OTTAWA, Canada—Nobody here is surprised that trade negotiations with the United States have blown up or that relations with Washington have taken yet another turn for the worse, at least not anyone with a maple leaf on their passport.
Political insiders of all stripes—current and former government officials; consultants, pollsters and lobbyists; Liberal and Conservative party loyalists—were predicting as much during a series of conversations I had with them over the span of nearly a week in the Canadian capital and Toronto on the cusp of summer.
