Author: Paul Evans, Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia

The fundamentals of Canada’s approach to the PRC were put in place by the government of Pierre Trudeau after recognition in 1970.  They engendered a durable consensus that lasted for a generation.  Successive Liberal and Progressive Conservative governments all made China a priority, established political contacts at the highest levels, encouraged as many connections with China as possible, and calculated that despite major differences in values and interests Canada could play a positive role in China’s constructive emergence in the international community.

The consensus was never complete but at senior political levels it was never seriously challenged, save for a brief period following Tiananmen Square in 1989.  It reached its high water mark in Prime Minister Martin and President Hu’s announcement of the “strategic partnership” in September 2005.

Four months later, a new Conservative minority government was elected. It took power with a special sympathy for democratic Taiwan, little actual contact with China or foreign affairs, and an ideological mindset on China more consonant with American neo-conservatism than traditional Canadian conservatism.  More than one Conservative MP characterized China as a “godless totalitarian country with nuclear weapons aimed at us.” Read more…