Critiquing Justin Trudeau's "Canada is Back!"

"Canada had, in fact, not gone anywhere. And the profound arrogance of Mr. Trudeau's words foreshadowed how the new prime minister would conduct Canada's foreign affairs: with style over substance."
"[Trudeau's India trip last year was] the most disastrous [ever by any Canadian prime minister]."
"In the 21st Century, some politicians want Canada to be the referee. I want Canada to be the quarterback."
"I said that we [a new Conservative-led government] would recognize Jerusalem as the capital. That obviously would include making sure that Canada's representation there is in Jerusalem and we'd work with the government of Israel to accomplish those types of things."
Leader of the Official Opposition, Andrew Scheer, Conservative Party of Canada

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer addresses the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations, May 7, 2019 in Montreal. Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press

Mr. Scheer is a reasoned and reasonable man, a thoughtful man who lacks the impetuous egocentricity of the man currently leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, and just incidentally prime minister. An election is looming, however, and in October Canadians will be given the opportunity to cast their ballot for federal leader, reflecting the collective opinion of the three-year-performance of the first term of a man many thought had style along with substance.

The years since 2015 when he took office as prime minister appears to have given ample indication that the man has neither style nor substance. When an old news report of his having manhandled a female reporter came to light, this feminist shrugged off the incident with the phrase that people experience things differently; it was the woman's perception of his behaviour that was at fault, and he had done nothing wrong.

Justin Trudeau is not a man capable of overlooking anything that he perceives as a slight. He conducted a years-long vendetta against none other than the second-in-command of the Canadian Armed Forces, charging Vice-Admiral Mark Norman of unauthorized airing of secret cabinet decision making, a leak that embarrassed Justin Trudeau by informing the public that he was about to cancel a supply ship contract signed with a Quebec shipbuilder in favour of granting it to an East Coast rival, preparing to pay a hefty $96 million penalty.

There is that about Liberals and about Justin Trudeau in particular; they go out of their way to service the pecuniary interests of Liberal supporters like Quebec-based SNC-Lavalin to the point where extreme political pressure was applied to the former Liberal attorney general and Minister of Justice to place pressure on the Public Prosecution service to offer it a settlement to avoid a criminal trial for bribery of Libyan officials. The extent to which Trudeau and his cronies harassed the former minister expressed the kind of corruption that reflects Liberal values.

Since it was alleged last week that the Prime Minister's Office had pressured then attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to allow SNC-Lavalin to sidestep prosecution, few federal politicians have been willing to stick their necks out for the company. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Mr. Scheer, as leader of the official opposition, spoke before a business audience a day ago on a wide-ranging foreign-policy speech, validating a pledge made a year earlier that a government led by him would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a rational and timely decision given that any nation has the right to declare where its capital would be, a decision which in Israel's case, the international community is leery of committing to, citing the Palestinian claim to Jerusalem as the capital of a nation which does not exist.

The foreign policy failings of the Trudeau government is so profoundly off kilter, Mr. Scheer had ample fodder for his own message. As far as Mr. Scheer is concerned, Canada has failed to be cognizant of and take remedial measures as required to recognize the importance to Canada of its continental trade, energy and security relationship with the United States; that the partnership "transcends the personalities of those who occupy each respective office".

As prime minister post-October federal election, he pledged to "reinvigorate" the role Canada plays in alliances with multilateral allies; the Five Eyes, Commonwealth and NATO groups in particular. That he planned to "relentlessly pursue new efforts to increase trade and find new markets for Canadian goods in fast-growing economies like those found in Asia", and he would presumably, do so without shoving feminism down his trading counterparts' unwilling throats.

In view of the contretemps Canada has been subjected to with the Chinese government as a result of the Huawei incident with the arrest of its CFO in recognition of a warrant issued by the U.S. government for extradition over sanctioned business dealings with Iran, where U.S. financial institutions were deliberately misled, Mr. Scheer said he would freeze Canada's efforts in negotiating free trade with China. Given that China has maliciously and criminally arrested Canadian citizens, frozen agricultural contracts of long standing under spurious pest concerns, a move badly needed.

A conservative government in Parliament would revoke its investment in the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, increase Ukraine support, and finally place the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity on Canada's proscribed list. Negotiations would proceed with the United States to join its ballistic missile defence program. Funding for new icebreakers, fighter jets and submarines would be forthcoming.

And under a new Conservative-led government the isolation of Alberta and Saskatchewan that has frozen development of their petroleum natural resources leading to anger and resentment by the Western provinces against an Eastern-focused government would come to a badly-deserved end. Canada would be free to develop its immense fossil-fuel resources responsibly and efficiently to end its reliance on imported oil from democratically-hostile sources.