Canada, as most of the people who currently work in Donald Trump's administration know, is located immediately to the north of the United States. The two countries share a language, a longstanding friendship, and a border that is nearly 6,000 miles long. This blend of familiarity and proximity has resulted in their economies growing deeply intertwined over time, which means that having an irritable, scattered, unpredictable jingoist take up residence in the White House is the sort of thing that makes Canada very nervous.

Fortunately, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and company have devised a workaround of sorts, and their solution strongly resembles an international diplomacy-themed version of the way that Jim Halpert wearily managed Michael Scott every time he had to get some actual paper-selling done: Find a shiny bauble with which to distract Donald Trump for the afternoon, and then just go handle business yourself. According to the The New York Times, after Trump threatened to pull out of NAFTA, our exceedingly polite neighbors implementing the novel foreign affairs strategy of ignoring him altogether.

Canada turned to courting every other level of government, forming something like a doughnut around a White House-shaped hole.

Canadian officials have fanned out across the United States, meeting with mayors, governors, members of Congress and business leaders on matters from trade to the environment.

Ministers’ schedules resemble those of rock bands on summer tours. They travel armed with data on the precise dollar amount and number of jobs supported by Canadian firms and trade in that area.

You may recall that after President Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement, the Prime Minister took to Twitter to express his profound disappointment with the decision made by the "United States federal government, a statement that was immediately inducted into the Head of State Social Media Shade Hall of Fame.

It turns out that Justin Trudeau indeed chose his words in the same way that he orchestrates photo opportunities of him working out: very carefully.

The phrase “federal government” was intended to signal Mr. Trudeau’s plan to cut his losses with Mr. Trump and focus instead on state and local governments, according to a Canadian official close to policy decisions toward the United States, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of relations between the two countries.

The official said Canadian leaders plan to individually contact every lawmaker in Congress.

Every lawmaker in Congress! Right now, representatives of a foreign government are engaging in the type of meaningful outreach to local leaders that our president can't even be bothered in the nation that he governs. If the United States survives the next four years because Canada's behind-the-scenes dealmaking helps to prevent this country's decades-old economic relationships and carefully-negotiated diplomatic alliances from imploding in spectacular fashion, they get to pick any state they want as a reward for their troubles. That's a fair trade, honestly. Especially if it's Ohio.

Watch Now:

Let's Talk About Those Tapes Some More