Judd Gregg: Oh no, Canada!

You cannot beat good theatre.

This is especially true when President Trump is involved, when it is always good theatre.

We have as an example the recent G-7 gathering in Canada.

Fortunately, a late spring date was picked for this event.

{mosads}An earlier date would have involved heavy coats and warm hats. Canada can be cold. It is an entire country that is north Minnesota which, as we all know, is often very cold.

 But come together the leaders did, under the tutelage of the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

Remember that Canada, though it has a great deal of land, has a population roughly the same size as the states of New York and Connecticut combined.

It has been a central player on the world stage only occasionally.

This point has not been lost on Trump or his aides.

Trudeau is a young but enthusiastic practitioner of the political correctness favored by the most ardent professors of McGill University, the Harvard of Canada.

He chose an agenda for the event that paid little attention to the issues that actually affect world economics. Instead, it reflected his purposes and those of the world’s liberal elites, whose approval he seeks.

It was understandable that Trump would not only find the whole exercise to be of questionable worth but would be late for some of its staged events.

This may have been poor manners, yes — but it was also defensible in light of the superciliousness of Trudeau.

Upon leaving the Canadian theatre, Trump had one advisor proclaim that Trudeau should “have a special place in hell.” 

This may have come as a surprise to most Canadians, as the country is essentially too cold to tolerate the flames of hell.

The remark, by trade and economic advisor Peter Navarro, was later withdrawn. But it seemed as if he and Trump actually did mean that Trudeau is on a strange journey — and, in their opinion, so is Canada.

The president has a rather dismissive view of our neighbor to the north, it seems. He was also more focused on his later trip to Singapore, where he would meet another leader from a country to the north.

Considering this obvious disdain for Trudeau and Canada by the president and his trusted team, led by Navarro, it would not be surprising if they considered proposing to our neighbors a better plan for their future.

Here is a course the president and his people may want to suggest:

First, the president under the guidance of his most thoughtful counsel, could suggest that Quebec, which has never been that comfortable with the rest of Canada, actually leave.

This is what many of the secessionists in Quebec have wanted for years.

It would also make a nice nation for Trudeau to lead, freeing the rest of Canada from his political correctness and socialist inclinations.

Then Trump, under Navarro’s tutelage, might recommend that the eastern provinces — New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, which have always been treated as orphan provinces by the rest of Canada — could form one state and join the Union.

They would be a strong addition to our country. It is a beautiful part of North America with a great many hard working people who need a much better economy.

The idea should be especially pleasing to the president since these provinces also have two of the finest golf courses in the world: Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs in Nova Scotia.

The western provinces — in other words, everything west of Quebec — could form a new country also.

Since the cities of Vancouver and Victoria, as well as the entire province of Saskatchewan, are essentially left of San Francisco, it would make sense to first make a trade or a “deal.”

The new nation would get all the above places plus Portland, Ore. But we would get Ontario.

This would create a place where all those actors like Robert De Niro, who want to leave America because Donald Trump is president, could go and be happy.

Unfortunately, this approach would also succeed in changing a nation and people who have stood by our nation year in and year out, through good and bad, asking little in return, no matter whom their prime minister was.

In this world of disruption and antagonism, it is unusual for us, the United States, to have friends like Canada and its people.

This is a point missed by Navarro and others in our White House.

Treating Canada so dismissively, no matter what view the White House takes of its leaders, is not the best way to keep such friends.

Judd Gregg (R) is a former governor and three-term senator from New Hampshire who served as chairman and ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, and as ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations subcommittee.