Taking democracy for granted has consequences for all of us. China has been on my mind lately. The headlines about the Prime Minister’s first official visit to China ahead of the G20 summit in Hangzhou certainly has me concerned about how Chinese government officials could wield their negotiating power in ways that have complex, long-lasting […]
Crashing heavy oil prices great for China, Saudi Arabia “Oil to tidewater.” It’s an industry mantra happily adopted by politicians – and even some environmentalists. But ask yourself this: what happens when you pump more product into an oversupplied market? Answer: the price goes down. Who benefits from cheaper crude oil? First, the customers – like […]
With a Trudeau in office, the Chinese government’s decade-old strategy kicks into gear On October 20th, 2015, Prime Minister-elect Justin Trudeau received a congratulatory call from China’s ambassador Luo Zhaohui. The next day, the state-run China Daily newspaper celebrated “improved prospects for a Free Trade Agreement with China” under Canada’s new Liberal government. A week […]
Xi Jinping, the President of China, makes Donald Trump sound like a liberal poseur. Cracking down on Muslims? Check. Torturing political enemies? Check. Mass surveillance, violation of reproductive rights, military aggression? Check, check, check. When such actions are carried out by Western nations, the condemnation from Western progressives is swift. Canada is routinely “called out” […]
You never know where the next huge story is going to come from. I remember the first time I saw Enbridge’s proposal for a West Coast oil tanker port mentioned in a tiny newspaper article 15 years ago, and we know what happened with that. The other day I saw a short piece in the […]
When my daughter was a toddler I used to read her Dr. Seuss books at bedtime. I don’t know which of us enjoyed this ritual more, her or me, but one of my favourites was Seuss’ famous anti-war satire, the Butter Battle Book. Although ostensibly an arms race parable, it also probes nationalism and the […]
With final arguments in the Kinder Morgan pipeline review underway in Burnaby, a top Chinese official is using the moment to offer Canadians a deal. In his visit to Ottawa last Friday, Han Jun, China’s Vice-Minister of Financial and Economic Affairs, said the world’s second-largest economy would be willing to sign a Free Trade Agreement […]
Prime Minister Stephen Harper deserves credit for doing something extraordinarily difficult: keeping groups of people who share some values – but fundamentally disagree on others – focused on areas of common agreement, not on their differences, for the past six years. The Prime Minister’s ability to keep his caucus and supporters focused on toning down […]