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Some Donald Trump fans stopped to take photos of the unexpected sight during their inaugural tour of downtown Washington, DC
“Canada congratulates Donald Trump,” exclaimed one on Sunday as he read a sign atop the Canadian embassy surrounded by giant maple leaf flags on Pennsylvania Avenue.
“You think Justin Trudeau is up there?”
No, there was no premiere. But more than 1,500 people may actually attend Canada’s inauguration day party on Monday.
This year’s event is strange.
The absence of the parade on Pennsylvania Avenue due to bad weather is not the only reason why this will be an atypical party.
It is the first time from the Embassy of Canada open at a place of choice by Capitol Hill in 1989 that there are no formal festivities to witness live from his traditional party.
Another oddity: partygoers will spend the day tensely awaiting a series of potentially damaging executive orders threatened by the star of the day, Trump.
Like throwing a party and wondering if you’re on the menu.
There are countless rumors about what economic penalties Trump might impose: small tariffs? A big tariff with loopholes? Temporary tariff? The process for final imposition of tariffs? Or he will follow through on his most serious threat: full 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
Canada’s ambassador to the United States said she expects some sort of trade penalty from Trump — and the exact form is unclear.
“I hesitate to say, it’s ‘almost certain,’ but most people I talk to think there’s some version of the customs action that’s going to be introduced,” Kirsten Hillman told CBC News in a recent interview.
“Is it on us, is it on others… I don’t know. I hope they are all wrong. But I think we have to be ready for that.”
Donald Trump will be the first US president to be sworn in inside the Capitol instead of outside since Ronald Reagan in 1985. Extreme cold forced the event indoors for the first time in 40 years.
Tariffs afterthought in speech
Trump’s team briefed Republican allies on Capitol Hill on Sunday about a slew of executive orders coming the next day, and it’s unclear where trade fits into that.
AND handful of the American press reports there are no plans for monday mention tariffs. Trump only mentioned tariffs in passing during his speech on Sunday.
At the rally before the inauguration, he spoke at length about other plans for the First Day. He talked about aggressive deportations and historic border crackdowns, and spent more time on gender ideology than trade.
He squeezed in the reference at the very end, just before the Village People closed his set with a celebratory rendition of the song YMCA.
“Conclusively,” Trump said, adding promises to cut taxes, end inflation, raise wages and bring thousands of factories back to the U.S. through tariffs and other policies.
That was it. And now the continent is waiting.
Trump’s return is indeed a historic moment for Canada-US relations, said Asa McKercher, a scholar at the University of St. Francis Xavier in Nova Scotia studying cross-border relations.
The incoming president is threatening the most hostile trade actions this continent has seen in more than 90 years, since the Great Depression, with the infamous Smoot-Hawley tariff, he said.
Those 1930 tariffs destroyed Canadian exports: they hit different products at different rates, but on average about 20 percent points i deleted most of Canada’s wool, livestock and flaxseed are exported to the US
Trump is also the first great American politician in almost 115 years make even semi-serious wisecracks about USA annexed Canadasaid McKercher, who is the Steven K. Hudson Research Chair for Canada-US Relations at StFX’s Brian Mulroney Institute on Government.
“Donald Trump is kind of a throwback to a century ago,” he said. “It’s back to the future, I guess.”
In another way, Trump is an even more abrupt break with history, McKercher said, in his gleeful willingness to poke friendly nations. “It’s outrageous to have a president who so deliberately gives the middle finger to allies,” he said.
The business leader calls for caution
One Canadian business leader said he’s doing his best to focus on what’s within Canada’s control — not what’s outside of it.
“I haven’t spent time worrying about what, where, when, why (Trump’s tariffs will hit),” said Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada.
“It was just a better way to sleep every night.”
What Canada can really control, he said, is strengthening its own economic policy create leverage with Trump, for example by better developing its mining and energy resources.
Hyder also warns Ottawa to be especially cautious about launching retaliatory actions that could deepen domestic damage; like, for example, Canadian threats to introduce a tax on the export of energy products, which Canada also againimports from the USA
“The last thing you want is for our actions to boomerang on Canada,” he said in an interview Sunday while visiting Washington for the inauguration.
We could find out on Monday if there is anything to fight back.
In the meantime, guests will gather for a party at the Canadian Embassy, as has been the case for every inauguration since 1989.
Invitees include provincial leaders, members of the federal government and numerous US politicians and business groups, all welcome to enjoy the bites, including beaver tails.
The embassy did not disclose the cost of the affair, but said it was reimbursed by a number of corporate sponsors.
Continuing the event is in the national interest and the right thing to do, regardless of the unusual threats looming over the continent, McKercher said.
“It’s a little weird,” he said of the circumstances surrounding the party. “But diplomats somehow live in a strange world.”
