Will those who falsely claim that a Canada-China trade deal means Canada is joining with China have anything to say about Trump’s remarks about Xi or his selling of advanced chips to China? Of course not.
While there are certainly legitimate concerns over Canada and China signing a trade deal, much of the criticism has been factually incorrect and irresponsible. Particularly in a context where some in the U.S. are pushing for the annexation of Canada and are using false claims of a Canada-China alliance to ‘justify’ such rhetoric, seeing pundits and even some MPs claim that a Canada-China trade deal is some sort of massive shift in alliances indicates the extent to which the pursuit of clicks and short-term political gain is drowning out reality and encouraging some to act in ways that put the country at elevated risk.
The fact is that increased trade between Canada and China has been pursued under both Liberal and Conservative governments, and the recent deal simply creates the possibility of returning to the trading relationship Canada had with China prior to the imposition of tariffs on Chinese EVs – something that was done at the request of the United States.
Notably, those who exaggerate about the trade deal are often the same people who demand that Carney sign a deal with Donald Trump, even though Trump – not Carney – is the individual who has put talks on hold. Those who take the ‘ignore Trump, blame Canada’ stance also conveniently like to ignore things like this:
“Trump on Xi:
I have always had a very good relationship with Xi. He is an incredible man. What he has done is amazing. He is highly respected by everybody.
Our relationship was severely interrupted by Covid, I used to call it the China virus but he said, “do you think you could use a different name?”
And I decided to do that.”
The same pundits and politicians who demand that Canada weaken our economy, walk on eggshells in fear of ever criticising the Trump Administration, and go cap in hand to accept whatever ‘deal’ we are offered by a chronic dealbreaker will of course have nothing to say about Trump praising Xi, nor will they have anything to say about Trump enabling the sale of Nvidia H200 chips to China. As they see it, Canada can have zero independence and zero agency, whereas Trump should be exempt from all criticism.
They also ignore deep China-US economic ties:
It’s time to move beyond that kind of hypocrisy, particularly given that it risks undermining our country at such a crucial moment. Canada has agency. Canada has options. Those who demand that we just roll over for the U.S. either don’t understand the moment we are in or are too obsessed with short-term partisan politics to advance the best interests of our country.
Spencer Fernando
Image – YouTube
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