CANADA/ELECTION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agonized over what might seem like an inconsequential detail before his first meeting with President Donald Trump: how to shake hands. During a February 2017 flight to Washington to meet the president, Trudeau was fixated with being viewed as standing his ground without antagonizing Trump. So the prime minister spent part of the flight practicing his handshake with senior aides. The combination shoulder grip-handshake he settled on didn’t just avoid the cringe-inducing exchange Japan’s Shinzo Abe endured a few days earlier. It also offered a snapshot of Trudeau’s approach to Trump: to seek contrast, not confrontation, and to be viewed as standing his ground, politely, with a dominant alpha male American leader. Now Trudeau will test his relationship with Trump as he launches an unexpectedly difficult Canadian reelection campaign.”
–Alexander Panetta, “Trudeau’s reelection bid faces the Trump test,” Politico, May 2, 2019 5:03 am