OTTAWA—U.S. President Donald Trump’s annexation threats should be met with determination to preserve this country’s independence at any cost, says former prime minister Stephen Harper.
Speaking Tuesday in Ottawa at the launch of his latest history book, “Flags of Canada,” Harper welcomed a surge in Canadian nationalism including, he said, from the current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Harper, co-founder of the federal Conservative Party of Canada who now runs a business and investment consulting firm, said he has lately told business people seeking advice about “what we do about the current situation” that “there is real risk here, and real opportunity also” in Trump’s threats, adding he hoped Canadians “share my view.”
“And if I was still prime minister, I would be prepared to impoverish the country and not be annexed, if that was the option we’re facing,” Harper said to an invitation-only audience.
“Now, because I do think that if Trump were determined, he could really do wide structural and economic damage, but I wouldn’t accept that,” said Harper. “I would accept any level of damage to preserve the independence of the country.”
“Important in that is to have a plan of how we would reorient our economy, so we would recover that prosperity again, and not just solve the damage,” he added.
Harper, whose book and presentation outlined the evolution of Canada’s modern maple leaf flag, emphasized that “our history, our identity and our cultures are worth preserving.”
Harper’s remarks, which prompted enthusiastic applause, came the day after Trump signed an executive order to slap 25 per cent tariffs on global imports of steel and aluminum, including from Canada, effective March 12. Trudeau calls the tariffs “unjustified,” and vows Canada will respond if it comes to that. Trump’s other massive threat — a 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian products, with a lower 10 per cent surcharge on energy — still hangs over this country, temporarily delayed as Ottawa tries to persuade the U.S. president the tariffs will hurt American consumers and businesses first and foremost.
Harper did not comment directly on the tariff threats, or whether or how Canada should retaliate, but the Trudeau government has vowed that “all options” are on the table when it comes to its response to the U.S.
During a question-and-answer session, the former prime minister said he doesn’t often “weigh in” on national affairs, but he did not avoid the political elephant in the room: Trump’s talk of making Canada a 51st state, which the U.S. president has repeatedly and insistently raised in public and in private.
The outbreak of nationalism and patriotism it has sparked north of the border has even re-framed the political discourse in the Liberal leadership race to replace Trudeau, and the broader strategy of the Opposition Conservatives.
Harper is one of five former prime ministers who signed a joint statement released Tuesday to “applaud” the “national spirit” shown by Canadians in the face of Trump’s “threats and insults.”
“We call on our fellow Canadians to show the flag as never before,” on Saturday, national “Flag Day” this year. The former prime ministers, which include Joe Clark, Kim Campbell, Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin and Harper, said “The five of us come from different parties. We’ve had our share of battles in the past. But we all agree on one thing: Canada, the true north, strong and free, the best country in the world, is worth celebrating and fighting for.”
“Canadians have never been flag wavers like Americans,” Harper said Tuesday during his book launch at the headquarters of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, which collaborated on its publication.
But, he said, this country has had passionate debates over its flags, starting with the Union Jack, then the Red Ensign, and leading up to the divisive public and political debate over the adoption of the single red maple leaf as the national emblem.
For generations, Canadians, particularly anglophones, identified with the country’s British heritage, culture, parliamentary and political traditions, Harper said, and as such saw themselves very distinctly as non-American, right up until at least the 1940s. He suggested that strong sense of distinct identity is diminished in younger generations who grew up in an internet age, in a more open world, with more open borders, yet Trump’s declarations that he would seek to annex Canada as a 51st state have stirred an unmistakable national pride.
Harper’s comments, tinged with humorous shots at past political debates, were mainly apolitical, although he did take a few passing pokes at Trudeau, the Liberal leader who beat him, including when he said he was glad to see Trudeau embrace Canadian nationalistic pride.
(Trudeau was quoted telling The New York Times in 2015, shortly after he defeated Harper, that, ‘‘There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada.” The American newspaper was the first print media to get a sit-down interview with the then-new prime minister. ‘‘There are shared values — openness, respect, compassion, willingness to work hard, to be there for each other, to search for equality and justice. Those qualities are what make us the first post-national state,’’ Trudeau said.)
In talking about why John Diefenbaker clung to the Red Ensign for so long even when it was clear that Canadians had an appetite for a new modern national flag, Harper observed that politicians are sometimes reluctant to give up on things they feel are important, noting that Trudeau remains “passionate” about a carbon tax, even though his party is “walking away from it” — a reference to Trudeau’s would-be successors. Leading Liberal candidates Mark Carney and Chrystia Freeland have said they would ditch the consumer carbon price policy.
