, 06.02.2019 08:52 AM

Highly-scientific poll™️: Obama and Trudeau go pubbing

So, Barack Obama, the best president ever, was in Ottawa. I was there at the same time. Do the math.

Okay, no, I didn’t meet him or see him when I was in the Town That Fun Forgot, but Justin Trudeau did. The met at a pub. I am shocked, but apparently someone was there and able to take a photo.

I’m torn on this one. With the new NAFTA still unratified, and the Mango Mussolini going after another NAFTA partner (Mexico), is now a good time to raise the ire of the Unpresident?

Then again, Trump doesn’t get to vote in the Canadian election – now a bit over 100 days away – and Obama is much-loved by Canadians. So, perhaps it was shrewd electoral move by Prime Minister Chewbacca Socks.

There’s a third possibility, too: Barack Obama is a former President of the United States, and it would be unCanadian – and quite rude – for our top guy not to meet with him when he’s here.

What thinkest thou, O WK Dot Com readers? Vote now, vote often!


[polldaddy poll=10333770]

27 Comments

  1. Mark says:

    Good move by JT. They got on well when PBO was in office, Canadians like PBO, as it reminds us of the time not long ago when we actually had a mutually beneficial relationship with the US, and it can only help JT. Besides, orange man erupts at the slightest thing and there is no rhyme nor reason to his eruptions.

    • Pedant says:

      I don’t see how our relationship with the US then was more beneficial than it is now considering Obama strung Canada along for 8 years on the Keystone file under the false guise of eco-purity while simultaneously pumping up the far more destructive fracking industry. Leftist Canadians acting like teenaged girls at a 1964 Beatles concert over a former President who was disdainful and dismissive to our country.

      • PK says:

        Trudeau supported keystone, I think? Aside from that they’re friends – they share values, there’s an election around the corner, and this is symbolic, they figure, of the choice we’ll make. Obama worked with Harper for 8 (?) yrs, and they’re not having lunch, so I guess the point is that Obama wanted to have lunch with Trudeau, but his relationship with Harper still needs time to heal, so they didn’t have lunch; it’s too soon. Meanwhile, Trudeau and Trump have worked out trade deals, they have a good relationship – even if their values aren’t the same, they’re friendly enough to re-negotiate NAFTA.

  2. Christian says:

    Or, maybe, it could just be that they are actually, you know, friends who hadn’t seen eachother for a while?

  3. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    It’s entirely irrelevant politically. Trump has his master plan for us and its coming post CUSMA ratification by Canada. Expect Lopez Obrador to put up a fight with the distinct possibility that USMCA ends up only as a ratified bilateral between the United States and Canada. And then will come the return of U.S. tariffs against Canada, likely almost across the board. In a word, it’s called leverage and that’s Trump’s mindset as regards Canada. So, Trudeau, Freeland and MacNaughton are about to start sweating.

  4. the real Sean says:

    There is no reason for anyone to meet with PM Zoolander.

  5. Quentin Enns says:

    Trudeau is getting prepared for his next UN position

  6. Fred from BC says:

    Not a smart move, coming on the heels of the Mike Pence abortion comments. Why insult a guy who is ostensibly here to offer an olive branch over the recent NAFTA unpleasantness? What purpose did it serve to use that meeting as an excuse to bring up a non-issue that you are desperately trying to make into a club to use on the Conservatives, when you know that no one is buying your spin anyway? It was a no-win situation, and anyone with any political judgement whatsoever would have known that.

    As for Obama…it seems that he is more well though of in Canada than he is in the US now that his actions and policies are being seen in hindsight (some say that he set race relations back two decades, and his economic achievements also weren’t anything to brag about ). History won’t be as kind to him as he seems to think.

    That said, at least the meeting was in a pub and not any official government residence. Perhaps Trump will ignore it.

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Fred,

      That’s probably right, history will judge Obama more severely but can you just imagine what they’ll also say about Trump? Frankly, I’d rather be Obama.

  7. Mark D says:

    While it may or may not enrage President Trump, I feel Trudeau pubbing with Obama is a friendly personal and diplomatic courtesy.

    On the other hand, Trudeau using NAFTA negotiations to lecture Vice-President Pence over abortion is much more likely to backfire politically in terms of declining Canada-U.S. relations right now.

    Not that I believe Trump really cares one way or another issue–I suspect his social conservatism on this issue is probably political.

    But Trump already dislikes Trudeau for presenting himself publicly as a male feminist. Moreover, Trump has made it clear to the GOP’s inner circle that he chose Pence to “run the government” day-to-day, while Trump expanded his reality tv brand into politics.

    • Fred from BC says:

      “Not that I believe Trump really cares one way or another issue–I suspect his social conservatism on this issue is probably political. ”

      Agreed. He is already on record long ago as being ambivalent on abortion and supportive of gay rights (he was, after all, a Democrat for about 30 years). What irks me most about Trudeau’s remarks is that he doesn’t seem to realize that this is a *state* issue, not a federal one. Mike Pence has nothing to do with Georgia’s recent abortion law. Nothing.

      • Ronald O'Dowd says:

        Fred,

        Trudeau knows perfectly well it’s a state issue. He simply wants to score imaginery points against Scheer and Pence was a perfect semi-defenseless foil. Scheer is on the record as doing nothing if he wins but the Liberals see it as a wedge issue. Of course, they’re dreaming if they think abortion will save Trudeau’s bacon.

        • The Doctor says:

          The last time the Liberals tried really hard to make abortion an issue in a federal election was when Dithers was leader. It didn’t end well. It smacked of desperation then, and it does now.

  8. Jim Renaud says:

    Irrelevant meets incapable. who cares?

  9. Walter says:

    I believe there are several answers here.
    If your goal is to improve the Canadian economy – which having good relations with the USA would achieve, then you don’t meet with the former President (who campaigned against the current Prez.).
    If your goal is to attract back low information voters that have no clue what’s going on – then off course you meet with him. Trudeau knows his electoral chances rest with attracting back as many low-information voters as possible. They were the huge voting block that gave Trudeau the win in 2015.

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Walter,

      Looks like the LIV is responding to pollsters these days. Not good for Trudeau.

    • Pedant says:

      That might be why Obama likes hanging out with Trudeau too. Trudeau is a low information person. He can deliver lots of flattery without any intellectual challenge. Much better than that meanie Harper.

    • PK says:

      Who are the low-information voters? Could you describe the kind of people you are referring to? I’m not familiar with the phrase “low-information voter”. Also, who are the high-information voters? If somebody is a low-information voter, then there must be high-information voters. Also, I’m curious as to where the relevant information comes from. To avoid being a low-information voter which sources are best referenced to become a high-information voter?

      • Low information votes are the ones that never watch or read the news and don’t have opinions on many issues.

        They are the most likely to vote for different parties and are usually the ones who decide elections.

        • PK says:

          Conservatives prey on people just like that – difference being they’re extremely opinionated, even though the least informed.

  10. Jack McLeod says:

    I didn’t know you were so “OLD” that you can claim that Obama Hussein Obama was the best American president ever.There lots you compare him with, starting with George Washington, etal!

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Jack,

      Warren’s a good Democrat and far too young to have experienced anyone pre-Nixon.

      I put Obama second, behind Reagan. Just loved Ronnie! Clinton third.

  11. Karl-Milton Marx-Friedman says:

    Overheard at the pub: “Yeah, I’m so much happier as an ex-President. So you win either way this Fall.”

    • Fred from BC says:

      “Overheard at the pub: “Yeah, I’m so much happier as an ex-President. So you win either way this Fall.””

      That’s a job that really appears to age a person quickly.

  12. Fred from BC says:

    “did we miss the Michael Cooper poll.. re that eminent statesman’s readings from the manifesto of a murderous sack of seething pus”

    You understand that he was responding to a Liberal attempting to smear Conservatives by connecting us to terrorism, right? And that he only quoted the guy saying that he had no respect for Conservatives (thus proving Suri to be a liar)?

    This is just typical Liberal identity politics, nothing more. It just blew up in their faces this time. It’s not at all different from their response to Jody Wilson-Raybould recording Michael Wernick threatening her: they pretended the threat wasn’t even there by screaming loud and long about her “unethical tape recording”. Didn’t work then…won’t work now…

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