Mandryk: Moe’s beefed-up border security needed for non-Trump reasons

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Beefing up Canadian border security is a good idea because it’s in our interests.

Even president-elect Donald Trump has moved past the specious notion that lax Canadian border control allowing bad people into the U.S. was reason enough for imposing 25 per cent tariffs on all imports from Canada and Mexico.

There’s no point in trying to appease Trump by doing this. Frankly, there’s little anyone here can do to appease him.

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According to the tottering incoming president, the reasons for the tariffs are now past unfavourable-to-the-U.S. trade agreements and the lack of a needed American external revenue service to enforce such tariff protectionism. America’s first president, George Washington, created the ERS in 1789.

There is no logic. There is no reason here. There is only bullying threats spewed, suggesting takeovers of Greenland and the Panama Canal by force, or making Canada the 51st state through economic coercion.

Like most things Trump does, this knee-jerk nonsense allows him to flex and preen before his ill-informed masses, who now mistake a political show for effective leadership.

Political self-indulgence is also what led Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and company to visit Mar-a-Lago, only to return, tail between her legs, with the unfortunate news that she couldn’t convince Trump to either change his mind on the overall tariffs or even get a sweet, separate deal for Alberta oil.

To his credit, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has avoided such political showmanship, generally opting to either be quiet or quietly do things behind the scenes. Or, in the case of the border security announcement, to make the best of a bad situation.

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Moe was in Ottawa on Wednesday to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other Canadian premiers to hammer out a collective strategy to deal with the troubling incoming U.S. administration. This seems much, much wiser than premiers going off half-cocked to Mar-a-Lago.

You might not hear much out of Moe, but that’s probably a good thing.

He has quietly been providing a positive and unifying approach at these recent gatherings — according to some well-placed federal Liberal government sources who are no more inclined to say kind things about Scott Moe than he is inclined to say kind things about them.

For the most part, Moe has kept his word since October’s election, toning down the rhetoric and grandstanding. Of course, some might still assume Tuesday’s border security announcement was still about bluster and Trump appeasement. Perhaps take a second look.

Moe announced the Saskatchewan Border Security Plan, deploying 16 law enforcement officers from conservation, highway patrol and canine units. If the need should arise, the force could expand to 95 personnel.

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The new mobile command unit will have licence plate readers, drones, snowmobiles and three airplanes to bolster the work that the federal Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is already doing.

Contrary to Trump’s notion that all the problems flow south, our issue is guns and drugs flowing north. The problem with drugs coming into this country is something we read about every day.

As for the problem of legitimate commerce flowing south, it seems Moe is well-versed in the realities … and likely aware that something is needed beyond flying to Mar-a-Lago to kiss Trump’s ring.

Moe was rather emphatic on Tuesday that “there is no trade deficit,” but also realistic that the threat of tariffs is “very real,” adding that we need to take Trump “very seriously.”

It shouldn’t take a trip to Mar-a-Lago to figure out that we are dealing with a U.S. administration unlike anything we have previously seen.

“We have no negotiating strength with president-elect Trump, who is coming in with the most significant mandate in recent history,” Moe said on Tuesday, noting the Republican party now controls the House, Senate and Oval Office.

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One should appreciate Moe’s button-down defiance, warning us to take things seriously.

More appreciated, however, is turning this mess into something constructive … like long-overdue improved border security for this country.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

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