Foreign trips usually build a politician up. When they don’t, the Prime Minister’s Office needs to know why. Justin Trudeau’s international planners should hit the reset button. 

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on November 21, 2022.

OTTAWA—Foreign travel is usually an opportunity for political leaders to escape the daily partisan political attacks that dog them.

On the international scene, hobnobbing with other leaders to entertain issues of global importance usually lifts a leader’s spirits and poll numbers. 

A lengthy international tour can also be the sign of a long goodbye. 

If a leader knows they won’t be running again, the automatic post-travel criticism of budget items and hotel room costs doesn’t really matter. In the case of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he has already told his caucus that he has no intention of leaving.

So recent international travel should have been an opportunity to improve his domestic standing in the polls.

Instead, it seems the more he travels, the more negative media is generated.

Just examine the latest political kerfuffle involving a staged, public prime ministerial rebuke by Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Canadian diplomats and foreign policy experts were quick to parse the dressing-down in the margins of the G-20 Bali meeting. They saw it as a sign of China’s disregard for Canada’s role on the world scene. 

It was testing ground for the Chinese leader. He has already managed to assume complete control in his own country. There is no doubt he possesses a certain authoritarian streak.

Will that streak be extended to Chinese international relations?

A hit on Canada is a quick place to start. Former Canadian diplomat Charles Burton told the CBC that the Chinese leader would never have spoken to American president Joe Biden in that way.

He characterized the Chinese comments as “dismissive and threatening.”

Burton may think that the Chinese president would never treat Biden like that.  

But look at the recent public embarrassment reserved for his immediate predecessor former Chinese president Hu Jintao at the closing ceremony of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China last month.

Chinese news reports said the former president was helped from his seat for health reasons.

But video footage, and subsequent lip reading published in a Japanese newspaper, provided a different version of events. 

Allegedly the former president was tussling over a red folder of documents which included the names of the top party officials. The former leader’s chief protégé was not among them. 

Instead, Xi Jinping replaced Hu supporters with his own loyalists.

When Hu was escorted from the meeting, not a single one of the 37 people he passed even acknowledged him.

If that kind of public repudiation can be delivered openly at a party meeting, why would anyone expect something different in the international context?

As China experiences increased international economic power and influence, their leader will be emboldened.

Chinese diplomats have subsequently issued a statement denying the Trudeau dressing-down. But the video footage is as clear there as it was at the party’s five-year gathering. 

Just as one picture is worth a thousand words, one film clip is worth a dozen verbal denials. 

While Canadian coverage of Trudeau’s international visit is focused on the dressing down, the bigger story is the increased foreign influence that China is experiencing. 

But Trudeau’s foreign travel seems to be beset with problems.

The most famous foray that still dogs him is the trip to India in 2018, where he and his family were photographed in multiple examples of unique Indian vestments. 

Many Canadians might roll their eyes when they see the photos, but for millions of Indo-Canadians, the clothing shows respect for their culture. 

The bottom line is that his foreign trip planners should have limited the multiple photo opportunities in different garb on the India trip.

His recent voyage to the United Kingdom was beset with problems that started in a piano bar where famous Quebec crooner Gregory Charles led a prime ministerial group in singing Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. 

Trudeau was once again caught on camera, joining in the levity, which made embarrassing fodder for the British tabloids on the eve of Queen Elizabeth’s national funeral. 

Trudeau should have understood that hanging in a hotel bar on the eve of the burial of the world’s most famous monarch is a political non-starter. 

As a politician, the buck stops with him. 

But his travel organizers must bear some responsibility for putting him in these embarrassing situations. If anything, a private gathering with a piano in his suite would have prevented the problem. 

Foreign trips usually build a politician up. When they don’t, the Prime Minister’s Office needs to know why.

Trudeau’s international planners should hit the reset button. 

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

Our failing grade on international aid and peacekeeping were part of the reason that Canada did not succeed. The other part had to do with strategy.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on June 22, 2020.

OTTAWA—The bad news is that Canada lost its second bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council.

The good news is that most Canadians don’t really care.

In autopsying the defeat, a journalist said that had the seat been secured, the discussion would have been around the irrelevance of the win.

Ordinary Canadians do not lose any sleep worrying about Canada’s world status. We have a mildly misplaced belief in Canada’s role in peacekeeping and international aid.

But last week’s defeat should force us to take another look at how Canada has slipped so badly on the world stage.

It is not enough to tell the world that Canada matters. Canadian politicians need to convince Canadians that the world matters.

Our failing grade on international aid and peacekeeping were part of the reason that Canada did not succeed.

The other part had to do with strategy.

The key negotiator for Canada was named to the United Nations at the very moment that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signalled his intention to pull out all the stops in his campaign for a temporary seat.

United Nations Permanent Representative Marc-Andre Blanchard has impeccable Canadian credentials. As chair and CEO of McCarthy Tetrault, he has been named among the 25 most influential lawyers in Canada. He also served as a former president of the Quebec Liberal Party.

He knew the province intimately, but his international bona fides were less evident. So, he needed the help of heavy hitters.

According to press reports, Blanchard recruited two retired politicians for the campaign.

Former Quebec premier Jean Charest and former prime minister Joe Clark both travelled the world in support of Canada’s bid last year.

These political figures are well-known in Canada but their influence on the international scene is less apparent. Charest is also a partner in Blanchard’s former law firm.

Noticeably absent from the list of eminence grise political elders were names like Jean Chrétien, Brian Mulroney, and Lloyd Axworthy.

During his three majority governments, prime minister Chrétien established deep and strong relationships with a number of countries, including China. After he left politics, Chrétien also chaired the InterAction Council, a group comprised of former world leaders who advise the United Nations on issues like climate change.

As for former prime minister Mulroney, his relationships with political leaders in the United States and La Francophonie would have been very helpful. As Barrick International Advisory Board chair, his influence in Africa and Oceania is clear.

On the Security Council seat, China’s robust international aid program was reported to influence up to 50 votes. Canada was not the beneficiary of that influence. Nor were we in good standing with our American neighbours.

As for Axworthy, he served as president of the United Nations Security Council back in 1999-2000. He was also nominated for a Nobel Peace prize for his work in banning land mines.

The trio share robust international relationships across five continents which could have made a difference in the outcome.

Attracting five votes away from either Norway or Ireland would have forced the process into a second ballot, which could have yielded a different result.

It is certainly possible that there was an attempt to enlist the trio. If they turned down the invitation, that also speaks volumes.

Successful politicians usually try to avoid being at the head of losing campaigns. Both Ireland and Norway had entered the race years before Canada.

And Canada has also had almost double the prior Security Council participation rate of either competitor.

Trudeau was obviously very invested in the campaign, but being so personally committed also comes with its own risks.

Having made more than 50 calls to other world leaders, he obviously believed the seat was worth the effort.

The bruising his reputation will take is likely only an international blemish, not a domestic disaster.

But on the home front, the government really needs to undertake a major review of our foreign policy.

Questions around military deployment for peacekeeping need to be answered. So does the time frame for Canada’s commitment to increasing our international aid envelope.

The growing influence of China in the world, and Canada’s Huawei conundrum are also major reasons for the Security Council loss.

Chrétien offered his help on that file at the very beginning of the Canada-China downward spiral.

His offer was spurned, by way of an aggressive public rebuttal by then Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.

Maybe all-hands-on deck should be the new watchword for Canada’s foreign policy.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.