McCallum in hot water over election advice to China

OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is distancing the Trudeau government from its former ambassador to China, a day after he said he has warned Chinese officials that further punishments against Canada could help the opposition Conservatives win the fall election.

Asked by reporters today about John McCallum’s remarks, Freeland said it’s highly inappropriate for any Canadian to advise a foreign government on how it can influence an election result in Canada.

In her response about McCallum, she also made a point of highlighting the government’s ongoing efforts to protect Canada from foreign election interference.

McCallum’s recent comments to the South China Morning Post came with the two countries locked in a diplomatic dispute that has seen Chinese authorities block key imports from Canada and detain two Canadians on espionage charges.

He told the newspaper that he warned his contacts in China’s foreign ministry that further negative actions against Canada would help the Conservatives, a party he described as much less friendly to China.

McCallum, an economist and Liberal cabinet minister before he was named an ambassador, was fired by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in January after going off-script in the government’s efforts to win the release of detained Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

He’s now an adviser specializing in China-Canada business at law firm McMillan.

Speaking to reporters on a conference call from London, Freeland said liberal democracy is under threat as countries like Canada try to address foreign election interference.

“Let me say first of all — very clearly — that Mr. McCallum does not speak for the government of Canada,” Freeland said, reminding reporters that he was asked to resign earlier this year.

“I think that it is highly inappropriate for any Canadian to be offering advice or opinions to any foreign government on how that government ought or ought not to behave to secure any particular election outcome in Canada.

“Nor should any Canadian be advising a foreign government on which electoral outcomes would be best for that government. Canada’s election is about Canadians full stop.”

The diplomatic conflict erupted in December when Canadian authorities arrested Chinese high-tech executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition warrant. The arrest has enraged the Chinese government. In the days following Meng’s arrest, Chinese authorities detained Kovrig, a Canadian diplomat on leave, and Spavor, an entrepreneur, on allegations of undermining China’s national security.