Canada is strapped to a bomb. On Thursday it was revealed that the Trump administration is considering placing 1,000 troops along the Canadian border. On the American side, it sounded like yet another vapour promise from a flailing president, a reality show with cardboard sets. On the Canadian side, it sounded like people trying to negotiate with a gorilla.

“In Canada’s view this is an entirely unnecessary step which we would view as damaging to our relationship,” said deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. “Having said that, it is absolutely the right of every country, very much including our neighbour, to do what it chooses to do on its border.”

By the evening, the plan was dead, per the Wall Street Journal. What to make of that?

Look, here are things to worry about in Canada right now. The supply of personal protective equipment for hospitals is critical, and waning already. The coronavirus testing lag in Ontario means we are behind in making decisions, and the province’s list of essential businesses is too long: apparently everything from beer coaster companies to flight schools are still open, among other things that should be closed. The fiscal protection for workers — and a national pause on evictions, along with mortgage interest — is so important. We must get still further away from one another.

But the United States is a worry, too. When asked about the plan Thursday, the president seemed unaware of it. And to be clear, as detailed it seemed to be an exercise in placebo policy. The Nation reported 1,000 troops were considered, which over a nearly 9,000-kilometre border with 119 crossings would have been, at best, a scattered and useless Maginot Line for a country that was already busy defeating itself.

That it came hours before the United States officially became the most infected coronavirus country on earth was dark, tragic comedy. Federal Conservative leadership candidates Peter MacKay and Erin O’Toole raising the spectre of illegal border crossings last week was odious; the idea of potential irregular crossers from Canada to the U.S. is simply insane. If anything, one of Canada’s pressing concerns should be keeping Americans out of our country. And the worst American ideas, too.

Because it is built to fail. America has still tested half as many people per capita as Canada. There are hospital workers in New York wearing garbage bags to protect themselves, and at least one has died. The governor of Mississippi overrode local stay-home advisories, which is indicative of an entire mode of thought. Trump is refusing or unable to harness the matchless power of the U.S. federal government to fight the pandemic, and his political movement is aching to let people die rather than let the stock market fall.

But Canada is tied to the United States, and this floated-and-dropped idea was a warning. How irrational is our ally is clear: the question may be, how irrational can it get? In the big picture, Canada’s supply chain relies on the U.S., for food and medical supplies both, and what happens if America, with an America-first president, truly descends into chaos? The economic flows work both ways, and that helps Canada. But we are bound to a nation that can’t even fully face the problem.

And in the smaller picture, there are Canadians crossing the border to work. Windsor shares a border with Detroit, where cases are surging and an estimated 3,000 Canadians cross the border to work every day, primarily to work in American health care. Some work in Canadian health care as well, including in long-term-care homes. Windsor has very few confirmed COVID-19 cases, but all so far but one were American travel.

“Especially going now to a place where the number of cases are really, really high, and exposing them to that, which is very different than what we are seeing locally,” said Dr. Wajid Ahmed, the medical officer of health for Windsor-Essex. “From a Canadian perspective, it is a risk to my community. We should do whatever we can to reduce those risks.” Dr. Ahmed is trying to find solutions.

But more, the worst American ideas need to be kept out, too. Thursday the National Post, where I worked for 14 years, published an op-ed from climate change skeptic Lawrence Solomon that argued only the elderly and those with underlying conditions should practise social distancing. It was such a dangerous, reckless and ignorant argument it could have been coming from the president of the United States.

Canada is also starting to dabble in China-blaming, which while understandable isn’t helpful right now. The Chinese government’s initial mishandling of the virus is a global tragedy; that Canada’s shipping 16 tons of personal protective equipment to China in February generated criticism is understandable, if only because hospitals across Canada are rationing PPE right now, and PPE is critically important.

But as Evan Solomon of CTV reported, the federal government expects shipments of PPE from China to Canada to be more than was sent out. Co-operation, rather than nationalism, is something Canada needs. Especially since many of our medical supply chains also run through China.

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“At the beginning of the outbreak … the WHO called for global support to China,” said Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer. “And I think it’s a very important public health principle, and that’s that containment at source is the most important thing one must do at the beginning of any outbreak. Because by helping at the initial epicentre you’re going to help the world. You’re going to help Canada as well.”

The idea of American troops at the border was, of course, idiotic. The worst part was that it would have been better than opening it up.

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