OTTAWA — On the eve of a possible trade war with the United States, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a message for Canadians:  The country could be headed for tough times and he knows people feel anxious.

He could have put it in an even simpler way: Just like everyone else, he doesn’t know what’s going to happen.

Millions of Canadians were already thinking it. Trudeau’s own cabinet ministers, dispatched to Washington to get face time with Republican lawmakers and members of Trump’s administration, left those meetings with the knowledge, as Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said after sitting down with Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this week, “the ultimate decision maker is President Trump.”