GIDDY UP — Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU says his government is ready for a bumpy ride if DONALD TRUMP returns to the White House. “It wasn’t easy the first time,” Trudeau said en français at a Tuesday morning event at the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal. “And if there’s a second time, it won’t be easy either. We won’t imagine that one day it’ll be easy with the Americans.” Trudeau made his remarks on the morning after Trump celebrated an easy caucus victory in Iowa, winning by a historic margin, seemingly unencumbered by a raft of criminal charges. — More real talk: Aside from stating the obvious, a couple notable remarks emerged from Trudeau’s lecture-length answers. → Working with an American president is “always a major challenge,” the PM said. That was the case with BARACK OBAMA and now with JOE BIDEN, leaders with whom he said he’s simpatico, and it is definitely true of Trump who once called Trudeau “two-faced.” → Trudeau poked a new hole in any suggestions there will be a 2024 Canadian campaign. He framed the U.S. election in polarizing terms, saying Americans can choose optimism or “step back” as a nation and buy a populist narrative that sells “a nostalgia for a moment which has never existed.” Democracies around the world are witnessing the rise of grievance politics that doesn’t offer solutions, Trudeau said. “And in two years here in Canada, we will make a similar choice.” — Reality check: The rise of populism and Trump is an irresistible golden goose for Liberal fundraising campaigns. The Donald’s shadow loomed large in the 2019 election when then-Conservative leader ANDREW SCHEER ducked questions about former Trump operatives playing a role in his campaign. Trump’s name was used as a bogeyman by Liberals in 2021 in election-year fundraising emails, attacking Scheer’s successor ERIN O’TOOLE and Conservatives as “Trump North” delegates. — Spoiler alert: Liberal HQ has for months been likening Conservatives to hardline Republicans, recently comparing Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE’s anti-mainstream media schtick to Trump’s own animus against the fifth estate. — What’s next for PMO: America’s wild election year will be a top agenda item at next week’s Cabinet retreat in Montreal. The priorities, according to Trudeau’s office, will be affordability, health care, public safety, and Canada’s middle class. Oh, and discussions about “Canada’s relationship with the United States ahead of this fall’s presidential election.” — What’s missing: Any explicit mention of the environment or climate as an agenda item. — Homework check: It’s been 154 days since Foreign Affairs Minister MÉLANIE JOLY mentioned in August that Ottawa was pondering a game plan should the United States take a far-right shift. Neither Joly nor her Cabinet colleagues have offered an update on whether that plan to have a plan has evolved. There are 293 days until the U.S. presidential election. | 
