In his first moments in office, President Joe Biden betrayed America’s closest ally.

Canada is reeling from the carnage left by a stroke of Biden’s pen. With the Keystone XL oil pipeline officially cancelled, Canada has never been so wounded by an American president. Even Donald Trump’s arbitrary tariffs on metal imports pale in comparison.

I say that it hurt “Canada,” only to make it easier for the Americans who are reading this to understand — it didn’t really hurt the whole country. Many Liberals are rejoicing. Our Prime Minister, along with other Canadians from our eastern provinces (imagine a political mix of California and New York), are secretly relieved that someone else flagellated our country. Justin Trudeau’s government is almost elated, saying that they “accept” the betrayal and “will not fight to change [Biden’s] mind on a key campaign promise.”

The Canadian government was formally notified that President Biden would cancel Keystone XL late last night, a source says. The govt says they will accept the President's decisions and will not fight to change his mind on a key campaign promise #KXL #cdnpoli

— Mercedes Stephenson (@MercedesGlobal) January 20, 2021

Officially, Keystone XL was not mentioned once in Biden’s thousands of words long platform on the environment, by the way.

For those of you who are unaware or forgot, when President Trump followed through on his actual and key election promise of scrapping NAFTA, Trudeau acted like America had walked across the 49th parallel and broken his knees. The audacity of Trump! But that is because the livelihoods of eastern Canadians were on the line. The thousands of people who will be out of work as a result of Biden’s actions are not Trudeau’s concern, and I’ll tell you why.

The people who this will hurt are those Canadians that are most like Americans — those in the west (think Texas meets Montana). You are more likely to see someone here walking around with a Make America Great Again hat than a “Re-Elect Trudeau” shirt. Western Canadians currently have nobody to stand up for them, and the proof is in the pudding.

The damage to America’s relationship with its closest ally is irreversible, whether Trudeau acknowledges it or not. Canadians along the pipeline route feel betrayed, backstabbed, and alone — and that is permanent damage.