Not since Lester Pearson, still in Opposition, heaped praise on the crisis management talents of U.S. President John F. Kennedy after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 has any Canadian political leader showered such a torrent of compliments upon an American president as Prime Minister Mark Carney did on U.S. President Donald Trump on Oct. 7. (Admittedly, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau would have been a strong contestant if he had not become almost tongue-tied in complementing U.S. President Richard Nixon on his triangulation of great power relations with his diplomatic overture to China, a field in which Trudeau fancied himself something of a pioneer.) There is nothing wrong with this, and it is almost certainly an astute diplomatic gambit as President Trump’s threshold for considering praise of himself excessive and questionably motivated is relatively high. The prime minister’s compliments were nothing but the truth: ending illegal immigration, pressuring allies to increase defence spending, generating economic growth, advancing the Middle East peace process and terminating Iran’s nuclear program. And Trump responded with gracious compliments for Carney.