Trump's biggest mistake was to misunderstand human nature. I can tell you that at least some Canadian MP's agree with some of Trump's ideas in principle, yet his actions push them away too. To take an example, Maxime Bernier is a strong supporter of ending supply management and supports more free trade. Under normal circumstances, if given the opportunity, he certainly would dismantle supply-management. Yet even if Bernier were PM and most of Parliament supported him, even he'd have a difficult time supporting supply-management in the face of a trade war with Trump since it could mean losing face. His intellectual side would be telling him to lower tariffs and end supply-management anyway for our economic benefit while his emotional side would be telling him to not give the impression of having caved to Trump's demands. In other words, Trump would make more difficult for a PM to lower tariffs. Painting a person into an emotional corner without giving him an opportunity to save face is not an effective negotiating tactics as that puts pressure on all parties involved to dig in their heals.
