It is true both that:

1. Each country has ongoing interests and these should not be unduly confused with its values and friends;

2. It serves no good purpose for the senior political figures of one country to gratuitously criticize the policies and actions of another country.

However, it does not follow that international observance and support for the deepest values of one's country is not itself an ongoing national interest.  Nor is it true that to remain passive and silent when such a deeply held value is violated best furthers the ongoing interests of one's country.

There is an appropriate way in each circumstance where our country's deep, enduring interests are being degraded by others (as, arguably, they have been over the past week for Canada's) for our PM to express Canada's concerns. Trudeau has so acted.

BTW, Canada hasn't and shouldn't distance itself from Mexico on the basic point that NAFTA can't function if based upon bullying.