Canada should send 'election observers' to Donald Trump's 'fragile democracy': columnist

A columnist who lives in America's neighbor to the north believes that her country can help ensure a free and fair election without interference from President Donald Trump.

Toronto Star columnist Susan Delacourt argues in her latest piece that "Canada has sent election observers to fragile democracies" around the world and that "Donald Trump’s America should be on that list."

While she acknowledges it once seemed outlandish to believe the United States would need foreign observers to help ensure election integrity, she says that Trump's increasing signals that he will not accept the results may make it necessary.

"If Trump decides to dispute the results of the Nov. 3 vote -- as he appeared to indicate during this week’s raucous presidential debate -- Canada needs its own eyes and ears on the ground, and soon," she writes.

She goes on to recommend that Liberal Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could avoid angering American conservatives by sending Canadian Conservatives such as former Prime Minister Stephen Harper to act as observers.

"Trudeau could argue that with so much for Canada and democracy at stake in the U.S. election, we are sending a blue-chip team to make sure we have our own information on how to regard the results," she writes. "Granted, Trump might take offence at the U.S. being treated as a democratically challenged nation, in need of adult supervision, but the president has only himself to blame if the world is starting to have doubts about how things are unfolding."