Trudeau also needs to step away from Twitter

[Anonymous]

Justin is as ignorant of international diplomacy as he is about the impact of a carbon tax in this country on economic growth and global warming.



By Brian Lilley of Sun News media



Canada is currently involved in a major dust-up with Saudi Arabia that will cost this country billions. Why?



Because Justin Trudeau's foreign affairs minister decided to conduct diplomacy by Twitter. Isn't that something liberals have mocked Donald Trump for?



What could have, and should have, been dealt with through quiet diplomacy is now a major diplomatic incident. The Saudis have recalled thousands of students studying in Canada, they are busy selling off Canadian stocks, bonds and other assets and stopping the import of wheat and other commodities.



All over Twitter diplomacy. Look, I'm all for standing up for basic human rights against oppressive regimes but the man that claimed Canada was back is turning Canada into a pariah.



[size=150]Trudeau was elected in 2015 claiming, falsely, that Stephen Harper had alienated Canada on the world stage. He promised to renew relations with Russia and Iran, bring Canada closer to China.



Other than trying to improve relations with Iran, itself an oppressive regime, Trudeau has failed.

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Now in the face of a spat with Saudi Arabia, Trudeau and his foreign minister Chrystia Freeland are claiming that we have a values-based foreign policy. One that values feminism, human rights, free speech.



Sounds good but if so, why are we cozying up to Iran and China?



Iran continues to crack down on political dissent, women have been arrested for violating mandatory dress laws and elections are far from democratic. China continues to prosecute human rights activists, various ethnic and religious groups are persecuted and state control of media is near complete.



Yet, Trudeau wants to reopen an embassy with Iran, establish closer ties with the regime and is even financing the purchase of Bombardier planes by the Iranian government.



With China, he has been pursuing a trade agreement.



That fell flat and Trudeau was left without a deal when he visited last December. Seems Trudeau annoyed his Chinese hosts and they decided not to give him the deal he wanted, even though Trudeau was busy doing their bidding.



Trudeau's trip to China came just after his visit to Vietnam where he scuttled the signing of the Trans Pacific Partnership deal. The deal is seen as a counterbalance to China's economic power in the Asia-pacific region and Beijing has never liked it.



So when leaders were supposed to meet and sign the deal, Trudeau didn't show up.



That infuriated Australia, Japan and other countries.



Canada has since signed on to the TPP but Trudeau is being slow to ratify it, again, best not to anger China.



Trudeau famously angered Donald Trump after the G7. As CBC reported at the time, [size=150]Trump's furor, and own Twitter tirade, was caused by Trudeau telling the world Canada wouldn't be pushed around by the Americans just after Trump granted a major concession in NAFTA talks.

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[size=150]Trudeau is a walking disaster internationally.

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His trip to India earlier this year left us alienated from one of the fastest growing economies in the world.



Now as the spat with the Saudis grows, we can't even count on allies to come to our aid. The U.S. and U.K. have stated they will not take sides.



Countries such as Bahrain and Qatar have taken the Saudi side. So too has the Palestinian Authority, an organization that the Trudeau government pledged $50 million to just over a month ago.



So we are going to suffer economically, we are alienated from allies and, at the end of it all, what was accomplished?



The original issue was the continued imprisonment of blogger Raif Badawi, whose wife and children are Canadian, and the recent arrest of his activist sister Samar.



Has their treatment improved as a result of this tweet?



No.



Will their treatment improve? No.



In fact, I worry things could get worse for them.



Saudi Arabia can be a brutal and backwards regime but it is a regime that Canada was engaging with and encouraging to continue in its reforms. Now, we are frozen out. Don't worry though, Justin told us that Canada is back.

[Anonymous]

One Saudi solution? Support our oilsands. But guess what people, Prime minister nincompoop killed the $16 billion Energy East. We have the third largest proven reserves of oil in the world, but we are reliant on thin skinned dictatorships.



Justin Trudeau has now doubled down in his diplomatic spat with Saudi Arabia.



"Canadians have always expected our government to speak strongly, firmly and politely about the need to respect human rights around the world," Trudeau told reporters Wednesday.



"We will continue to stand up for Canadian values and human rights. It's something that I will always do," he said.



The Saudis effectively severed ties with Canada over a couple of Tweets composed by Foreign Affairs Minister chrystia Freeland and her department.



Freeland decided it was a good idea to lecture the Middle eastern kingdom about the imprisonment of human and women's rights activist Samar Badawi and her dissident brother Raif, whose wife and kids now live in Canada.



And regardless of how we feel about the Saudi record on human rights, in a world populated by repressive and even brutal regimes, diplomacy and progress are built by growing fragile relationships between nations, not by morally superior hectoring.



Freeland's Tweets, and Trudeau's defence of them, are designed to appeal to Canadian voters — not to effect change in Saudi Arabia, because they won't accomplish that.



But they do have consequences here — severed business ties, lost foreign investment and foreign students being sent home.



Should Trudeau actually find a backbone to do more than "stand up" for Canadian values in other countries, [size=150]he might want to think about why this country is importing more than $2 billion worth of Saudi oil annually into Canada (especially given his environmental activism and the enormous carbon footprint of getting Saudi oil here by dirty and polluting tanker ships).



Trudeau might want to think about the need for actual energy independence at home.

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We've seen a frustrating series of failed energy sector projects in canada — keystone XL, energy east, Northern Gateway or Trans Mountain — that are critical if canada wants to compete with the Saudis and other energy producing countries.



If we made energy infrastructure a national priority, it would fuel jobs and oil exports and we could dismiss the Saudis' tantrum about our Tweets.



Instead, canada has allowed myopic and misguided activists to sabotage economic progress and national energy independence.



It's time that happened, and time for Trudeau to stop his government's irresponsible tweeting.

[Anonymous]

[size=150]PM'S made a mess of our relationships around the world

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's approach to foreign policy has been nothing short of shameful.



After Trudeau was elected, he smugly told the country that "Canada is back" on the world stage. No longer would Canada strive to be a principled leader on moral issues.



Instead, Canada would go back to its meek role of a global "middle-power," as minister Chrystia Freeland put it, and a so-called "honest broker" on the world stage.



The bureaucrats in the department of foreign affairs swooned over Trudeau and his decision to revert Canada to its stale old self. When Trudeau first entered the Pearson building, home to the supposedly non-partisan foreign service, he was given a rockstar welcome.



The building's lobby was packed with adoring bureaucrats applauding Trudeau's election victory and leaning in for selfies with the celebrity PM.



For those of us who aren't partisan members of the Liberal Party, it was a national embarrassment.



But after all the fuss about Canada minding its own business and seeking middle ground with our adversaries — be it communist dictatorships or Islamist theocracies — Trudeau has managed to make a blunder of Canada's international relationships.



In just three years, Trudeau has made international headlines for disputes with countries ranging the spectrum; China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and our once closest ally in the U.S.



Trudeau has bizarrely insisted on tying Canada's trade deals to his leftist pet causes, including feminism and global warming. In response, Canada is now being excluded from trade negotiations over the future of NAFTA.



After criticizing former prime minister Stephen Harper for his foreign policy approach, which deliberately promoted Western values, Trudeau has fumbled down the same path — with much less success.



Harper would criticize you to your face; Trudeau does it behind your back — or, in the latest case, by virtue-signalling on social media.



This brings us to our current spat with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.



The Saudi royal family runs an Islamist dictatorship with few redeeming qualities. Its penal code is among the most regressive in the world, rivaling ISIS for its brutality and unwavering commitment to Sharia law.



Freedom of religion simply doesn't exist in Saudi Arabia. Churches are banned, Christianity is forbidden and criticizing Islam can lead to a beheading in the town square.



Saudi Arabia shamelessly exports its medieval ideology around the world, by funding radical mosques and radicalizing Islamist centres and schools throughout the West.



Fifteen of the 9/11 hijackers who murdered nearly 3,000 civilians in 2001 were Saudi citizens; a 2016 report revealed that several of the hijackers received assistance from individuals connected to the Saudi government.



This makes the now-deleted Saudi government-linked tweet — showing an Air Canada plane headed towards the CN Tower — all the more despicable.



But Canada has long been willing to turn a blind eye to Saudi barbarism, including under the former Harper government. Not only do we sell military equipment to the Saudi regime, we also rely on their oil.



Canada should be exporting our own oil, but instead, we import some 87,000 barrels of Saudi oil per day.



If Trudeau wants to be a global advocate for Western values, he needs to abandon his penchant for virtue-signalling and learn to take a stand in real life.



Rather than sending passive and critical tweets, Trudeau should stop importing Saudi oil and immediately halt the flow of cash to Saudi-funded schools and Islamist centres in Canada.

[cc]

He is proving to be a total disaster on foreign affairs ... seems absolutely clueless

[Anonymous]

He is proving to be a total disaster on foreign affairs ... seems absolutely clueless

That is absolutely true. But, it's overshadowed by the destruction he has inflicted on the economy. Investors are fleeing Trudeau's Canada.

[Anonymous]

I can't stand Trudeau, but there isn't any real choice in Canada. They are all prog scum.

[Bricktop]

I'd almost offer to swap our buffoon for yours...but I think we'd get the worst of it.

[Anonymous]

I'd almost offer to swap our buffoon for yours...but I think we'd get the worst of it.

Of course you would get the short end of the stick.