CBC producer Chris Rands is not famous. The remarks overheard from Justin Trudeau at the NATO summit in Watford, just outside of London in England are now famous.
Rands went through the footage as part of his job and discovered Trudeau's words in the middle of a private conversation with France President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
"Well, yeah. Because the one camera that was capturing all this had a really good microphone. To capture sound at that distance, they're very directional. They sort of point in one way. So you could hear the prime minister because he was facing the microphone. The other leaders had their faces away or to the side, so their voices were sort of drifting off somewhere."
Rands explaining to Carol Off of CBC Radio's As It Happens why you could hear Trudeau but not the other world leaders. This is crucial since Macron, Johnson, Rutte, and later Princess Anne are in the conversation but we don't know what they said. Rands also has to provide context to what we could hear Trudeau saying because the words in themselves don't add up to much.
We are so used to the words "controversy" that we should look at what Trudeau actually said. There was no criticism of policy, just frank observations on being late for being wrapped up in an unscheduled press conference and the surprise unofficial announcement of the new location of the G7 summit.
For that, Trudeau gets labeled as "two-faced." For all the horrible policy that has been aimed at Canada in the last almost 3 years, Trudeau was drawing proverbial blood from biting his tongue.
Let's also be clear about the "two-faced" element. People speak about Donald Trump behind his back because they are afraid to say things to his face. Thin skin is not a shining train of someone in his situation.
Trump abruptly canceled a press conference and left the NATO meeting early in response to the video.
While NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was critical of Trudeau for saying different things in public vs. private, "There's many reasons to criticize Mr. Trump, but criticizing about making someone late to a cocktail party is not one."
The world is laughing at President Trump. They see him for what he really is: dangerously incompetent and incapable of world leadership.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 5, 2019
We cannot give him four more years as commander in chief. pic.twitter.com/IR8K2k54YQ
Joe Biden reinforces Canadian leadership in state visit
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a presidential candidate for 2020, put up an ad pointing to world leaders laughing at Trump. The ad is actually more fair because Trudeau is seen as part of the group.
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Trump has been obsessed with NATO countries reaching defence spending of 2% of GDP. Of the 28 NATO countries, 9 countries are at 2% or higher. The United States, to no one's surprise, is far above and beyond with 3.42%. 4 of those 9 countries are between 2% and 2.05%.
There are 19 countries below the 2% threshold. Canada rank at number 20 with 1.31%. Even though there are 19 NATO countries, Trump singles out Canada every chance he gets.
Could you imagine the Canadian election if the budget priorities were flipped to get close to the 2% figure. Pharmacare is more important to Canadians than the false bravado of defence for the sake of defence. Perhaps the U.S. could cut back to 2.8% and give its citizens a single-payer health care system.
An ideal Canada-U.S. relationship would be full of low-level negotiation on topics such as why the U.S. has suddenly doubled the number of 5-year bans on travellers from Canada. Like the NAFTA 2.0 negotiations, everything is about Canada and not the United States. World affairs require leadership and compromise: in this relationship, all of those are on one side.
photo credit: CBC News
video credit: CBC News
Twitter capture: @JoeBiden
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