Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland delivered a solemn and cautionary response to the decision by neo-fascist demagogue Donald "Rump" Trump to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, and his ambivalence toward commitments to the western alliance. It's a powerful message about the opportunities and influence lost when the U.S. turns inward. Here's an excerpt, but read the whole address:
"As I have argued, Canada believes strongly that this stable, predictable international order has been deeply in our national interest. And we believe it has helped foster peace and prosperity for our southern neighbours, too.Rump is more than a laughingstock. He's chosen to set the U.S. on a course of isolation and decline.
Yet it would be naive or hypocritical to claim before this House that all Americans today agree. Indeed, many of the voters in last year's presidential election cast their ballots, animated in part by a desire to shrug off the burden of world leadership. To say this is not controversial: it is simply a fact.
Canada is grateful, and will always be grateful, to our neighbour for the outsized role it has played in the world. And we seek and will continue to seek to persuade our friends that their continued international leadership is very much in their national interest—as well as that of the rest of the free world.
Yet we also recognize that this is ultimately not our decision to make. It is a choice Americans must make for themselves."
