken champion of democracy over rising authoritarianism.

It’s not easy to fight back while still wooing your biggest trade partner, and Trudeau’s ideals have been tested by reality. Early attempts to court Ivanka Trump with a Broadway show and women’s empowerment roundtables were followed by President Trump threatening to tear up NAFTA, slapping huge tariffs on some key Canadian goods and storming out of Trudeau’s G-7 summit in Quebec. At home, trying to diversify Canada’s export markets, Trudeau angered his own progressive base by moving to buy an embattled coastal pipeline project to increase oil exports to Asia. And he is struggling to contain an influx of unauthorized border crossers. (His approval ratings rose when he slapped Trump back with tariffs of his own, however.)

For all the idealism of his rhetoric, Trudeau has little choice but to salvage a workable relationship. As his own father, former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, once said of the United States, “Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”

—Luiza Ch. Savage

Q & A What’s surprised me most about Donald Trump as president is… My job as prime minister of Canada is to never be surprised, but rather to find solutions to common problems—common ground. That’s what we’ve done and will continue to do. Is America in 2018 still “a city on a hill” for the rest of the world to look up to? The United States led the creation of the international order that has maintained peace and security in the world for the past 70 years. Canadians are very aware of, and appreciative of, America’s role in the world. Ten years from now, what issue in American politics will we regret not paying more attention to today? Income inequality and the hollowing-out of the middle class. I know our American friends are focused on this issue, and Canada is grappling with it too—it’s why I got into politics. I think it’s positive that we’re collectively focusing on it. But we can and should do more. If you could singlehandedly repeal one constitutional amendment, what would it be? And if you could ratify one? It’s not my job to parse changes to the U.S. Constitution. So, I’ll take the Fifth on this one, if I may. Who’s your 2020 dream presidential candidate? Nice try. See previous answer. What’s your favorite Twitter account, and why? @sapinker. An important thinker with a constructive, relentlessly positive outlook. What’s the best book you read this year? Enlightenment Now by … you guessed it … Steven Pinker. I recommend it to anyone who wants to read a fresh, and actually very encouraging, perspective on some of our biggest common challenges.