Prime Minister Stephen Harper's trade mission to China has been a roaring success. Not only did he secure Canada billions of dollars in trade agreements, but he scored Toronto and Calgary a pair of pandas. Nice touch! Granted, there are some people who don't want us to sell resources to China or accept their pandas. Rather what we should be doing is boycotting trade until they change their foreign and domestic policy to something that's more agreeable with Canadian values. Evidently making public statements disagreeing with Chinese policy is insufficient, we should cut off trade altogether until they change (because doing so will surely make them change course).
The poll question today on the CBC's Rosemary Barton Show was; is Canada putting trade with China ahead of human rights? 83% said yes. It's ridiculous that Soloman has started naming his polls "the ballot box question", when most of his loaded questions are completely irrelevant to how people vote. I'd like to see Rosemary permanently take over for Evan. The better question is; should Canada halt trade with China until they adopt more agreeable foreign and domestic policies?
Here's a part on the panda story I would like to confirm.
ReplyDeleteI heard that back when trudeau made his visit to china, he wanted to get the chinese to give canada a couple of pandas in exchange for a pair of beavers. Now I don't know if he actually made this offer or not, but I do know that this is the first time that the chinese have loaned pandas as part of a PMs visit.
Not for pet, not for Chretch, not for Martin......but for Harper, yes.
These animals are considered a national treasure, the symbolism is that if your nation is given the gift it means you have earned a great deal of respect from the chinese as people of good faith and they want the world to know it as well.
Once you have earned that respect, you can be expected to be listened to on other issues, like the ME, world credit, and international security.
One by one, the liberal legacy is coming undone.
"until they change their foreign and domestic policy to something that's more agreeable with Canadian values."
ReplyDeleteThe values of the far Left are most certainly NOT "Canadian values"! They never have been, just are spoken more loudly than the values of the 75% of Canadians who don't spend their life in political activism.
Most governments in the world have had a very difficult time of making their own Country work,and as the U.S. and Europe are proving right now,it ain't working very well.
China,with a population exceeding any other Country by multiples,is clawing it's way to first world status,and they certainly don't need any advice from Countries that are barely functioning.
Canada has always,under the Trudeau/Mulroney/Chretien/Martin Liberals,been a smug observer of the world scene,secure in the unwarranted feeling of moral superiority,all the while living under the protection of Big Brother America.
Our politicians have used the people of Canada as a vast herd of cattle to be milked,and controlled. When you observe the freedom that has been stolen from us by successive governments over the last forty years, we have little to feel smug about.
Any Canadian governing mode of the past 40 years,if applied in China would have seen that Country embroiled in a vicious civil war. The Leaders of China may not govern by our methods or to our sanctimonious standards of "human rights", but they DO know how to govern a Nation of over a billion,and sometimes it isn't NICE.
Funny, we scold China for it's lack of human rights,while stealing or denying those rights to our own people and entrenching communist methods of societal control in all our governing agencies.
People in glass houses.....
I agree with dmorris,as I married a Chinese lady in April/11,and I was there for awhile,and was treated very well by everyone.I don't know if I seen anyone begging on the street,and the people were doing a lot of shopping.Sure they are a communist country,and we all know it,but we don't know what our country is now,for sure it's not democratic.Can you imagine a country that aborts over 100,000 babies each and every year complaining about another countries human rights.Most of us conservatives don't believe in abortion on demand.The righteous ones,the NDPPQ all believe in killing babies.I was in Quebec twice in 1997 and I definitely haven't and wouldn't ever go back.I felt very uncomfortable there,but never ever felt that way in China.I'm really looking forward to going back to China this summer.I'm a senior now,and my wife is such a caring person.I find that most of the Chinese are family oriented,like most of us used to be.
DeleteJoseph - then how did Calgary get a pair of pandas for the 88 Olympics, if not by Prime Ministerial persuasion?
ReplyDeleteTrudeau loved the communists,but they didn't love him back,as they could see right through him,as we did.
ReplyDeleteHow odd that the likes of the NDPer's and Liberals have been mute about China for many years now and yet as soo as Harper tried to build those Bridges like Taliban Jack wanted to build with our enemies....suddenly they get religious and NOW they care about Human Rights.
ReplyDeletePoor NDP, they're always 4 years too late for a genocides where Jack and Olivia wants troops there after 500'000 dead bodies dot the lanscapes.
Then they are either 5 year too early and want canada to get envolved in a non-crisis. But in the mean time the Leftists vacation in a Communist nation like Cuba and ignore the plight of locals or the hundreds of gays with AIDS that were jailed to keep them out of sight from the CUPE,CAW,OPSEU vacationers that love to over look the Ocaen and the Poverty.
The CAW has a real special heluva nerve to demand that I put CAW products in my garage when they fill their home with imported Slave-labour Electronics and appliances( includes Buzz hargrove).
Today there is a Condo where the Moffat plant was because 400 jobs went to Mexico while the CAW had their nice wages and benefits and did squat to save those jobs, and i bet some of the CAW memeber live in the Condo as to be close to their jobs as well.
Funny how no one cared about that little Terrorist Omar Khadr when the Chretien/Martin reigned in Ottawa, but in 2006 when Harper came in we suddenly saw leftists and Liberals go ape over Himan Rights violations.
jeez, just what we need two more immigrants that won't work, that we have to feed, house and keep clean. what was the pm thinking.////
ReplyDelete"I'd like to see Rosemary permanently take over for Evan."
ReplyDeleteSo would I. She's far better at interviewing, asking pointed questions but still one does not usually get the feeling she's cheering for the anti-Harper side. She also manages to control the loudmouths on the power panels far better than Solomon.
It is also business as usual for critics of the Harper government.
Remember when the media was all upset because PM Harper dared to talk about human rights when he first came into office?
Remember how the media tut-tutted and wagged their fingers because he decided not to attend the Beijing Olympics?
Remember how much pleasure the media seemed to derive from the supposed scolding PM Harper received from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in 2009 for not going to China sooner?
Now the media and other critics are caterwauling because PM Harper has not been as aggressive in talking about human rights as they would like -- at this time.
Nothing but contrariness.
-- Gabby in QC