Republican, pro-Trump U.S. senator is Canada's unlikeliest fan

 Senator Kevin Cramer says Justin Trudeau was 'insufferable,' but the North Dakotan is now working hard for a good bilateral relationship

Republican U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer blames some of President Donald Trump’s apparent attitudes toward Canada on the fact his first counterpart here was the “insufferable” Justin Trudeau. Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images/File

Kevin Cramer, the plain-spoken U.S. senator from North Dakota, is nothing if not a steadfast supporter of President Donald Trump.

He was among the first elected Republicans to endorse the president in his 2016 run for the White House and once even likened voting against Trump’s policies to cheating on a spouse.

“I know Donald Trump really quite well. I really do, and I love him very much,” the senator told the National Post in a recent interview. “I love him at a personal level.”

But in at least one prominent way, he has consistently pushed back on the commander-in-chief he so admires. As Trump slapped a succession of crushing tariffs on Canada, while musing about economically coercing and annexing this country, Cramer has called for stronger relations – economically, militarily and culturally – and developed close, affectionate ties with Canada’s representatives.

Amongst other gestures, he introduced a resolution in the Senate that could almost have been written by staff down the street at the Canadian embassy. It talks of an “indispensable economic and security partnership” and says the prosperity of both nations is supported by a “mutually beneficial economic relationship.”

Cramer, 65, attributes his views to the extensive trade between North Dakota and neighbouring Canadian provinces, and to personal ties that include a childhood spent crossing the border like it barely existed. He says his closeness to Trump – whom he telephones regularly – is actually what makes it possible for him to get the president’s ear on the Canada question.

“I’ve earned some of that (political) capital by being an ardent supporter of his,” he says. “It means when you disagree, you have a little more … street cred. And to me, the U.S.-Canada relationship is worth spending some of that on.

“I do talk to him and I give him my opinion. He generally gets mad at me and then we move on.”

At the same time, Cramer does not give Canada a universal pass. He says Canadians need to be less emotional about the president’s barbs and that an “insufferable” Justin Trudeau helped inform Trump’s antagonistic approach to this country. Current Prime Minister Mark Carney is a much better fit, he says.

But at a time when it often seems the ruling party in America – at least as embodied by the administration – is at war with Canada, Cramer offers an unlikely counterpoint.

“He is indeed a true friend of Canada,” said Kirsten Hillman, who was ambassador to the U.S. until she retired from the foreign service in February. “He has been extremely helpful to us …making points to the president in ways that resonate with the president.”

Cramer in turn says “I love Kirsten,” and showed his fondness for the diplomat by having a special American flag flown in her honour over the Capitol building, then taken down and presented to her as a parting gift.

Their bond was strengthened in part by her own youth, when she spent summers at her grandparents’ farm near Goodlands, Man., about 10 kilometres from the North Dakota border, and sometimes crossed into the state to get pizza.

“I told the president once ‘You know, this idea of Canada as a 51st state is really dumb,’ “ Cramer says. “But I said ‘I would take Saskatchewan and Manitoba and Alberta as three states. They’re practically us, you know.’ ”

Hillman, now a distinguished fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, said the senator is one of many Republican members of Congress who would like to see a friendlier approach to Canada. A resolution calling for the tariffs to be rescinded was supported by four GOP senators – Rand Paul, Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell, and Lisa Murkowski (though not Cramer). But he stands out as the lawmaker who is closest to Trump, said the ex-ambassador.

A former tourism and economic development director in the North Dakota state government, Cramer grew up at a time when the northern border was almost a formality. The family would drive the short distance to Killarney Lake in Manitoba, merely waving to customs officers on both sides in lieu of showing passports, he says. He has an uncle who lives in Revelstoke, B.C., and Canadian cousins.

Cramer was elected to the House of Representatives on his third try in 2010, then ran successfully for a Senate seat in 2018.

He’s without question a “hard-core” conservative, says Mark Jendrysik, a political science professor at the University of North Dakota who once had Cramer talk to his class. The senator has opposed abortion and same-sex marriage and wrote the energy platform for Trump’s 2016 campaign that favoured more oil production and downplayed climate-change science. His politics are in keeping with the general leanings of the state, one of the few where Trump’s approval ratings have stayed over 50 per cent, said Jendrysik.

But at the same time he’s not one of the “culture-war flame throwers” who have a tight grip on the North Dakota Republican Party, the type of people who call Democrats communists and tout Trump as the greatest president in American history, the professor said.

Still, his loyalty to Trump – and the views of North Dakotans who realize their economy relies heavily on Canada – makes it possible for him to oppose the White House’s protectionist policies, said Jendrysik.

“He has absolutely no worry about re-election, to put it bluntly, so he can afford this small break from Trumpian orthodoxy, because local people think he’s defending their local interests.”

Those interests are fairly clear. North Dakota’s exports to Canada – mostly oil but also farm machinery and agricultural goods – have ranged from $4 billion to $6 billion annually in recent years, 70-80 per cent of its total exports. Cramer said that trade is by design deeply intertwined, each side playing to its strengths.

“A hog crosses the border multiple times before it becomes bacon,” he says, evoking the kind of international connectivity often cited by the auto industry.

Trump has taken a very different view of the economic relationship. Though much of what is sold back and forth moves tariff-free for now under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free-trade agreement – and his first wave of duties was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court – Canadian automobiles, steel, aluminum and lumber still face punishing tariffs. Meanwhile, Trump is eager to see more goods produced in America and has said “we don’t need anything” from Canada. He recently threatened to impose 50-per-cent tariffs and block certification on imported Canadian aircraft because a regulator here was taking too long to approve new American jets, and said he might block a new bridge between Detroit and Windsor paid for by Canada.

Trump has talked repeatedly about making this country a U.S. state – calling both Carney and Trudeau “governor” – and when asked if he would use military force to do so, said he’d opt for “economic force.”

Cramer says Trump is frustrated by the fact Canada is rich in minerals and resources and “we don’t have more access to those things.”

Republican U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer “is indeed a true friend of Canada,” says former ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

The senator cites his own encounter with Trudeau at a Canadian embassy reception a couple of years ago.

Having written a letter encouraging Ottawa to boost defence spending, he broached the topic with the prime minister, suggesting Canada could reach the NATO-endorsed goal of spending two per cent of GDP on the military by selling uranium to the U.S. for use in nuclear weapons.

“He quickly jumped to, ‘Oh, we never will allow our uranium to be used for weapons.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m trying to help you here. I’m trying to give you an off ramp, if you will,’ ” the senator recalls. “He’s a pacifist, and he’s fine with the United States being the guardian over the skies of the Arctic, but it seems irresponsible to me.

“I only had one conversation with him, and I thought ‘This is hopeless.’ ”

Canada has in fact just reached the two-per-cent threshold and Carney has promised to raise defence spending to five per cent of GDP by 2035, while agreeing to buy into Trump’s Golden Dome missile-defence plan. Cramer is a booster of the current prime minister – “a charming guy, but he’s also very smart and eloquent and he’s a finance guy, for crying out loud” – and says increased defence spending is a key way to Trump’s heart.

Ultimately, though, how the bi-national relationship winds up could be determined by a review of the North American free trade accord just getting underway.

Cramer says he hopes it results in “minor changes, not an overhaul.” Hillman says it’s too soon to predict how the talks would end, but said one bright spot are comments this week by Jamieson Grier – the U.S. trade representative – that the deal has “load-bearing pillars” that work well. She notes that the agreement covers not just tariffs but a whole host of other matters, from customs procedures to intellectual property rules

“If (CUSMA) didn’t exist … we would have to recreate it again.”

Meanwhile, Cramer jokingly suggests Canadians could get under Trump’s skin, not by spurning U.S. travel, but by buying up Florida property around the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate and raising Canadian flags there. He has some more controversial advice, too, as polls indicate Canadian opinions about America are at a historic low.

“Canadians seem to be so personally hurt over Donald Trump’s, you know, playing with them over the 51st state issue. And I have found it odd,” he said. “My advice would be ‘Get over yourselves, don’t be so sensitive, because you look just a little bit weak.’ ”

 https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/republican-pro-trump-u-s-senator-is-canadas-unlikeliest-fan