Appeasement in Our Time: How Keir Starmer is Making a Mockery of the Commonwealth and Endangering Canada

By: Daniel Pope (3L)

Photo Credit: Creative Commons

The third month of Donald Trump’s second term as President of the United States is now coming to a close. Since his inauguration, the rules-based international order has faced its greatest challenge yet: its near-total abandonment by what was once its most powerful advocate. The Americans have upended core tenets of that system, from the commitment to free trade to such basic principles as the prohibition on forceful conquest.

Around the world, governments have been scrambling to react. As the United States has performed its about-face on the defence of Ukraine against Russian aggression—attempting to coerce the Ukrainians into a capitulation by ceasing arms shipments, cutting off their intelligence sharing, and attempting to shift the narrative on the causes of the war to place Russia, not Ukraine, as the victim—many Western democracies have banded together to fill in the gaps, and keep Ukraine in the fight.

As the United States casts off its commitment to free trade—picking fights with its closest allies through the imposition of tariffs—most of the targeted trading partners have chosen to retaliate in opposition to the rebirth of “might-makes-right” diplomacy, making clear they will not be turned into the Americans’ economic vassals.

Perhaps no country has shown more commitment to this resistance than Canada. As the United States began to take aim at its most important economic partner, Canadian governments, businesses, and individuals began searching for a reason. At the very same time, Trump began telegraphing one. First brushed off as a joke, Canadians have realized that the unthinkable may have become true: the United States has put annexation of its northern neighbour squarely in its sights.

Donald Trump has repeated his desire for Canada to be integrated into the United States (puzzlingly, as a single state) ad nauseam, expressing a willingness to use economic force to bend Canada into submission. Other countries targeted by the President’s jingoistic rhetoric—Panama and Denmark—have not been so lucky as to escape veiled threats of military action. In light of President Trump’s willingness to give effect to Vladimir Putin’s illegal annexation of vast swathes of Ukrainian territory, his own threats cannot be taken lightly. What all of these actions show is that the United States has cast off any pretense of adherence to vital peremptory norms of international law.

One world leader has been notably absent from the resistance. While Sir Keir Starmer, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has shown a willingness to underscore support for Ukraine in light of American withdrawal, he has shied away from any direct confrontation with the Trump Administration, whether in support of Great Britain’s more reliable friends, or in defence of his own country’s economic interests when faced with the same tariffs other countries have committed themselves to resisting.

Sir Keir’s priority appears to be staying on the President’s good side in order to obtain a free trade agreement which he seems to naïvely believe will save him from Donald Trump’s economic ire. While the lessons of the Canadian experience have been chasing him, Sir Keir has managed to outrun them. President Trump’s blatant disregard for a trade agreement that he negotiated personally—the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (the “USMCA”)—shows that no such reliance can be placed on a negotiated settlement with this administration.

In pursuit of Sir Keir’s vain hope of preferable trading terms with the United States, he and King Charles—on Sir Keir’s constitutionally binding advice—have abandoned one of its closest allies and the very values the Commonwealth of Nations claims to stand for.

When Starmer was asked about his government’s position on American statements of intent to annex Canada, a country which came to Britain’s defence by its own volition in 1939, he chided the reporter for “trying to find a divide between [Sir Keir and President Trump] that doesn’t exist.” Trump has been given opportunities to walk back his statements, to which he has done nothing but double down.

With that in mind, it is extremely concerning that His Majesty has invited Mr. Trump to an unprecedented second state visit. While the King is legally distinct in his roles as King of the United Kingdom and King of Canada, the misappropriation of our head of state to court a government showing overt hostility to our country’s existence poses a serious risk to Canadian sovereignty. Since such an action can only be assumed to have been taken on Sir Keir’s binding instruction, the Government of Canada ought to inquire with their British counterparts as to the propriety of using our shared King in such a fashion.

Most recently, reports have surfaced that on this already questionable state visit, King Charles intends to offer the United States a position as an associate member of the Commonwealth of Nations, which President Trump has expressed a willingness to accept.

As the successor organization to the British Empire, the Commonwealth has had an upwards battle in casting off its legacy of colonialism and imperialism. What was once a system of subjugation by a metropole of its international vassals has supposedly been transformed into a voluntary coalition of mostly former British colonies based on their shared history and commitment to shared values. These shared values, according to the Commonwealth, include “the development of education, just legal systems, fair and open democracies, good governance, and human rights,” as well as “the promotion of international understanding and world peace.”

The Americans’ lack of commitment to world peace has been put on full display by its support of Russia’s war of conquest in Ukraine and their own threats of coercive annexation of its neighbours. Beyond this, the United States’ commitment to justice, education, democracy, and human rights have been called into serious question by this administration’s actions at home and abroad.

At home, the Trump Administration has moved to dismantle federal oversight and support for its already struggling education system, has shown a marked disdain for due process in the justice system, and has endangered the human rights of transgender people, undocumented migrants, and even those present on American territory legally, among others.

Quite aside from the insult to Canada that its aggressor would be granted a seat at a table which has included Canada for centuries, extending this invitation to the United States during the Second Trump Administration is a betrayal of the very fundamental values which the Commonwealth claims to uphold. Going forward, Mr. Starmer should be far more thoughtful in the messages his actions (including those indirectly given effect through King Charles) send to Canada, the current members of the Commonwealth, and the wider international community. Rather than take up the mantle as a champion of the existing international order, Sir Keir has lent legitimacy to the American attacks thereupon.

Absent a change in tack from the British, the Canadian government should listen to the message being sent. Where Mr. Starmer had the opportunity to stand against American aggression, he has chosen instead to, in the words of Winston Churchill, “feed the crocodile hoping it will eat him last.” Canada’s choice of friends has never mattered more. If Britain will not stand with us, we may need to look further afield for allies.