When Steve Bannon was still President Donald Trump's Chief Strategist, he became fast friends with Gerald Butts, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Principal Secretary. That claim – or as some see it, that accusation – was made last week in an article about Mr. Bannon in the New Yorker magazine.
The magazine described Mr. Bannon and Mr. Butts as new "friends" who "now talk regularly." The American right-wing populist, who formerly ran Breitbart News and has since returned to it, was said to like his Canadian counterpart because he "sees Butts as a sort of left-wing version of himself."
Many Canadians, or at least many politicians, were outraged. New Democratic Leader Tom Mulcair called on the PM's adviser to "immediately disavow" the relationship.
Radwanski: Butts, Bannon and an unexpectedly effective courtship
Okay, let's all calm down and take a step back.
If a top adviser to the President of the United States thinks the top adviser to Canada's PM is a swell guy, then the latter needs to be congratulated, not condemned. He's doing his job. The point of diplomacy, particularly diplomacy with Canada's closest ally, largest trading partner and the most powerful nation on Earth, is to get the other side to like us, trust us and work with us. Yes, even in the Trump era. Especially in the Trump era.
Would Canada be better off if the Trump administration described the PM's closest aide as an enemy? Or if instead of talking regularly, refused to talk to him? Obviously not – even in the Trump era. Especially in the Trump era.
That's why Ottawa has been working so hard to increase contacts with U.S. officials, on both sides of the aisle, across the states and within the administration.
As they say, politics makes for strange bedfellows. That's because politics is the art of getting things done, and getting along, when you don't have the option of simply imposing your will. Crushing those who differ with you? That's the sphere of human activity known as war. Politics is what democratic governments, even those that profoundly disagree, have to engage in. It's what Canada always has to do when trying to get its way with the much bigger United States.
Then there's this: The one verifiable fact in the New Yorker article's four sentences on White House-PMO relations contains one small error, and one larger truth.
The reason Mr. Bannon allegedly thinks of Mr. Butts as a left-wing version of his own populist self is explained this way: "Last year, as the Prime Minister's popularity was in decline, Trudeau pushed through a tax hike on the rich, and it helped him rebound."
The facts aren't quite right – the Liberals ran in 2015 on raising taxes for upper income earners; it wasn't "pushed through" last year. But the point Mr. Bannon seemed to be getting at was that, as a right-wing populist, who in contrast to traditional Republicans favours higher taxes on the wealthy, he learned a few things about populism from his left-leaning Canadian friend.
And when it comes to getting elected, there are similarities between the Trump and Trudeau paths. They shouldn't be overstated, but it's worth noting that neither was expected to take power, and both won with unconventional platforms that realigned the political spectrum.
In the case of Mr. Trump, nearly his entire plaform was made up of impossible promises that had not been thought through, yet which tickled the funny bone of a targeted group of voters – from ripping up trade agreements, to magically conjuring manufacturing jobs, to ending Obamacare without anyone losing health insurance. It's partly why Mr. Trump is having trouble getting anything done in office.
And the Trudeau government's greatest reversals similarly grow out of that time when, on the campaign trial and desperate for oxygen, it oversold a few half-baked goods in an attempt to capture votes. Remember "2015 will be the last election conducted under first-past-the-post"? That promise is now slightly more dead than Mr. Trump's pledge to build a wall, while getting Mexico to pay for it.
On the big issues, however, the Trudeau government and Trump administration are far more different than similar. And that's precisely why the team from 24 Sussex owes some of its high status in the polls to the guy at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
This is just one of the paradoxes of Mr. Trump's presidency: Everyone who works for him ends up diminished. But the reverse is true for those who sit across the table from him, as antagonists or at least non-subservient interlocutors. The contrast with Mr. Trump elevates them.
Which brings us back to the strange bedfellows of politics. Getting close to the Trump administration, while dining out domestically on the sense of difference and distance, is a tricky balance. So far, the Trudeau government continues to find it.