Canada remains silent on Trump’s condemnation, Trudeau pledges to work with any US leader

The Canadian government remained silent Friday after a New York court found Donald Trump guilty of a crime, despite repeated attempts by Liberals to draw equivalencies between the former U.S. president and the Canadian conservative leader.

A Canadian pollster says the Liberals’ strategy may not help the party’s political fortunes, whatever the verdict.

Trump, who is expected to lead the Republicans in the next US elections, was found guilty on Thursday of all 34 counts in his hush-hush criminal trial.

The Prime Minister’s Office said it had no comment on the verdict, while Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said only that Canada would work with whoever leads the United States after this election. autumn.

“The United States is not only our neighbor, but also our closest friend and ally,” his office wrote in a statement Friday.

“Our government has worked successfully with both Republican and Democratic administrations, and this will continue. »

The muted response to the condemnation contrasts with the way Liberals have invoked Trump in the House, aiming to draw parallels with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and accuse him of what they call “backdoor” politics. ‘American’ and ‘Trump North’. tactical.

The problem for the Liberals is that they are not much more popular among Canadians than Trump himself.

Abacus Data surveyed 1,500 Canadians in January, who rated Trump a three out of 10 on a favorability scale.

That compares to 3.5 for Trudeau, 4.9 for U.S. President Joe Biden and 5.1 for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

“It makes the dynamic very difficult for liberals, because people don’t like (Trudeau) almost as much as they don’t like Trump,” he said.

Trudeau has little to gain politically from talking about Trump’s verdict, Sheppard said, and he would likely reap even less if Trump returned to the White House.

“He really has an uphill battle ahead to work in his favor,” Sheppard said.

Conservatives say the Liberals are using the Poilievre-Trump comparisons to distract from the economic and housing issues facing Canadians, two issues Sheppard said the Conservatives have used to soar in the polls.

Shepperd said that about 30 percent of people who signal their intention to vote Conservative say they did not vote Conservative in the last election.

Among Canadian respondents who said in a recent poll that they intended to vote Conservative, Sheppard said, about 30 percent said they did not vote Conservative in the last election.

He said Liberals could try to reduce this new support if they can tie Poilievre to Trump.

“It’s difficult to connect the dots, but we saw some impact on voting intentions,” he said.

Still, Sheppard said liberals could face even greater headwinds if Trump ultimately wins the election.

“In a poll we did earlier this year, there was broad consensus that Poilievre would do a better job with Trump than Trudeau, and that’s a pretty consistent finding we’ve seen so far,” he said. he declared.

“If liberals actually establish a strong connection between Trump and Poilievre, it could end up hurting them in November. »

Members on all sides of the House largely avoided commenting publicly on Trump’s verdict Thursday.

Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen posted a video from the Tonight Show on social media, which featured a video of Trump saying “I fought the law and the law won.”

“This. Is. Golden,” Garretsen posted Thursday on X.

NDP MP Charlie Angus, who is not seeking re-election, posted the phrase “Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.” on

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