It's a Beautiful Day in the neighborhood?

I'm sure everyone of you has had a neighbor at one time or
another that was not quite to your liking. You know the kind;
noisy, obnoxious, makes a mess and doesn't clean it up.  The
kind that lets his kids run rough-shod around the neighborhood
bullying the smaller kids, especially those of a different ethnicity.
and when you say something to him about it, you get bullied in
return.  Say hello to Canada.

Canada, our closest neighbor to the north, you know, the nice
people.  They feel they are being put upon by the United States,
and this administration in particular.  And they are beginning to
say so, not vociferously, by quietly, like nice polite people often
do.  There have been opinion pieces in the Globe and Mail, 
Toronto's daily newspaper, that are questioning the actions of
the President of the United States.  And the Prime Minister,
Justin Trudeau, has been speaking up also.  In an interview with
 Global News, Trudeau opined as to why the US did not give
Canada some advanced notice of the impending strike against
the Iranian leader, Soleimani. After the drone strike, Iran brought
down a Ukrainian jet liner killing over one hundred people with
ties to Canada, many who were Canadian citizens, fifty-seven to
be exact. In the interview Trudeau said, "I think if there were no
escalation recently in the region, those Canadians would be, right
now, home with their families. This is something that happens when
you have conflict and war. Innocents bear the brunt of it."

Trudeau's implicit suggestion that the United States was partly
responsible for the downing of Flight 752, was in his, and his
countrymen's, opinion, a reasonable assumption. This assumption
invited the wrath of Trump's bullies, one of which, the overly
imperious blow-hard, Rush Limbaugh, castigated Canada and
belittled its Prime Minister in particular, calling him 'Blackface
Trudeau'.  Limbaugh pontificated and sneered at Canada, and
well he might.  For Donald J. Trump is hardly 'Mr. Popularity'
with our neighbors to the north.

In a poll, soon to be released by Ekos, it shows the president's
disapproval rate among Canadians to be at an astonishing 86
percent.  It is fair to say that is below most of the despicable
characters in the past, present and surely the future.  Contrast
that with President Obama's disapproval rating of 20 percent
when he left office.  This latest outburst of temper tantrum by
Trump has only added to his poor ratings. And yet, Trump's
talking heads and sycophants cannot understand why Canadians
feel that the escalation in Iran has caused collateral damage to
their country.  Yes, Iran is the obvious culprit in the downing
of the jet liner, and Mr. Trudeau understands that, he knows
Iran is the one who should bear the brunt of Canada's ire.  But
this is just one, and the latest, of Trump's actions that have
impacted our neighbors.

Canadian and Chinese relations have been strained since Canada
arrested an executive of Huawei on a US extradition request.  The
outcome of that was Canadians being detained in China, and a
significant reduction of trade between the two countries and
relations between them in tatters.  Trump washed his hands of
that deal, saying he has no direct responsibility for those actions.

Then there is the matter of the damage done by the NAFTA
negotiations, Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum and the
total destabilizing of the relationship between the two countries
for three years.  Again, Canada was the recipient of Trump's
bullying.  And then there is the matter of the administration's
calling climate change a 'hoax'.  Where the two countries should
be working together to reduce carbon emissions, the Trump
administration is looking at doing away with the regulations
affecting automotive emissions.  There is no wall to keep the
fires in the west from crossing the boarder into Canada.

But all this pales in the face of the loss of life in the current
Iranian escalation.  The CEO of Canadian Maple Leaf Foods,
Michael McCain, angry over this last Trumpian tirade, has
called out the US President as a dangerous irresponsible
narcissist saying, '...his ill-conceived plan to divert attention
from his political woes..." has brought this pain down on the
Canadian people.  He notes had there been a verifiable imminent
threat to the US, there would be far less bitterness toward America.
But that claim has been debunked.

Trump's final claim that "...it really doesn't matter" whether there
was an imminent threat or not, has the Canadians wondering whether
they should follow this president into another endless conflict, or should
they do like Prime Minister Jean Chretien did with President Bush,
and reject going to war with the bellicose Americans.

                              I'm just sayin'.