BY: ANTHONY FUREY
It’s funny the things Prime Minister Justin Trudeau chooses to take a firm stand on versus those he lets slip. They’re not one-offs either. Examples abound.
Like how Trudeau’s been insistent that there’s not much we can do when it comes to prosecuting returning ISIS fighters. He doesn’t seem too concerned that there are dozens of them walking about freely on Canadian soil. But Vice Admiral Mark Norman gets everything thrown at him. It was the Privy Council Office – Trudeau’s top bureaucrats – who first referred the Norman case to the RCMP. Trudeau’s team are the ones who called the cops in on Norman but shrug at ISIS fighters. Talk about priorities.
Or there’s the PM’s remark about how veterans are asking for too much money from the feds meanwhile he argues that giving Omar Khadr his $10.5 million payout was the necessary thing.
He does it on the world stage as well. He’s more than happy to harangue other countries about his brand of male feminism when it’s in a safe space, like at the podium at the United Nations or at conferences in Hamburg, Germany, a country that’s elected a female leader several times. Where he doesn’t give these speeches though are in countries, mostly Islamic ones, that have repressive policies towards women.
The latest such disconnect comes to us courtesy of American Vice President Mike Pence, who visited Canada to meet with Trudeau on Thursday. There are two big issues right now that are of pressing and mutual interest to our countries – trade and China.
We’re currently awaiting the ratification of the USMCA deal, a final step in securing stability in our relationship with our number one ally and trading partner.
The second is even more challenging: Our increasingly fraught relationship with China ever since we arrested Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou at the request of the United States.
President Trump is leading the charge in the big picture issue of stopping the Communists in Beijing from their plans of becoming the dominant global superpower. It’s important we get this right and not make decisions that allow China to gain greater dominance over the West and Canada.
Whatever Trudeau thinks of Trump, we should be on the same team on this issue. Let’s hope Trudeau doesn’t admire China’s basic dictatorship so much that he’d rather cozy up to them than the United States.
To get this right we need to work together. Trudeau doesn’t seem to want to do that though. He’s reportedly used some of his time with Pence to hector him about the recent abortion laws that have been enacted in Alabama and other U.S. states.
Really?
Pence is a federal politician, these are state laws and Trudeau is the Canadian leader. It’s hardly relevant. This is nothing but virtue-signalling. Well, that and an attempt to tie all of this to Conservative leader Andrew Scheer to falsely argue that he too wishes to bring about these abortion laws.
It’s a troubling sign that Trudeau’s more willing to stand up to Pence on an issue that doesn’t involve us (or Pence) yet he’s not standing up to China as they keep up their assault on our country.
