I thought for my first real blog I would offer some comments on the Canada/China relationship, something particularly topical two days after the Canadian Ambassador to China was fired.  By the way, he did have to go, not just for his public musings on the Weng case but more importantly for what those musings said about his possible “off the record” chats with Chinese officials.  No government could tolerate that, particularly at such a fraught time in the relationship.  And on that subject, I think the Conservatives are way out of line with their public criticism on this issue.  I heard the Conservative Foreign Affairs Critic, Erin O’toole, on the weekend suggesting that the only reason McCallum was fired was that he got caught…in other words McCallum was voicing the real government position, something that I think is patently wrong.  This will be music to Beijing’s ears and Canadians should remember it when they vote in November.

As to the relationship itself, in the past I have always supported the strategy of getting closer to China right up to and including a comprehensive free trade agreement.  Boy, what a difference a few weeks make!  The best thing to come out of the current dispute for me at least, is the stripping away of the mask that portrayed the People’s Republic of China as just another rules abiding nation.  The face behind that mask is not pretty.  The crude insults from their foreign affairs department, the branding of Canada and Canadians as racists, the dredging up of wrongs committed against China by European colonial powers as somehow justifying its rule breaking behaviour today, the extradordinarily undiplomatic comments of China’s ambassador to Canada, including ad hominem attacks on Canadian leaders and officials and, of course, the seizing of Canadian hostages (yes, that’s the right word) in China, not to mention the ludicrously phony court proceeding resulting in the imposition of the death penalty on a Canadian in a Chinese jail are about as forceful reminders to Canadians that China is not, and never will be, our friend or ally.

I’ve noticed throughout this dispute Canadian Sinophiles asking us to be patient; to try to understand China with its history of suffering under invaders; its Confucian beliefs; its challenges as it relieves the economic hardships of its huge population.  Well, it seems to me this should go two ways and I have seen scant if any evidence that China feels the slightest need to understand Canada; our history; our overarching legal and political system; our support for human rights.  In fact, if there’s one clear message to Canada in China’s behaviour it’s that it doesn’t care at all about any of that except where it fits China’s own long term interests.

Combine all of this with China’s other behaviours stealing intellectual property; ignoring its obligations as a member of the World Trade Organization; agressively pursuing territorial expansion in the South China Sea; locking hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of its non ethnic Chinese citizens in re-education/concentration camps and we would have to be remarkably blind (not to mention dumb and deaf) not to raise warning flags.

Canada has no choice but to have a relationship with China; the question is what that relationship should look like.  From my perspective it should not include a comprehensive free trade agreement which China will manipulate and/or ignore to its own advantage and it should most emphatically not include an extradition treaty (see earlier comments on impositon of death penalty on imprisoned Canadian).  Of course there are economic consequences for Canada in this approach.  We may be less wealthy.  But some things are more important than money (really!).

Stay tuned for my future comments on Chinese Canadian citizens who support Beijing in the current dispute…it will likely upset some of you.

Just sayin.

G

Well, here goes. I’m planning to write a weekly blog that will mostly deal with politics and current affairs although may occasionally lapse into other pop issues and travel experiences.

First, a few things about me and politics. I turn 70 in a few months and have been retired for going on seven years now. Politically, I consider myself a “blue liberal” or “red tory” although I belong to no political party and am quite ecumenical in casting my votes. The only party I have ever belonged to is the NDP which I was an active member of in the 1960’s and early 70’s. For those of you who aren’t Canadian, the NDP is a bit like the British Labour Party, nominally social democratic and with strong ties to the labour movement in Canada.

During my NDP years I was provincial President of the youth wing of the party in B.C., a member of the Executive of the federal youth wing, a member of the Provincial Executive of the NDP itself, a member of the Provincial Council of the NDP for several years and the organizer and manager of many federal and provincial election campaigns. In 1974 I was defeated for the NDP federal nomination in Vancouver East by Margaret Mitchell even though I was then President of the riding association and she was a new convert to the NDP. It was a particularly nasty nomination battle where some folks thought it appropriate to discuss my sexual orientation as a factor….hopefully things have changed since then.

Professionally, I have worked as a Teaching Assistant at SFU when I was in graduate school there; a political organizer in B.C., Manitoba and Ontario; a staff member of the United Steel Workers of America in Trail B.C. and the United Auto Workers in Windsor/Detroit; a founder and then Executive Director of the B.C. union (PEA) that initially represented licensed professional employees in the B.C. Public Service and subsequently other professional employees throughout B.C.; a member of the Core Steering Committee of Operation Solidarity in B.C.; the lead negotiator for Residents and Internes after they unionized in B.C. in the early seventies; the lead negotiator for Capilano College and once each for Langara College andMalaspina Colleges in B.C.; seconded to the Korbin Commission, I was the principal writer on the report that reshaped public sector collective bargaining in B.C.; a member of the Labour Relations Committee of the Employers Council of B.C.; a member of the Board of the Post Secondary Employers Association of B.C. and, finally, for the last seventeen years of my career, the Chief Negotiator for the BCMA representing doctors in their negotiations with the provincial government and other agencies.

Most of these roles allowed me an inside view of governments, warts and all. Following Bernard Shaw’s dictum, I’ve become more conservative as I age although my views on most social issues are about as progressive as you can get without being dismissed as a crank.

Oh, also, I’m gay if you haven’t already figured that out.

So, enough about me, from now on I’m going to be writing about stuff that interests me and, hopefully, will engage you too. Fasten your seatbelts (with thanks to Betty Davis).

Geoff