Attention Economy


Friday, September 22, 2023

Canada's Shambolic Foreign Policy

What’s the mood in India and Canada? Two commentators on the ground weigh in.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/20/canada-india-trudeau-modi-assassination/



Trudeau’s unwillingness to apologize speaks to Canada’s diminishment on the world stage
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-trudeaus-unwillingness-to-apologize-speaks-to-canadas-diminishment-on/


Jamie Sarkonak: Canada a lion to India, a lamb to China
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/jamie-sarkonak-canada-a-lion-to-india-a-lamb-to-china
It is sure odd that Canada is willing to go scorched earth on another Commonwealth country with (so far) scant evidence, while doing everything it can to put out fires that China keeps lighting at our feet.

 
Omer Aziz, a former foreign policy adviser in the government of Justin Trudeau, notes:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-real-reasons-canadas-relationship-with-india-is-broken/
Canada’s political establishment is old and white, and infused with an ignorant Eurocentrism that still affects foreign policy priorities. Western Europe and the United States were our focus, and some ministers could hardly see beyond London or Berlin. There’s a reason why, along with India, relations with China, with Latin American countries, with much of Africa have deteriorated. It was a great abdication of our long-term priorities, given where we have ended up.
Canada should have at least begun to take steps to ensure our land was not used for terrorist financing – a reasonable demand, given that the overwhelming number of Canadian Sikhs are peaceful and uninterested in using violence to create a separate Sikh homeland. (Coincidentally, Khalistan is almost entirely a diaspora issue; there is little organized support, even among Sikhs in India, for a separate homeland.) By taking goodwill measures, it would have at least been possible to keep talking and find workable policy solutions. The only problem was, Mr. Trudeau did not want to lose the Sikh vote to Jagmeet Singh. So we dug in our heels.
What I saw in government was how Canada’s ethnic domestic battles were distorting our long-term foreign policy priorities, and politicians, who never understood South Asia or India anyway, were pandering in lowest-common-denominator ways in B.C. and Ontario suburbs, and playing up ethnic grievances to win votes. This was especially true within internal Liberal Party politics, meaning that we could hardly focus on foreign policy and strategy without factoring in which ridings might be lost because a certain group might be upset. Canada, as a country, has suffered great reputational damage by such thinking – and none of our allies are going to come to our help on this issue. 

Canada - A Safe Haven for Terrorists
https://www.youtube.com/live/Nt7LJfrQW3c

Trudeau's Popularity Plunges Amid Standoff with India