Word: trudeau
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Canada's Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau has made it his policy to counter the "overpowering presence" of the U.S. by underscoring Ottawa's political independence, particularly in foreign affairs. Last year he cut Canada's NATO contingent in Europe in half and established diplomatic relations with Peking, and last May he signed a protocol in Moscow providing for annual consultation with the Soviet Union...
...surcharge, if it is maintained for a year, will cost the country $900 million in exports and 90,000 jobs-the equivalent of 900,000 in the U.S. Yet unemployment was already running at 6.5% or 455,000 jobs, a higher rate than in the U.S. In Trudeau's words, Canada stands to be "more hurt than any other country" by Washington's trade moves. As a result, U.S.-Canadian relations have sunk to what may be their lowest point since Ottawa's Tories won a 1911 election on the slogan "No truck nor trade with...
...Trudeau summed up the prevailing mood: "They don't seem to realize what they are doing to Canadians. If they do realize what they are doing and if it becomes apparent that they just want us to be sellers of natural resources to them and buyers of their manufactured products, we will have to reassess fundamentally our relations with them, trading, political and otherwise...
Washington of course denies any such intent, although U.S. officials do concede that Canada was hit by a truck that was heading elsewhere-namely to Japan and Western Europe. For his part, Trudeau has turned aside suggestions from the opposition New Democratic Party that Ottawa slap a retaliatory export tax on natural gas, oil and minerals needed in the U.S., or restrict dividend payments to U.S. parent companies. He has settled on a milder response: a bill, passed by Parliament two weeks ago, setting up an $80 million kitty to aid hard-hit firms in maintaining their employment rolls...
...result has been a growing irritation on both sides. Trudeau may face a general election next year, and any party might find it tempting to ride to power on anti-Americanism-directed largely at U.S. corporations' $17 billion of direct investment in Canada. Perhaps some of that feeling will dissipate when the surcharge is removed, if it does not remain in effect too long. In addition, Nixon plans to visit Ottawa next spring; the trip could serve, as did his meeting with Emperor Hirohito in Anchorage, as a symbolic reaffirmation of U.S. good will. But such is the disrepair...