Canadian Soft Power

"There's some lessons to learn for Canadians. I think Ukraine's on the front line, and there's a wake-up call that anybody's election, including ours in six months, could be altered, disrupted or problems could be created in terms of disinformation if you're not very watchful about it."
"I can't predict what would happen here. I just know that we're vulnerable."
Loyd Axworthy, former Liberal foreign minister

Ukrainian government soldiers, members of the local election commission, open a ballot box in a tent using as a polling station during the president elections in Mariinka, near a contact line not far from Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, March 31, 2019.   AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka

There's not much that Liberal and former Liberal Members of Parliament enjoy more than portraying themselves as 'soft power' proponents of making the world a better place through their kindly intervention. Long a proponent and likely the originator of the term 'soft power' in describing how Canada could conceivably make a name for itself on the world stage as a middle power exerting authority not engaging military action, Lloyd Axworthy has been trotted out again as the old war horse he is, in the hopes of deflecting attention from the current Liberal government's unfortunate penchant for loose ethics.

Yes indeed, an election is approaching in Canada when in October voters will be going to the polls to decide whether they agree on four more cringe-inducing, high-blood-pressure-exacting episodes of prime ministerial mis-steps and administration messes will be found agreeable to a voting majority of citizens. And the current government headed by primary egotist Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is anxious to put its best foot forward, demonstrating to Canadians how capable it is to offer other nations the benefit of Canadian expertise in politics.

This former Liberal minister under two previous Liberal administrations, going a long, long way back -- back indeed to the time of the current prime minister's father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau -- is cautioning Canadians that disinformation foisted on unaware voters in Canada through insidious social media inputs threatens the fairness of our election; naming Russia as primary interferer-extraordinaire potentially corrupting procedures, as they ostensibly have done in Ukraine.

However, added Mr. Axworthy, who led a team of Canadian election observers to Ukraine, "Even against the odds of Russian interference and the conflicts on the east side and so on, they did a very effective job and there weren't a lot of disruptions. There will small glitches but nothing affected the outcome" of the vote, presumably. Ukraine, whose aggressively threatening neighbor has fomented conflict in the Donbass and made off with Ukrainian sovereign territory in Crimea was, according to Axworthy'd description, capable of thwarting Russian election interference, so what was the purpose of Canada's presence? Other than for show, that is.

Oh, now I remember. Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs is an ethnic Ukrainian. Chrystia Freeland loathes Russia, make no mistake about that. She and Canada's Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan announced recently Canada's training mission for the Ukraine military is to be extended through to 2022, with 200 Canadian troops stationed there to remain, assisting the Ukrainian military, reflecting the ethnic-Russian Ukrainian separatist conflict in the east.

According to Mr. Axworthy, election observation missions represent a low-cost measure for Canada to demonstrate its presence to the world at large because "elections come around like streetcars". "There should be more of it. I think it should be clearly seen as one of the important ways that we can contribute to pushing back on the anti-democratic waves that are out there. And I think that it is a very good way for Canadians to feel they're participating in these events, they're not just watching from a doorstep", he emphasized.

Besides, as was stated by her office a year ago, Minister Freeland had been "personally seized" to reverse a general decline in election observation missions. Hence this massive Canadian mission involving over 500 observers costing $11 million, dispatched to Ukraine which has demonstrated amply that it is fully capable of mounting its own free and fair democratic election and in the process manage to ensure that no outside sources interfere with the fairness of its outcome.

Malign foreign actors will likely try to meddle in Canada's federal election in October, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says.

Tellingly, there are no other missions for a like purpose yet announced. "I think the government needs to put more investment in these sorts of things. I don't mean massive sums like they did on infrastucture. But we really have to maintain a very active and effective diplomatic network around the world", stated long-superannuated Mr. Axworthy, overdue for a peaceful final retirement sparing the Canadian public any further such utterances expanding on Liberal virtue-signalling.

None of which can divert from the real and present danger facing Canada with a government that sought to pervert justice in its bid to favour a company engaged in corrupt activities overseas facing a criminal trial, and then vastly compounding the issue by denying it had done any such thing, even though the evidence has been clearly and shamefully displayed through testimony given by former high-placed-and-trusted, competent Ministers of the Crown holding their government's feet to the fire of honesty and integrity.

Unfortunately Justin Trudeau chose to earnestly deny all credible charges of his dalliance with unethical conduct despite which there is no longer any credibility in anything he asserts. The Canadian public has become so accustomed to and inured to Liberal misgoverning, preferring ethereal promises that never see the light of day, it yawns and moves off the scene with colossal indifference.