He was asked “besides Canada, which nation’s administration do you most admire, and why?”
Here’s his full quote:
“There’s a level of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around.”
– Justin Trudeau, November 7, 2013
Friend – we did not make this up.
We can’t let this man be our next Prime Minister – donate $25 or whatever you can afford right now so we can fight back.
Residents ride bicycles along a street amid heavy haze in Xingtai, Hebei province November 3, 2013. Dense smog has periodically shrouded major cities in north and northeast China in recent years, raising increasing public discontent, Xinhua News Agency reported. (REUTERS/China Daily)
“Which nation, besides Canada, which nation’s administration do you most admire, and why?”
There were about 100 people in the crowd at swank downtown Toronto meeting place who’d paid $250 each to be able to ask Justin Trudeau questions and, as the ad said, to “really get to know the future prime minister.”
CHONGQING – I snapped this picture while covering Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s 2012 visit to Chongqing. One of the first shipments of frozen Canadian pork that had been allowed into China had just arrived at Chongqing’s massive port — it’s the one with the Canadian flag on it — and Canadian and Chinese officials were heralding its arrival as a sign of a new commercial relationship between the two countries. Later that day, Harper would sign the agreement to bring two pandas to Canada. (DAVID AKIN / QMI Agency)
Heriberto Araújo and Juan Pablo Cardenal are the authors ofChina’s Silent Army: The Pioneers, Traders, Fixers and Workers Who Are Remaking The World in Beijing’s Image. Today in the New York Times, they have a long interesting piece in which they argue that China’s “state capitalism” represents a real threat to the West and to the values — the rule of law, political freedom and fair competition — important to the West. And Canada — “a progressive bastion” — gets a prominent mention:
Europeans and Americans [and Canadians for that matter] tend to fret over Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea, its territorial disputes with Japan, and cyberattacks on Western firms, but all of this is much less important than a phenomenon that is less visible but more disturbing: the aggressive worldwide push of Chinese state capitalism…
CALGARY – Liberal Party of Canada’s leadership candidate, Justin Trudeau, holds up a message after speaking to students at Mount Royal University on Tuesday Nov 20, 2012. (Darren Makowichuk/Calgary Sun/QMI AGENCY)
OTTAWA – Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete “schools me” after I asked today how his government would handle a foreign investment opportunity from a country that doesn’t share Tanzania’s and Canada’s democratic values. This pic was snapped in 237-C of the House of Commons by PMO photographer Jason Ransom.
The Tanzanian President, Jakaya Kikwete, is in Canada this week on an official visit. This afternoon, after meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the two men took some questions from reporters. The press were allotted a total of four questions, two from each country’s press corps. The Canadian press corps gets further subdivided into one English-language question and one French-language question. Hélène Buzzetti of Le Devoir asked the French-language question, a question that was really only for Harper as it was about the Port of Montreal. The English-language reporters — CP, Bloomberg, Toronto Star, Reuters, Postmedia and Sun — came to a consensus that we wanted to ask Harper about the Nexen deal and I drew the straw to put the question to the PM. But, given that Tanzania also relies heavily on foreign investment to develop its resource sector, I thought it would be interesting to hear President Kikwete’s views on how Tanzania handles investment proposals from companies that originate in countries, like China, that do not share Tanzania’s democratic values. Continue reading So, President Kikwete, can you help us work through our Nexen problem?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper had a one-on-one meeting with China’s President Hu Jintao here in Vladivostok, Russia on the margins of the annual APEC summit.
The two met for 30 minutes with a bevy of officials on either side.
A vandalised poster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad lies in a trash container in the northern city of Aleppo on July 24, 2012. A commercial hub and home to 2.5 million people, Syria's second city Aleppo has become a new front in the country's 16-month uprising, after being largely excluded from the violence. (AFP PHOTO / BULENT KILIC)
As we arrived in China last week covering Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit there, this column of mine was published in our newspaper chain. It concluded:
The Chinese are sensitive about [human rights issues]. They do not like to be called out on their lousy human rights record. The Chinese need not worry. The Canadians this week are here for pipelines and pandas.
Here’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaking in Shanghai at a dinner organized by the Canada-China Business Council. It is Dec. 4, 2009. After spending most of his speech talking about the importance of boosting the trading relationship between the two countries, there is this bit:
But ladies and gentlemen, just as trade is a two-way street, so too is dialogue. Our government believes, and has always believed, that a mutually beneficial economic relationship is not incompatible with a good and frank dialogue on fundamental values like freedom, human rights and the rule of law. Continue reading Canada and human rights in China: Are we making a difference?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Beijing leading a corporate Canada dream team. The Chinese have definitely noticed. Press reports here have consistently noted that Harper is leading “a strong delegation.”
