Biden's poor debate performance renews questions about Trump, Trudeau and Canada's future
CBC
U.S. President Joe Biden's uneven — and at times incoherent — debate performance Thursday reportedly has triggered panic in Democratic circles as it could result in an insurmountable lead for Donald Trump and a Republican victory in November's vote.
It also has observers on this side of the border wondering what a second Trump presidency could mean for Canada and how political leaders here will handle the sometimes volatile former president if he wins again.
Polls suggest Trump was already leading Biden before Thursday's debate in the six battleground states that are expected to decide the presidential election — Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Some voters have simply shrugged off Trump's criminal conviction and his association with the Jan. 6 siege on Capitol Hill.
Like the Toronto-St. Paul's voters who backed a Conservative in the long-time Liberal stronghold due to frustration with the current state of affairs, some Americans have turned away from Biden as the country grapples with inflation and surging home prices.
The ongoing influx of migrants at the southern border has also been a sore spot for some U.S. voters.
Biden's debate performance Thursday did nothing to silence critics who maintain he's too old and infirm to lead the most powerful country on earth.
A second Trump presidency could be very consequential for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his own political future.
Trudeau has presented himself as a defender of the rules-based international order — a sort of foil to the isolationist "America First" Trump and his disdain for multilateral institutions like NATO.
In a 2016 speech before Parliament, former U.S. president Barack Obama famously praised Trudeau as the leader to carry the torch of liberalism at a time when anti-democratic forces were supposedly on the march.
There's some hope in pro-Trudeau circles that a chaotic Trump presidency could make Canadians sour on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. The Liberals have repeatedly tried to brand Poilievre as Trump-like figure because of his embrace of populist politics.
Some Liberals think that if Canadians recoil at a second Trump victory, they could choose Trudeau in the 2025 general election as a steady hand on the tiller during a period of uncertainty.
Dan Arnold, a former staffer in the Prime Minister's Office who led the Trudeau Liberals' research program during their 2015, 2019, and 2021 election victories, said a second Trump presidency could consume news headlines and reverse Canadians' current appetite for change.
"I think you could make the argument that, if the world is moving in a direction that is very scary, that is very populist, that is very right-wing, we don't want Canada to move in that same direction," he said in an interview.
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