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LETTER: Use brains, not brawn, in fight against Trump tariffs

Want to fight back? Start by fixing the border problem
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Quit picking an 'unwinnable fight' with U.S. President Donald Trump, this writer says.

Editor,

Canada and the U.S. have a shared problem of unvetted migrants and drugs flowing across our borders.  President Trump pointed this out throughout his election campaign, yet our arrogant PM Trudeau ignored this, and then went to Mar-a-Lago trying to charm Trump into not following through on his plan to impose tariffs on Canada, if Canada didn't clean up our side of the problem.  Of course, Donald Trump was not impressed with Trudeau's whining that tariffs would ruin Canada.  

The obvious, common sense thing to do is to fix the problem.  Instead, our premiers (with the exception of Alberta's Danielle Smith who wisely decided to take action) behave like belligerent school boys with an "I'll show him" attitude.  They talk of retaliation as their first option. It should be the last option.  A politically mature attitude would be to strengthen the border and stop the fentanyl traffic, as we are being asked to do.  

Instead, Premier Eby says "we will not surrender."  Then behave like a responsible adult and fix the problem instead of picking an unwinnable fight. You don't have to like President Trump, just do your duty to keep Canada safe.  

It is not the time to "play hardball" (as was suggested by a writer last week), but the time to cooperate with our closest ally and trading partner.  Time to use diplomacy, negotiation skills, brains instead of brawn, and fix the problem.  Stop with the inflammatory rhetoric and the Trump Derangement Syndrome.  Just get over yourselves.

Lorill Drummund, White Rock