The Trudeau government has no idea how to handle its relationship with China.

Ever since the diplomatic dispute over the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou for violating U.S. sanctions laws by allegedly working with Iran and the resulting arrest of two Canadians as retribution, Trudeau looks like a fish out of water. He can’t decide whether to treat China as an ally or an adversary.

To anyone paying attention to China, both its grotesque human rights record and its increasingly belligerent foreign affairs, it’s clear that China is no friend to Canada. And yet, that’s exactly what senior Liberal figures continue to imply.

First, it was Trudeau’s former ambassador to China John McCallum who told Chinese journalists in Toronto that the Huawei telecom executive had a strong case to fight against U.S. extradition. He stated it would be “great for Canada” if the U.S. backed down.

McCallum was fired for these remarks, but he continued to advise China on how to manage its relationship with Canada.

“Anything that is more negative against Canada will help the Conservatives, (who) are much less friendly to China than the Liberals,” said McCallum in July, just weeks prior to the start of the 2019 federal election campaign.

McCallum is not the only Liberal speaking out of turn on China. This week, former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley stated that Canada should do a “prisoner exchange” with China. Not only would this pardon Meng on her charges of fraud and breaking sanctions by doing deals with Iran, it would legitimize China’s hostage-taking.

Anytime a corrupt Chinese official is arrested overseas, the communist regime could simply kidnap a Canadian or two and wait for another prisoner swap.

McCallum and Manley’s misguided statements pale in comparison, however, to remarks made by newly-appointed Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne. As reported by True North, in a 2017 interview with the state-owned China Global Television Network, the Liberal MP praised China for its “rules-based system” and “inclusive society.”

“In a world of uncertainty, of unpredictability, of questioning about the rules that have been established to govern our trading relationship, Canada, and I would say China, stand out as a beacon of stability, predictability, a rule-based system, a very inclusive society,” he told the Chinese network. Even in 2017, the world knew of China’s despicable human rights record against religious and ethnic minorities.

Last month, an internal Chinese government report leaked to The New York Times helped shine light on the estimated 1.5 million people held in internment camps — mostly Uyghur Muslims, but also Kazakhs, Turks and Christians, as well as writers, artists and political dissidents. Canada has rightly condemned these camps.

China’s internal affairs — concentration camps, the police crackdown against pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, and the new “social credit” system that ranks citizens based on loyalty to the communist regime — looks increasingly like a dystopian novel or a flashback to the most bone-chilling moments of the 20th century.

Anyone who calls this society “inclusive” is delusional. And yet, Champagne is the man Trudeau has trusted to manage this tense relationship.

On Thursday, China’s ambassador to Canada drew a red line and warned that Beijing will launch tough measures against Canada should Parliament go ahead with a motion to sanction Chinese officials over human rights abuses.

Don’t expect the Trudeau government to take a clear, strong or principled approach when it comes to dealing with China.

If you actually think overpaid bureaucrats do anything of value, you need to take a look at True North Fellow Andrew Lawton’s piece at www.tnc.news. It was a remarkable tale about a poem about Jack and Jill and how bureaucrats exchanged a vast amount of emails discussing whether it was “inclusive” enough.

Now, I have long thought most bureaucrats are useless people who accomplish little or nothing and get paid wages and benefits just not available to the average person in the private sector who pay the freight for the bureaucrats. 

But it’s not just bureaucrats, it’s the virtue signalling politically correct political class as well. Our current Prime Minister is perhaps the perfect example. 

In the same week, he embarrassed this country on the world stage (again) by trash-talking U.S. President Donald Trump in front of other world leaders at a reception at Buckingham Palace. Pro tip: you don’t go up to the biggest guy in the bar and stick your finger in his eye. 

This incident led to Trump calling Trudeau two-faced and further mockery as we learned that in the last month the U.S. added 266,000 jobs while Canada lost 71,200 in the same period. 

That’s no mean feat either. 

The economies of our two countries are inextricably tied together. More than a billion dollars in trade crosses our border every single day. The U.S. economy has the lowest unemployment rate since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon sitting at 3.5%. Canada’s in the interim just went from 5.7% to 5.9%.

The federal election is barely a month gone. In the lead up to the election, Canadians were told the economy was trending fine and the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau had created a million jobs in their first term.

Most Canadians knew that was nonsense yet enough folks in the eastern part of the country bought it and voted for Trudeau again. 

The problem is the bureaucrats in StatsCan did not speak out and correct those statements. In fact, they backed them up. So, in other words, we were misled by our political leaders and the bureaucrats who seemingly support them. How else do you explain that kind of economic downturn in a month?

Well, you can’t.

In the Throne Speech delivered by the Governor General Julie Payette this past week, the Liberals’ virtue signalling was on full display. In something just over 3,000 words we were told the priority for the government is to focus on climate change. So, Canada is responsible for something in the neighbourhood of 1.4% of the world’s emissions and we are a net contributor because of our boreal forest yet this is the biggest priority for the federal government?

In delivering the 8 page speech, the Governor General also said this, “We know that we are inextricably bound to the same space-time continuum and onboard the same planetary space ship.” 

What in heck was she talking about and what has this got to do with a legislative agenda?

The worst part of all this is that they are serious. And they expect you and I to pay for all of that.