It’s the last thing Canada needs.
Over the past 7 years or so, we’ve watched as the Trudeau government slowly – very slowly – reached a decently common-sense position on China.
Trudeau started off praising the Chinese Communist dictatorship, and sought to move Canada closer to China’s orbit even as he distanced our nation from traditional allies like the US and the UK.
Trudeau pushed for a free-trade deal with China, and even an extradition deal with China.
He let China buy up Canadian companies – even companies linked to sensitive areas of our national security.
He endlessly delayed making a decision on whether to ban Huawei from our 5G networks, even as our allies warned that the failure to do so could jeopardize our intelligence sharing agreements.
In short, Trudeau did everything he could to move Canada closer to China.
He failed.
A combination of massive public outrage against China for kidnapping two Canadian Citizens, the genocide China is perpetrating in Xinjiang, backlash from some of his own backbench MPs who oppose closer ties with China, and overwhelming pressure from our allies have all led the Liberals to finally – and belatedly – distance Canada from China.
Of course, it never should have taken this long, and we must be vigilant since Trudeau will likely try to strengthen ties with China the moment attention turns away.
Still, Canada has reached a position on China that largely tracks with our democratic allies.
A vile tactic
However, all this time the Trudeau government has used a rhetorical ‘tactic’ that is both damaging to the country, and ethically reprehensible.
They used it in the 2021 campaign, and they used it when Covid-19 was emerging from China.
The tactic is to equate criticism of the Chinese Communist Party with criticism of Chinese People in general, and then to attempt to silence that criticism by labelling it ‘racist.’
After making heavy use of that tactic, the Liberals have eased off somewhat. This isn’t some newfound principle on their part, it’s simply a reflection of public opinion in Canada and the fact that the Liberals have distanced Canada from China under immense pressure.
But, lo and behold, CPC leadership candidate Patrick Brown has picked up the torch!
Brown is claiming the CPC was seen as being ‘against’ Chinese Canadians, despite the fact that it was foreign actors interfering in domestic politics – at the behest of supporters of the Chinese Communist Party – who sought to generate that false impression.
It appears Brown is seeking to cast blame on the CPC for this, rather than on the misinformation that was spread by hostile actors:
“Conservative leadership candidate Patrick Brown says he believes Canada can advance its trade relationship with China while at the same time take a stand against its human rights abuses.
“I’m a firm believer that you can do both,” Brown said in a recent interview.”
Further, “The debate still lingers about the impacts of the misinformation on the party’s fate in the 2021 election. Former leader Erin O’Toole also ran on a vocal promise to adopt a tougher stance than the Liberal government toward Beijing — something Brown said wasn’t articulated clearly.
“Because of the long-standing relationships I have in the community … I have posed that question. I said, ‘What happened?’” Brown said.
“The impression in the community was that the Conservative party was against the Chinese Canadian community. So I think there needs to be a clear distinction.””
According to the CP, “Brown also announced last month he had secured the endorsement of the Chinese Canadian Conservative Association. After last year’s election loss, the National Post reported that the association called for O’Toole to resign in part over his position toward China.”
While not a fan of many things O’Toole did, his criticism of the Chinese Communist Party was laudable.
And he and the CPC were clear to differentiate that criticism from criticism of Chinese Canadians.
By ignoring that truth, Patrick Brown is using the same divisive and pandering tactics that Justin Trudeau has used to divide the nation.
Brown is also heading down a path that the CCP would clearly approve of, as he appears willing to sell out Canada’s values for his own short-term political gain. That kind of attitude would almost surely lead to a Patrick Brown-led Conservative Party to downplay criticism of China.
That’s the last thing Canada needs, and the Conservative membership must reject Patrick Brown’s Trudeau-style rhetoric on China.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
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