In America's partisan carnival, Justin Trudeau is now on display

Canada's diplomats in the United States have a recurring fear: that our country might become ensnared in America's bitter partisan wars.

Take oil pipelines as an example: Democrats win power and cancel a project, Republicans get back power and reverse the policy, Democrats replace them, and on and on it goes, ad infinitum. It's what happened with Keystone XL.

Now, imagine the entire national government of Canada becoming an object of polarization, disdained and detested by one-half of the major political parties in the United States.

We need not imagine it anymore: A swath of the American public now bubbles with enmity toward Canada's prime minister and delights in mockery.

Justin Trudeau is now a beloved punching bag on Fox News, and Republican politicians have taken their swings — with an unforeseen plot twist being that the political party of former president Donald Trump now accuses Canada of authoritarianism.

A former diplomat who worked in Barack Obama's White House said it's not so much that Americans care about happenings in Canada; it's that they find Canada a useful talking point.

Vaccine mandates. Cancel culture. Protest crackdowns. All are central issues in America's domestic debates. And in the court of public opinion this week, Canada was Exhibit A.

Former White House official Brett Bruen said he wouldn't be surprised to see Trudeau appearing in Republican election ads this year, as the party campaigns on easing COVID-19 restrictions.

"He's been dragged into a really dirty fight here in the U.S.," said Bruen, who worked for the White House on diplomatic branding.

"In many ways, [Trudeau has] become the poster child for political leaders trying to impose public health measures on their citizens."

Republicans see these issues as a winner

The context is Republicans feeling growing optimism that loosening restrictions is a political winner — a club to pound Democrats with in this year's midterms.

With perfect timing, in rolled the convoys. The three-week-long protests against vaccine mandates and COVID-19 restrictions got hours of coverage on conservative cable news and prompted talk of copycat convoys to Washington to protest President Joe Biden.

When Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act, the same cable shows pivoted to another favourite storyline, cancel culture — and again, Trudeau was the villain.

WATCH | Ottawa protests front and centre in U.S. culture wars:

Ottawa protests front and centre in U.S. culture wars

3 years ago

Duration 1:59

Anti-COVID-19 restriction protests in Ottawa are front and centre of the U.S. culture wars, with right-wing media and politicians voicing their support. The response has helped a new online fundraiser raise millions of dollars in a few days.

They argued that this was worse than Trump's allegedly authoritarian response to Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. Never mind his attempt to undo the 2020 election.

One conservative writer, Rich Lowry, argued that one thing Republicans love about this story is it unites all the factions of their fractious party — from the small-government ideological establishment to the elite-disdaining Trumpian populists who can all find something to loathe in Ottawa.

So what does the actual American public, as a whole, think of Canada's convoy protest against COVID-19 measures?

What American opinion says about Canada's convoy

Well, it's polarized, of course. According to a new poll, it's not perfectly split down the middle, but close to it, in the valley of public opinion where so many American debates go to die.

An Economist/YouGov poll of 1,500 Americans from Feb. 12 to 15 found that nearly 80 per cent of Americans had heard of the convoys, which, again, is an extraordinary number for a Canadian news event.

Respondents were asked about truck drivers protesting vaccine mandates — and in the process blocking traffic, including on a vital trade artery.

Forty per cent replied that they supported such protests, and 44 per cent opposed them. That included 71 per cent support among Republicans and 18 per cent among Democrats.

Do Americans support or oppose requiring COVID-19 vaccination for truck drivers to cross the border? Forty-six per cent said yes, 38 no.

When protesters block public access to roadways, should law enforcement use force to remove them? Here there was a bigger gap: 43 per cent said yes, 28 per cent said no.

But really, when it comes to which side of the U.S. political spectrum revelled in this event, it was no contest: While the Democrats and the White House said almost nothing about Trudeau invoking the Emergencies Act, the Republican ecosystem sprouted thickets of indignation.

Fox News's top-rated host, Tucker Carlson, ran a segment headlined: "Trudeau has declared Canada a dictatorship." A segment on the same network on Friday began with the host saying: "Canadian dictator Justin Trudeau ..." 

'Dictator,' 'ass,' 'Mooselini'

Sen. Marsha Blackburn accused Trudeau of abusing his power. Sen. John Kennedy appeared to refer to the prime minister as an ass. The notorious firebrand, Marjorie Taylor Greene, called him a dictator, too.

Trudeau's old quote about admiring the power of China's dictatorship resurfaced in Americans' social media feeds, including from Sen. Ted Cruz.

Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a reference to the prime minister as "Mooselini." A Trump ally compared the Canadian prime minister, unfavourably, to Vladimir Putin.

It wasn't just Americans criticizing the prime minister.

El Salvador's president, accused regularly of autocratic tendencies himself, seized on the news from Canada, tweeting: "Are these the people who like to give lessons to other countries about democracy and freedom? ... Your credibility on these topics is now worth 0."

But this convoy issue hits close to home in the U.S. Americans represented about half of the donors who sent money to the convoy organizers, according to leaked data from GiveSendGo.

And similar protests are planned in the U.S.

In one Fox News show, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte called what's happening in Canada frightening to people who love freedom. But when asked what he'd say if these convoys spread across the U.S., he offered some nuance.

"I support the ones doing that peacefully and not blocking transportation," he said.

A former high-level Canadian diplomat, asked Friday about recent events, expressed little concern about the longer-term implications for Canada-U.S. relations.

He conceded that Trudeau dealing with Republicans could get awkward — and it could get more awkward if Republicans regain Congress later this year.

But he said the longer-term bilateral challenges remain: modernizing defence co-operation, energy disputes, trade.

In America's partisan carnival, Trudeau won't be a permanent display. The culture war always finds new clickbait. And it showed signs of happening on Friday.

Tucker Carlson planned to lead his show with Trudeau's protest crackdown, which he called the most egregious human-rights violations by a Western government in memory and the end of Canadian democracy.

But he paused. He then announced he'd gotten his hands on a flattering biography of progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and he had someone read excerpts in a British accent to mock it.

Another Fox News show this week featured Tammy Giuliani, the weeping owner of an Ottawa gelato shop who received verbal abuse for donating to the convoy.

The host, Jesse Watters, completed the segment by saying: "Tammy for prime minister of Canada. Next: Hunter Biden, haunted by a stripper."