THE best evidence that good leadership matters can be found after a cursory study of the current state of affairs of the two nations that share the world’s longest undefended border: the United States and Canada. The US is a military and economic superpower with the biggest nominal GDP and for close to a century, the de facto leader of democratic nations; Canada belongs to the category of nations described as “middle powers.” Until recently, it willingly lived under the shadow of its superpower neighbor.
Canada’s enduring love affair with the US is all in the past tense now. Donald Trump, who assumed the US presidency in January last year, made it very clear that he wanted to economically weaken Canada via crippling tariffs to make it easier for the US to annex it as its 51st state. Mark Carney, who celebrated his first year as prime minister of Canada this month, also made it clear that Trump’s designs on Canada and the Trumpian plan to subjugate the so-called “Western Hemisphere” are not acceptable.
Trump and Carney not only have dueling visions for their nations; their personal values and leadership styles are a study in dramatic contrast. Trump personifies the “great man theory” in leadership. “I alone can fix it.” Or, “I am a stable genius.” Or the admission that his decision-making process is not constrained by the law or the constitution, “but my own morality.”
Carney, who never held an elective post before assuming Canada’s top leadership, spent most of his professional life as a central banker and has a known aversion toward the personal pronoun “I.” Navigating monetary crisis, not statecraft, has been the defining moments of his leadership, a calm and deliberate crisis manager with over-impressive academic credentials.
So, these two questions are worth asking. In more than a year, where did Trump’s leadership take the US? In a year, where did Carney take Canada? And what lessons from the contrasting leadership are valuable to us Filipinos, who are scheduled to vote for our next president in 2028?
In just over a year, Trump has upended the global order, the rules-based order that thrived for close to a century, ironically under Pax Americana. On April 2, 2025, he imposed a so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs, the harshest of which were punitive tariffs on major trading partners and close allies like the European Union. But not before preemptively imposing harsh tariffs on major goods shipped from Canada and Mexico, the US’ trading partners under the Umsca. The slew of tariff impositions, including on islands and tundra inhabited by penguins, was described by trade economists as “the greatest trade shock in history.”
Last Feb. 28, with Trump’s go-signal, the US helped Israel bomb Iran. The bombing defenestrated critical military facilities and decapitated almost the entire leadership of Iran. That bombing triggered a war in the Gulf states. In retaliation, Iran’s new leadership unleashed missiles and drones that hit US facilities in the Gulf states, oil facilities and the world’s biggest LNG producer based in Qatar. Then, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz that choked the movement of much-needed oil and oil distillates into oil-dependent countries like the Philippines. Oil experts said the closure of Hormuz led to the “greatest oil shock in history.”
Trump’s unilateral and reckless decision to wage war has further alienated allies, already spooked by the tariff impositions. The close allies that joined the US in earlier conflicts in the Middle East refused to align with the US this time and Spain even refused to allow the US to use the American bases in Spain as staging ground for Gulf-bound war planes.
Amid the global suffering from the oil supply shocks, the US under Trump is no longer held as the leader of the free world but a reckless aggressor that should be in the “axis of authoritarianism” with Russia and China.
The break of Canada with Trump’s America has been described by Carney as a “rupture” and not just a temporary rift. Carney has urged the “middle powers” to forge trade and military agreements outside of the US “hegemon.”
In line with that rupture with America, Carney has been taking bold moves to strengthen Canada economically and militarily. Domestically, he initiated the allocation of $116 billion to build the infrastructure that will remove all barriers to seamless domestic trade. Ports, LNG terminals, transport infra for inland cargo like steel and aluminum.
He signed trade and defense cooperation agreements with the EU and a trading memorandum with China. He strengthened ties with the eight Nordic-Baltic states to guarantee Canada’s dominance of the Arctic areas. He initiated the allocation of a $6.7 billion fund to build Canada’s defense and infrastructure requirements for the Arctic.
Building a resilient Canada outside of the US hegemon has been complemented by the initiative of Canadians to postpone travel to the US, Ontario’s cancellation of tech deals with Trump’s friend Elon Musk, and the pullout from Canadian stores of bourbon and wines from the red states that support Trump politically.
In just a year, crisis manager Carney has weathered the Canada-centric and economically crippling policies of the Trump administration.
Trump, meanwhile, is turning the US into a global pariah.
The dear lesson from the contrasting leadership is clear to Filipinos who are now suffering from a crisis not of their own making, but the result of the folly of one leader — Trump — wrapped in the worst traits of megalomania and cluelessness.
Let us all be reminded that Trump is just like Rodrigo Duterte but with the nuclear code. Like other Dutertes ambitioning to be president.
