On China, there’s no politically right solution for Canada
By Shachi Kurl, Executive Director
Remember when our biggest foreign policy problem was navigating the choppy waters of NAFTA renegotiations? Those seemed like simpler times. The government knew what (or more accurately who) it was dealing with. And Canadians were largely in agreement about what was at stake.
By contrast, the snarled mess that represents our recent dealings with China is better described as a very bad time for this country. From the December arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou to the detentions of Canadians in China, and a death sentence for one, to now-ex ambassador John McCallum’s verbal meltdowns, the federal government has vacillated between, at best, being on the back foot, and at worst, being completely over its head in dealing with Beijing.
The effect has not been positive on perceptions of government performance. New polling by the Angus Reid Institute reveals just over half (52 per cent) of Canadians think the Justin Trudeau Liberals have done a bad job on this file. And the majority of those folks think the government has handled the file very poorly.
For the rest of this piece, please view it on the Ottawa Citizen’s site, where it was initially published.
