Retaliatory Politics

It is sometimes difficult for me, as a Canadian, to not be seduced by the (I hope) natural desire to respond to others who are not nice to Canada. It may be because almost all of the news articles I read are Canadian, but it feels as if Canada has been particularly vulnerable to other countries, larger countries picking on us, demanding that we conform to their specific worldviews.

Most obvious of course is Mr. Trump's rants and tweets about how unfair Canada's trade practices are while the USA continued to ignore the rulings of various tribunals as to its trade practices in Canada. Throughout the NAFTA trade negotiations there was this constant nagging fear that the bully that is our neighbour to the south of us would force us into a poor deal. Even if the deal that was finally signed is not a poor one for Canada - it will never feel like a good one. While it would have been disastrous for Canada as a nation to walk away from the negotiating table - it was still tempting to do so - just to prove that we could not be bullied. It was equally as tempting to pile on the tariffs as Mr. Trump did the same.

It now appears as if China is using the same type of bullying tactics to convince Canada to ignore its treaty obligations and release Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou from her bail conditions. China has arrested at least two Canadians and further sentenced a third Canadian to be executed for drug crimes as a not-so-subtle threat against Canada. It is tempting to remind China that there are far more Chinese visitors and business people in Canada than there are Canadians in China. Perhaps we need to arrest a few dozen visitors to remind them of this. There is no reason why we could not create laws and legal systems that are just as draconian and obfuscated as the Chinese rules and systems are.

But, of course, Canada did not retaliate and impose harsh tariffs on most American products (steel being an exception), we did not threaten to shut our borders down, we did not bad mouth the president (or at least our parliamentarians didn't) in public and in spite of the threats and insults, we quietly plodded along, negotiating when the opportunity was there seeking support from others when it was possible. I suppose there was some sort of pride when it was clear that we were taking the high road in terms of how we related to the USA -perhaps it is our Christian democratic roots that suggest that rewards will come to those who wait and who are nice - but it would have been so much more fun, at least in the short term if we had been just a little bit meaner.

Similarly, I know that Canada will not start to arrest Chinese nationals on some vague possibility that they are doing something that is not good for Canada's security. I know that we will not incarcerate those citizens for extended periods of time with limited contact with the Chinese embassy or lawyers. But there is that part of me that would like to remind the Chinese leadership that things work so much better when everyone plays by the same set of rules. It is unfortunate that some countries only understand politics when one has a big club in their hands.

Until the world becomes a bit more civilized, then Canada will, I hope, continue to plod along - doing the right thing, trying to act in a fair and reasonably civilized manner. But for small minded people like me - we can't help but occasionally wish that we carried a bigger stick.