Exclusion Of Foreign Policy From Debate Is A Gift To Trudeau & Insult To Canadians

OpinionSpencerFernando

The elites will always protect their own interests, and that’s what they’re doing by trying to give Trudeau a free pass for his horrendous foreign policy failures.

When this election started, Afghanistan dominated the news.

In particular, Canada’s lack of independent military capability, and our abandonment of both Canadian Citizens and Afghans who helped our troops during the war, caused foreign policy to be the key issue as the campaign began.

This coincided with Justin Trudeau’s drop in the polls, a drop from which he and the Liberals still haven’t recovered from.

Clearly, Canadians are paying attention.

Then, just a few days ago, Michael Kovrig & Michael Spavor hit the grim milestone of 1,000 days in the captivity of the Chinese Communist Party.

Canadians paid attention to that as well.

Thus, foreign policy has been a key part of the election campaign.

Further, other issues that seem domestic in nature also involve an element of foreign policy.

For example, despite what the dishonest Trudeau Liberals & deceptive establishment media claim, the vast majority of gun crime in Canada is committed by gangs, and many of the guns they use are illegally smuggled from the United States.

So, foreign policy and domestic security are linked in that way.

Also, when we talk about issues of affordability, well-paying jobs, self-sufficiency, and national security, reducing our dependence on China is a key part of that.

All of this is to say that foreign policy has clearly played a huge role in this election, and is linked to most of the big issues.

And yet, despite all of this, foreign policy is being excluded from the list of topics in the English language debate.

“Unbelievable: English-language leaders’ debate Thursday has excluded foreign affairs as a topic. (Canadians/Afghan allies trapped in Kabul, our 2 Michaels incarcerated in China.) Debate Broadcast Group Announces Themes of English-language Debate”

Here’s what the Debate Broadcast Group said in their press release:

“The Debate Broadcast Group today announced the themes and format of this Thursday’s English-language federal leaders’ debate.

The debate will cover five themes (in alphabetical order):

    • Affordability
    • Climate
    • COVID recovery
    • Leadership and accountability
    • Reconciliation

These topics were chosen based in part on the 20,201 responses to a questionnaire that was published on the websites of Debate Broadcast Group partners, including APTN News, CBC News, CTV News, and Global News.

The format of the two-hour, commercial-free debate includes five segments, each corresponding to one of the five themes. All five segments will include:

    • Question from a voter
    • Question from the moderator or a journalist to each leader
    • Leader-to-leader-to-leader debate (3 of the 5 leaders)
    • Open debate (all 5 leaders)

Each leader will be given the chance to speak during each segment.

The five leaders invited by the Leaders’ Debates Commission are (in alphabetical order by last name): Yves-François Blanchet (Bloc Québécois), Erin O’Toole (Conservative Party of Canada), Annamie Paul (Green Party of Canada), Jagmeet Singh (New Democratic Party), and Justin Trudeau (Liberal Party of Canada).

The English debate will take place on Thursday, September 9 at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec from 9 to 11 p.m. EDT. It will be moderated by Shachi Kurl, President of the Angus Reid Institute, with the participation of journalists Rosemary Barton (CBC News), Melissa Ridgen (APTN News), Evan Solomon (CTV News) and Mercedes Stephenson (Global News).”

Note how they say the topics were chosen “in part” based on a questionnaire.

Also, who exactly responded to the questionnaire?

Of course, they don’t say.

We know that what really happened is the debate consortium purposely ignored foreign policy and excluded it, because they know the topic would hurt Trudeau.

Already, we know CBC is biased towards Trudeau:

But with the Trudeau government giving out such a massive media bailout – and promising even more money – in addition to the secret payments they still refuse to disclose, the establishment press knows that their financial interests align with Trudeau staying in office.

Additionally, the elites know that Trudeau’s foreign policy being discredited will also discredit them, since much of Canada’s establishment has gone along with the idea of Canada having no real military power and relying on far-left virtue-signalling over substance.

So, by excluding foreign policy from the debate the elites are both giving a gift to Justin Trudeau, and helping themselves.

Who loses in all of this?

Canadians.

An insult to Canadians

Excluding foreign policy from the debate is an insult to Canadians.

It shows the kind of arrogant, ‘we-know-best’ attitude of the elitist class and the establishment media. They prefer to keep Canadians ignorant of what is going on, and give cover for their own failures.

The fact is, Justin Trudeau’s foreign policy has been a disaster.

Canada has no credibility on the world stage.

Our military is in crisis and is brutally underfunded.

We have no real independent military capacity.

We are seen as naïve and lacking any real power.

Countries like China have no respect for Canada, because they never face any real pushback when they mistreat our citizens.

Consider all the things Canada could have done in response to China kidnapping Michael Kovrig & Michael Spavor:

We could have imposed tariffs on China.

We could have put limits on the future number of foreign students from China.

We could have kicked out their ambassador.

We could have banned Huawei.

We could have boosted military cooperation with our allies.

We could have banned Chinese companies from buying out Canadian companies.

We could have banned foreign homebuyers.

Instead, Trudeau did none of this.

Worse than doing nothing, Trudeau continued to push for closer links with China, and he and the Liberal cabinet opposed calling China’s actions against the Uyghur’s a genocide.

The lesson for China is that no matter what they do to this country, there is no pushback, thus no incentive to stop mistreating Canadians.

That also creates an incentive to further mistreat our country, because China can use Canada as the weak target to ‘make an example of’ in their attempts to intimidate other Western nations.

6 years of Justin Trudeau’s foreign policy has left Canada weaker, more divided, less respected, and with far less power and credibility on the world stage.

That should be one of the key issues of the campaign, yet the debate consortium is denying Canadians the chance to see this debated in English.

‘Managed’ Democracy

We continue to see Canada moving more and more towards being a ‘managed’ democracy.

Yes, we get to vote, yes there are different parties, but the range of debate and discussion is so restricted that we increasingly seem to be democratic in name only.

Consider how the PPC have been excluded from the debate.

The PPC pushes a narrative that challenges the establishment.

They are polling higher than the Greens.

The Greens push a narrative that the establishment likes.

So, guess which one of them is allowed in the debate, and which one isn’t?

The more our democracy is ‘managed’ in this manner, the less free our country becomes. And watching what we’ve seen in the year and half shows us that freedom is already under serious assault.

That’s why all Canadians, regardless of where we stand on the political spectrum, should be outraged by the exclusion of foreign policy from the debate.

Spencer Fernando

Photo – YouTube

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