i really think the liberals should be offering to renegotiate nafta right now. and, if they paint themselves as these rigorous defenders of this failed global trade order, their support is going to collapse towards the ndp. they must be doing everything they possibly can to avoid the perception that they're the only thing standing between donald trump and the destruction of nafta.

it's going to be especially strange, because canadians do not expect the liberals to uncritically support these trade agreements. the reality in parliament is a little bit different, of course, but the canadian spectrum (in the minds of canadians...) is as follows:

conservatives: support the letter and the law of nafta.
liberals: support the premise of free trade with the united states, but would like to renegotiate nafta.
ndp: do not support free trade with the united states.

these are caricatures, but they are the positions that canadians expect the parties to take. so, if the liberals take the traditional conservative position, the spectrum will shift: liberal support will collapse - not due to the trade position, exactly, but because it signals an ideological change in the party that nobody really fully realized happened. this is potentially realigning. and, i don't think the party realizes it.

they absolutely need to indicate that they have reservations with this agreement and want the opportunity to open it up. this is imperative. they cannot just let this fiasco run through with the perception that they don't want to open the agreement in place...

even hillary clinton understood this. the problem is that nobody believed her. the liberals don't have this credibility problem - or at least they don't yet. they're about to develop it. and, it will be devastating.

if trudeau fucks this up by realigning the liberal party with the traditional conservative party position on nafta, the subsequent electoral collapse will be his legacy.