Trudeau's On A 'Leadership-Look-At-Me! Roll

"We think that the best way to sequence the discussion is to start with like-minded people, and that's whom (sic) we have invited and they're coming."
"Those who believe that a rules-based system is in the interests of the international community will meet to come up with a consensus that we will then move out into nations who might have been more resistant."
"You want your major trading partners to admit that you need a dispute settlement mechanism."
Jim Carr, International Trade Diversification Minister

"The reality is, I believe, that we should be keeping our closest allies as close as we can."
"If  part of the challenges we have with this fragile environment involves the United States, if that's a concern, that we should have them at the meetings."
MP Dean Allison, Conservative opposition trade critic 

"What's going on with the WTO [World Trade Organization] is a long-standing set of complaints by the United States."
"These are not new complaints, it's just that the Trump people are willing to throw the Molotov cocktail to do something about it."
"By and large, those are rich countries [the 13 invitees to the Canadian conference set to discuss the WTO]. It's not going to be entirely a waste of time, but is it going to jump-start anything, or is it going to upset the U.S. administration and prompt them to withdraw?"
"No, I don't think so."
Greg Anderson, political science professor, international political economy expert, University of Alberta

"[The] impasse of the appointment of the appellate body members threatens to bring the whole dispute settlement system to a halt."
"Aging trade rules need to be updated urgently to respond to the needs of the modern global economy; there is a divergence about the priorities."
"The challenges facing the multilateral trading system cannot be attributed to any single cause or any single country. However, the combination of disruption and paralysis has begun to erode respect for rules-based trade, and the institutions that govern it, paving the way for trade-distorting policies."
Canadian discussion paper

Trump and Trudeau met in Washington in March; perhaps Trump's facial gesture meant something other than we thought then.  Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP / Getty

So, then, Trudeau et al are set on a deliberate course to upstage, ignore and insult the current U.S. administration through a pointed and very obvious snub, one that directly targets none other than U.S. President Donald Trump whom Trudeau has decided to no longer obnoxiously ingratiate himself with in grovelling obsequiousness, but to challenge on the world stage because, as everyone knows "Canada is back". This is of course, the same discerning, politically-brilliant mind that scorched the previous Harper Conservative government for cutting diplomatic ties with Iran.

Trudeau infamously claimed that it would be far better to re-engage with the Islamic Republic of Iran, to overlook its malign presence on the world stage as an inciter of terrorism that lavishes funding on its various terror proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Shiite militias that have joyfully gone out of their way to wreak havoc and death from Israel to Syria, Lebanon to Yemen and beyond into the international arena. How else, does his logic go, have a positive influence on Iran other than to diplomatically engage?

Now, on the global trade issues so vital to countries the world over, the Liberal government has determined the best way forward is to be a leader and push the greatest economic and political power on Earth to the side and get on with things. Setting aside, of course, that all the free trade agreements that Canada has, with Europe, with Pacific nations, with Colombia and others combined, fail to come anywhere close to the volume of trade between Canada and the United States. Large, powerful nations are always bullies, and the U.S. always has been all of that.

Now that it also has a chief executive to whom crass bullying comes natural, allies of the U.S. hardly know what to make of their relationship with it, but to somehow come to the conclusion that a smaller, weaker economy can, without dire consequences, tweak the American trade nose, represents the ultimate in reckless stupidity. Absent trade with the U.S., Canada's economy would shrivel. Trump may claim apoplectically his rage over fantasy-perceived Canada 'taking advantage' of the U.S. even while the reverse is true, but his volatile character is not one to be taunted.

In his own inimitable way, Justin Trudeau is every bit the charlatan that Donald Trump is, simply that the flavour is left with the former and right with the latter, in every sense. Fundamentally they're one of a kind, equal matches in egotism and hubris. Trump is a leader, his position in the world and on the world stage ensures that; Trudeau wants to be a leader on the world stage; his position in Canada inflates his self-regard to enable his belief that he is one such leader.

Visualizing himself and Canada leading the world in discussions on the future role of the WTO transcends common sense, with Canada's relatively niggling economy and weak leadership, along with its severely fractured politics. Canada, under the pretense of 'consulting' its G7 partners pictures itself leading the pack. Bearing in mind there are 160 member-countries dependent on the WTO to govern trade rules internationally and adjudicate trade disputes.

Australia, Brazil, Chile, the European Union, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore and Switzerland have been invited to share two days of talks in Ottawa. Among whom there will be no representative of the United States. But all is not lost, for Canada will be there, Canada will lead the discussions, Canada chairs the meeting, Canada is back!

A sign of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is seen on their headquarters on September 21, 2018 in Geneva.   FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images