Erin O’Toole, who was elected as the new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada on August 24, said in a letter to the Canadian media National Post on September 1 that he will stand up to China if he is elected as the next Prime Minister of Canada. He stressed, “Whenever we refuse to defend our freedom and our core beliefs and interests as a nation in the face of the Chinese regime’s aggression, we legitimize their actions and encourage (the Chinese) to take more bad actions.”
O’Toole, 47, served in the Royal Canadian Air Force and has worked as a lawyer and corporate counsel since retiring from the military. He became a member of Parliament in a by-election in November 2012 and has held his seat in two subsequent federal elections. His constituency is Durham, east of Toronto. He has served as the country’s Minister of Veterans Affairs. In his article, O’Toole points out that when current Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau was asked at an event in the 2015 election about the country he most admired, he gave the answer China. The reason was that Trudeau believed that China’s “fundamental dictatorship” allowed his government to move quickly to implement its political agenda. According to O’Toole, “Trudeau’s obsession with China is not surprising. For decades, many Canadian companies and financiers have been doing whatever it takes to forge closer ties with China. They are willing to shun the Chinese government’s numerous human rights abuses, blatant trade abuses and security concerns because the potential to sell to the huge Chinese market is so rich.”
According to O’Toole, “Beijing knows all about this and knows how to exploit it. Trudeau is a student of this school of thought, which is why he asked the head of the Canada-China Trade Council to lead his team in the transition to power.” O’Toole spoke of how he himself will soon be asking the Canadian public to be entrusted with his mandate, noting that if someone were to ask him the same question that Trudeau had answered, his answer would undoubtedly be the Canada that he has dedicated his life to serving. O’Toole stated, “But Canadians need to know about my attitude toward China.” He said, “We must ensure that Canadians realize that our political differences with the Communist government of China have nothing to do with China as a country or its people. Nor do the millions of Canadians of Chinese ancestry have anything to do with our diplomatic differences with Beijing.”
According to O’Toole, “In fact, the vast majority of Chinese-Canadians see their families immigrating to Canada because of the freedoms and opportunities they can enjoy in Canada that they would never have (in China). We cannot allow our diplomatic relations with China to lead to any discrimination against Canadians.” He also stressed that for the past four years, there have been calls for a more disciplined foreign policy approach to Canada-China relations, for Canada to take cybersecurity and other issues seriously, and to ensure that “Huawei is not allowed to be a 5G supplier to Canada.” O’Toole said he has raised the issue of the human rights of Uighurs, who are oppressed by China, as well as ongoing concerns about China’s manipulation of UN agencies, including the WHO and the International Civil Aviation Organization. He said, “I have been asking the government to speak up for Hong Kong and Taiwan, which are targeted by the Chinese Communist regime.” He stressed, “There have also been concerns about China’s military expansion and its ambitions in the Arctic; as Canadians, we cannot ignore human rights abuses and malpractices simply because of increased exports.”
O’Toole argued that Trudeau’s approach to China has failed and weakened Canada’s global standing. He argued that Canada must work with its allies, including India, Japan and the Five Eyes countries, to counterbalance China’s trade practices and stand united against China’s treatment of Uighurs and its violation of Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” agreement. He wrote, “Canada is a small country in economic terms compared to China, but it is a large country in terms of our commitment to our values and our allies. We should be unwavering in our commitment to free trade with countries that value freedom and respect international norms, not to pander to potential trade with China. As the global trading system recalibrates in the wake of the (epidemic) pandemic, Canada must help lead the process to ensure that we benefit from it, rather than being dragged down afterwards.”
O’Toole concludes his article by writing, “Whenever we refuse to defend freedom and uphold our core beliefs and interests as a nation in the face of aggression from the Chinese regime, we legitimize their actions and encourage more bad behavior. We have also demonstrated to our allies around the world that our commitment to freedom is superficial.”
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