Canada : Lost Its Way

"After the 2015 election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau trumpeted that without the Natural Governing Party in power our country had not been seen or counted among the nations. If Trudeau had confined his remarks to a domestic audience, it could be put down to relatively harmless, if outlandish, partisan conceit. However, Trudeau and his Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland took his progressive proselytizing abroad to sometimes bemused but frequently outraged foreign governments."
"Through naïveté and an unerring ability to step on political land mines, the self-congratulatory duo seriously strained relationships with our two largest trading partners, the largest democracy in the world and other countries, large and small. The harm has been serious and recovery will be slow and painful."
"Shortly after being elected Liberal leader in 2013, Trudeau gushed that China is the basic dictatorship he most admires, putting to question democracy, a fundamental value most Canadians hold dear and many literally died for. He then set the stage for the current debacle with dead-on-arrival free trade demands that the Communist government change its governance, gender equity, labour and climate policies to suit his progressive agenda. When Trudeau lectured Chinese authorities and business executive on their deficiencies, many attendees walked out and later refused to meet members of the Canadian delegation."
"Then there are other damaged relationships. Our Minister of Foreign Affairs was banned from visiting the White House for saying America abandoned its leadership role. Since the U.S. President strikes back at personal provocations, deliberately goading him was likely designed to position the Liberals as anti-Trump during the election. However, that is a hazardous game since 76% of our trade and 20% of our economy derive from the American relationship."
"Our relations with India are at a low because Trudeau courted Khalistani Sikh separatists for domestic partisan advantage. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi apparently conveyed his irritation personally to Trudeau after snubbing him during his cloying costume tour."
"The Saudis have retaliated shockingly for an Arabic language tweet demanding the release of Canadian prisoners. Unfortunately, the tweet accomplished nothing positive for the detainees, but is costing our country dearly in revenue and capital investment."
Joe Oliver, former Conservative Minister of Finance

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple in Ahmedabad, India on Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

"I spent decades working with these highly educated and sophisticated people [foreign diplomats] and I would be embarrassed to be defending current [Canadian foreign affairs] policies."
"We have never before had strained relations with all three of the world's strongest powers."
Retired Canadian senior diplomat

"Justin has a domestic focus to his foreign policy, compared to his father [former Prime Minister Pierre E. Trudeau] who was a factor on the world stage."
"I don't think so [that Justin Trudeau studied geopolitics]. When engaging with world leaders, he's not talking about Middle East peace or Iran, I'd suggest he is engaging on issues like income inequality, women in leadership roles and the environment."
Retired Canadian senior diplomat

The newly-elected Justin Trudeau trumpeted his own glowing reviews of self as saviour of Canadian foreign policy when, still green from being planted in the prime minister's office, he travelled abroad to attend G-7 and G-20 meetings to announce with his ingratiatingly beaming smile "Canada is back!" What he meant, of course, was that Canada was back to being governed by the Liberal Party of Canada. And the extra-special bonus was that Justin Trudeau was at the helm, bringing his famous "sunny ways" to the world forum.

As a Liberal, he went the party one better; during the election campaign he cherry-picked the leftist New Democratic Party's touchy-feely, grass-roots policies, everything from promises to the deserving 'middle-class', to support for families and children, to environmental issues, and unbridled support for abortion rights, LGBTQ-2 equality status, First Nations rights, employment equity, and anything that might appeal to those considered society's downtrodden forgotten.

He was to be regarded, he proudly acclaimed, a feminist. And so he dedicated himself, his government and the country at large to championing women's rights, employment equity, the LGBTQ-2 community, Aboriginal complaints; in short any progressive issue that society struggled with was his struggle. He would, on the international scene develop a "new era of Canadian international engagement", altering forever by showcasing Canadian values the real world's state of affairs.

The trouble always was that Justin Trudeau has and always will live in his own cloistered little world; the golden mean of moderation, of careful priorities, of caution and sensibility eludes him. Justin has been put on notice by India that warming relations for bilateral cooperation remain highly unlikely as long as Ottawa is seen to be warm to Canadian Sikh extremists agitating for a Khalistan homeland in the Punjab. The simple fact is, caution is thrown to the winds when Trudeau focuses on the Sikh voting bloc.

Justin Trudeau has lost all credibility with India's Narendra Modi government. Justin Trudeau's vision of himself at the helm of a moral superpower happily prepared to guide all other nations to a state of universal brotherhood and sisterhood akin to Canada's 'post-nationalism' is the driving force behind Canada being viewed by other countries as one that has drifted into international obscurity. Trudeau's branding of Canada as sympathetic and cooperative, fleshes out his "positive Canadian vision" free on offer to all other nations.

In 2017, Trudeau flew to China fully anticipating the signing of a free trade agreement. Beijing was somewhat less than enthusiastic about Trudeau's expectation that the Chinese Communist Party would alter their values and priorities to please his progressive views of what he could lead China toward; changing their labour laws to reflect equality, embracing liberalism and a feminist agenda. No trade deal morphed into a frigid disinterest on Beijing's part and a puzzled Justin Trudeau.

And Canada went on to enrage Beijing by arresting an executive of China's most important telecommunications giant on an American extradition warrant, loosing a trade war the likes of which Justin Trudeau's wildest nightmares could never envision, complete with the imprisonment of two Canadians for espionage, and a death sentence for imputed drug trafficking to two other Canadians. The most important agricultural products exported to China have now lost that market, and no doubt there's more to come....

The renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement has left Canada in a quandary. Time, expertise and patience have all been focused on achieving a fair and equitable agreement. In the end Canada had to accept that the NAFTA deal that served the continent so well for years has been canted in the interests of the richest, most powerful among the three nations whose cards read 'Take.It.Or.Leave.It.'

And Chrystia Freeland's casual tweet criticizing Saudi Arabia for the arrest of imprisoned writer Raif Badawi's activist sister certainly unleashed a storm of backlash, startling in its harsh punishment for daring to question Saudi justice. "Blatant interference in the kingdom's domestic affairs" resulted in the Canadian ambassador being expelled, bilateral trade frozen, Canadian assets dumped, and Saudi students called home. And Samar Badawi will remain imprisoned, for no little two-bit country can teach Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman feminist values.

"If we confine relations to like-minded countries, we'll have ever fewer relations", opined one former ambassador. Canada has been absent an ambassador to Moscow for a year. The condition of the embassy is perilous; it is literally falling down, in serious need of immediate repair; an aphorism of the relations between Canada and the Russian Federation where in fact, Moscow has let it be known that Canada's minister of foreign affairs is not welcome in Russia.

"Canada is back," Trudeau mugged for the world's cameras at the signing of the Paris Accord in 2015. "We're Canadian," Trudeau told the U.N. General Assembly the following year, "and we're here to help." (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)