Maybe it doesn’t matter if Mike Pence is upset with Justin Trudeau for raising the abortion issue during his courtesy visit to promote the new NAFTA deal.
He is, after all, just the vice-president of the U.S.A., and even former holders were not that impressed with the office. “The vice-presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm spit,” said John Nance Garner, who held the position between 1933-41. Only he didn’t say “spit”.
Still, it seemed ungracious to say the least that Trudeau would discomfit a guest who had come to make amends for past slights by the Trump Administration.
Pence came in peace. He complimented Trudeau on driving a “hard bargain” on the new NAFTA and talked of his intent to “reaffirm a successful partnership”.
There was no mention of Trudeau being “weak and dishonest”, as the president alleged a year ago – far less the prime minister being consigned to a “special place in hell”, as Donald Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro, suggested during the negotiations.
Rarely in the field of international relations have two men shaken hands so often, in so short a period of time, as Trudeau and Pence.
But the prime minister clearly made the calculus that, despite the bonhomie, embarrassing his guest was in his best electoral interests.
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