LILLEY: Trudeau trashes Canada’s reputation but at least we have Drake

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“Where are you from?” the bartender asked in broken English over loud music.

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The scene is a bar called Rosa Parks about two blocks from the port area in Tel Aviv. The place is still packed late at night – other than myself, it’s all young, hip, fashionable people with few above the age of 25.

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In Israel, that means most of these young people enjoying a late night drink are either going out for their military service soon or are just back from it. As I would later learn from the bartender, he had just finished his most recent round of national service in the military a few weeks before.

“Toronto,” I answered in response to his question.

“Toronto? I love Drake!” he yells across the bar with a smile.

It was the most enthusiastic response I received to the news I was from Canada during my nearly week stay in Israel where I toured right across the country. It’s not like there was open hostility or open anger and myself and my colleagues heard from many people about how they had visited Canada or had family there.

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Yet, there was also a disappointment with our country, our government and, in particular, Justin Trudeau’s position, or lack thereof, when it comes to Israel.

If you think Israel hasn’t noted Canada’s eroding support for Israel, think again. The change from support to wavering support, to condemnation, to the United Nations vote have all been noticed.

It was perhaps best illustrated in a meeting with Amichai Chikli, Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs.

“It started on Oct 7 with very warm statements and we appreciated it,” Chikli said. “But very fast, we heard the old statements with violence on both sides”

Chikli’s sentiments about Canada’s “evolving” position was shared by many, it started great and went downhill from there.

“The world is witnessing this killing of women and children, of babies. This has to stop,” Trudeau said on Nov. 15, commenting on Israel’s operations around the Al Shifa Hospital.

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Of course, the Al Shifa Hospital turned out to be what Israel had claimed, a Hamas headquarters with weapons and even hostages hidden there, along with lots of tunnels.

A month after those comments from Trudeau came the vote at the U.N. where Canada backed a call for a ceasefire that put all the blame on Israel, not Hamas, for the bloodshed.

“When it came to actions, they didn’t have our backs,” Chikli said of the Trudeau government.

In Israel, foreign affairs matters for any government, are primarily focused on Europe and North America. Canada used to matter on that front but our importance has faded as the Trudeau administration has put less emphasis on cooperation with Israel and shifted our stance overall to the only democracy in the Middle East.

Under Trudeau, Canada is seen as an unreliable ally at best.

The snide comments, the eye rolling, the looks of disappointment from people across the political spectrum were not something I was expecting when I arrived in Tel Aviv.

Canadians are used to a warm welcome, not the dispirited sigh of a friend feeling let down, which is how it felt each time.

Trudeau is hurting Canada’s reputation in Israel and around the world.

And there is only so much Drake can do to counter that.

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